Page 22 of Hearts Colliding
“So you have. Fuck—” Ryan slammed on the brakes, stalling the engine and rocketing them forward against their straining seatbelts. A flock of sheep, lit up by the powerful headlights, scampered across the road, their indignant bleating cutting through the noisy hammer of rain against the roof of the big four wheeled drive.
“I’d forgotten sheep were an occupational hazard of driving around here. I got surrounded by a flock when I was learning to drive, and in the middle of a three point turn.” Alex smiled at the memory, as bright as the Land Rover’s headlights.
“They’re a daily hazard. This is farming country, in case you’ve forgotten.”
The memory faded, along with his smile, and Alex didn’t bother answering as he stared out of the window into the rain drenched wilderness.
They made their way along the twisting, winding road, hardly more than a track, silence the third passenger, but if Ryan wasn’t inclined to talk neither was Alex.
As the Land Rover bumped along, Alex heard a sloshing sound from behind him and turned to see several barrels stacked up in the back.
“Beer, from one of the upland farms. It’ll be a guest ale. The only reason I’d be out in this.”
“It was fine earlier, but…” A quick glance at Ryan shut Alex up.
In the dim light reflecting off the dashboard, Ryan’s face was stern, his lips pressed into a thin, hard line. His eyes were narrowed, all hard concentration on the road ahead of them, all his focus needed to get them back through the storm that was showing no sign of abating.
“Oh, shit.” Ryan gripped the wheel and leaned forward.
“What…?” But as Alex peered through the windscreen, his words died away. They were staring at a dip in the rising and falling road, a dip that had filled with rain water and formed a small lake. “Surely you can get through? These vehicles are built for rough conditions.”Unlike my bloody sports car, you might as well add.
“Of course I can get through. But look. There.” Ryan pointed. “There’s an obstruction. I need to clear it before we can go on, and you’re going to help me.”
“I can’t see…” But then he did. There was a bulbous shape in the flooded road. A rock, or boulder, Alex couldn’t make it out. “What is it?” His question went unanswered as Ryan climbed out of the car, holding tight against the door that threatened to be whipped away by the wind before he put his force behind it and pushed it shut.
Alex scrambled to follow. Stopping, his stomach turned. The obstruction wasn’t a rock or a boulder, but a large sheep.
“Is it alive?”
“What do you think?” Ryan waded into the pool, the water soaking him up to his calves. “Help me move it to the side.”
Alex followed Ryan, almost slipping on the muddy, rain soaked ground. A strong, firm hand gripped his arm and held him steady.
“The storm’s washed gorse bushes and all kinds of crap down from the moor. This poor animal probably got entangled and drowned trying to get free. Won’t be the only one, I reckon,” Ryan added under his breath. “We need to drag him to the side. You take the front legs, I’ll take the back.”
Alex’s guts lurched, his instinct to cringe away from touching the bobbing carcass. He looked up. Light from the headlamps illuminated Ryan’s watchful face. Tension held Alex’s body tight. If this was some kind of test, he was damned if he was going to fail it in front ofhim. Alex clamped his jaw tight and felt for the sheep’s legs.
The water was icy, numbing his hands immediately. Groping for the sheep’s legs, they slipped through his clumsy fingers.
“Come on Alex, get a grip. Literally.” Ryan sniggered.
Fuck you…Fumbling again for the legs, Alex held on tight. He’d play his part and wipe that smirk from Ryan’s face. He pulled hard, but the animal was a literal dead weight, its wool soaked through and weighing it down.
“Lift on the count of three. Ready?”
Alex nodded, bracing himself to take the weight.
“…two, three!”
Hefting the sheep off the road, its head flopped backwards and hit Alex in the face.
“Urrgh!” He dropped its legs and staggered back, away from its bared, clenched teeth and its pale, sightless eyes. Losing his footing he fell on his arse into the water.
“Jesus Christ. It’s a dead sheep, it’s not going to fucking bite. All you had to do was lift your end so we could move it to the side.” Ryan glowered, still holding the back legs.
“I dropped it, okay?” Alex shouted as he picked himself up. First the dig over the tyres, and now Ryan’s condescension, and winding its way through it all that damned, bloody kiss, all of it making him feel stupid, humiliated and belittled.
Amidst grunts and curses, they manoeuvred the sheep off the road, depositing it onto the sodden edge of the moor. Despite the freezing rain soaking him to his bones, sweat ran in rivulets from Alex’s body, his breath coming hard and fast. Sessions with his personal trainer were nothing to shifting dead sheep off the road in the middle of a storm.
