'So what's today's bounty, Doug?' Ray called out from the veranda of his house with a steaming mug of coffee hooked in his hand.
'Better than we thought!' came the loud rumbling voice from the open window, resonating the heavy idle from the engine.
A light cloud of dust whirled in the air behind the vehicle as it coasted into the large barren yard beside of the house from the grassy fields and parked it at the dwellings side next to Ray's vehicle, the designated parking spot for the family's cars near the cleaned out encroaching woods on the far side of the fence. The man in the 4WD wound up the window as he shut off the engine and let the wave of airborne dirt pass before he opened the door. He carried with him a very pleasant smile, one that he had not bared for a very long time. Sarah jumped out of the passenger side and ran with excitement to her father as the bearded man enthusiastically went to the back seat to fetch his catch.
'Uncle Doug and I got one!' Sarah announced with childhood elation.
'Really?' Ray responded, arching his eyebrows in surprise from the veranda, leaning on the railing.
'Yeah!' Sarah threw out her arms wide as far as she could. 'It's this big!'
'Wow...' Ray ruffled Sarah's dark hair before he wrapped his arm over her shoulder.
From inside the house, Ray heard the yelling of his excited boys to see what gifts the woods had given them this morning. He stepped aside from the open doorway nonchalantly as the hallway behind him shook. Two young boys stormed out of the house, their eyes beamed with happy smiles, and ran towards the 4WD. Doug glared sweetly at the trio as they arrived. Ray loved how his children always called his best friend "uncle", even when they had no blood link with him. Being the only other male role model close in their life, the kids looked up to Doug as much as their own dad.
With the passing of Doug's only child the year before, Ray's kids got to see him a lot more than before. With open arms, Ray welcomed Doug and his wife into their home if they ever needed it and held out a shoulder for them to cry on. However, Ray could feel from his friend that he believed his son was still walking the earth after all this time. Turning up nothing from the cull had only hardened his resolve. All the professionals they talked to about the search, and police reports from the investigation told them Blake's death was almost certain by now. And the fires only seemed to cement that fact that no remains were ever going to be found either. For Doug, he had found a temporary relief from his tormented life since his son's suicide by bonding with his closest friend's children. Yet nothing Doug did for himself could overpower the conflicted motions pushing his psyche from one extreme to the next. Ray admired him for keeping his head on right for as long as he had. A normal man would have broken by now. It had to be that glint of hope lost in the void of time that made him strong. Everything else was gone.
Ray quickly placed his coffee on the railing and walked to the joyful children as Sarah returned to him and more or less dragged him over to the 4WD. They got to the vehicle's side as Doug took out the canvas bag with the warm body in it.
'You want to open the rabbit hutch, Sarah?' Ray asked nicely.
Like a greyhound, Sarah threw her father's arm off her shoulders and ran to the side of the house where a small dilapidated hutch was sitting. The hutch with a sheltered enclosed space made for rabbits and a larger open area surrounded by chicken wire stood on meter high timber legs, and a dark stained finish it had been given a long time ago was tarnished by restless years of previous and pets and the efforts from the elements. Sarah reached up and turned the key in a padlock that held the only door close, slipped it off and swung the rickety hutch open.
'Let us see! Let us see!' the boys pleaded in unison, fighting against each other to open the sack still firmly gripped in Doug's hand.
'No!' Sarah screamed hysterically, quickly turning from the cage with an angry glare quickly filling with tears. 'It's my pet!'
YOU ARE READING
Change in Life
FantasyBlake never wanted much in life, purely because he did not receive a lot to begin with. School brought him down and his father's enthusiastic hunting separated his heart from his family. All he really had were the woods near his home and the strange...
