End of the Road by Jonathan Oliver

Author:Jonathan Oliver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Solaris

CARL’S GOT A sour smell to him. Like sweat mixed with old bacon. I can smell him.

There’s a hot breeze that’s tugging at my hair.

I can feel the muzzle of the Colt pressing into my back.

“Turn around slowly,” he says.

I am struck because I have heard this line so many times. I want to ask him, “Is this a stick up?” I want him to say, “Reach for the sky, pardner!”

I can’t help it. I let out a snort, and he hears it. When I turn – slowly! – his face is running from stunned to hurt to angry.

“I can explain,” I told him, but now that we’re face to face I know I can’t. What do I say? What part of this can I tell that would make sense? Carl is not a smart man. Carl is not a forgiving man. Carl will not buy whatever line of bullshit I want to sell him.

I open my mouth. I close it again. He leans in closer. His teeth are pressed tightly together, the little nubs of them rubbing together. He is angry, but I think he is also curious about what I will say. A dull curiosity. The same look he gives the flies as they bumble around the inside of the jar. How long will this one last?

When my mouth opens the second time, I am just as curious about what will come out.

Because a drunk will say anything to get a drink. And a cheat? A cheat always has a happy tune to whistle.

“I can explain...” And I surprise myself. “No. I can’t. I love her,” I say. “I love Juney.”

“I know,” he says and his mouth twists. There is something that goes across his face – and if I stared hard enough I could catch exactly what it is – but I’m not looking that hard. I don’t what to know.

Because by then I am moving. Because, then, I think, he has moved in close enough. There is just enough room. If I am just fast enough I can–

And then there is a noise like a thunderclap.

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