Classic Rock Shorts

Maycury: Deers Are Assholes

Brian sips his coffee and puts it in the cup holder. He starts the car and drives down the narrow mountain road. He just finished up a visit with his mother who lives so far away it’s hard to see her. Brian groans softly and sees he’s almost out of petrol, he hopes he can make it to a petrol station in time. 

The curly haired man rubs his eyes. He barely slept a wink during his stay with his mother. She needed a good bit of care until her long term nurse could stay. Finally her nurse arrives and Brian can head home. His head nods and he blinks rapidly trying to stay awake. His body felt worn and his eyes felt dry and hot. Brian rubs his eyes and drinks more of his room temperature coffee. He gags and rubs at his mouth. It tasted like shit and he felt like shit.

Brian jolts back awake as a deer crosses his path. He slams on the brakes and swerves to not hit the deer. A tree suddenly comes out of nowhere and crashes to Brian’s car. Brian groans as his seatbelt locks and stops him from crashing into the steering wheel.

Brian unbuckles himself and gets out of the car, he limps a little as he inspects the damages to his beetle. It’s totaled, it’s wrapped around the tree giving it a big hug. Brian’s just lucky the only thing fucked up is his leg. Brian looks  up at the highway and knows he won’t be able to get onto it. And cars really don’t pass by here unless it’s for food delivery or you're hopelessly lost. Brian leans against the ruins of his car, his chest hurts. He wonders if he bruised a rib. He coughs and winces.  Brian’s head throbs. He looks up to the sky and sees the sun setting. It's very beautiful, or it would be if Brian wasn’t in so much pain ready to scream and cry.

Brian slides down and rubs at his ankle, it’s swollen three times its size and it’s so bruised it’s black. So many thoughts run through his head. He’s going to die out here, isn’t he? Never going to get his doctorate, never going to marry, never going to start a family, never going to make his mama proud. Brian tries to get back up, a light blinds him and he squints and hisses. He wasn’t ready to die.

“Hey, city boy, are you okay?”

The light lowers and brain squints he sees a short man wearing dirty work clothes and carrying a clunky flashlight. He has the mouth of a donkey too. 

Brian shakes his head, “Call 999! There’s been an accident!”

The man gets closer, “We don’t have phone service out here.”

Brian groans in frustration and in pain. The man gingerly like Brian was made of glass picks him cradling him like a baby. Brian starts blacking out. His vision turns spotty and he can barely focus on the night sky. Things go black.

There's the soft crackling of a fireplace and the warmth from it lulls Brian awake. He’s laying on a bear skin rug only on his briefs. His face turns red and he tries to move. His leg feels so heavy.

Brian props himself up some enough to peer at his leg. Silk sheet was wrapped up to his knee, two small shelves of wood on each side of his leg wrapped with hacked pieces of bungee cord to keep everything in place.

The door opens and the man from before comes in with a small tray with a bowl in the center and some rice on a plate, “I didn’t get to tell you my name before you fell asleep. I’m Freddie.”

Brian blushes, Freddie looks handsome in the fireplace lighting and he’s cleaned up some, “I’m Brian.” Brian touches his leg, “Did you give me this splint?”

"Yes." Freddie nods, setting the tray on the little table beside Brian which was next to a recliner, "We won't be able to get help until the delivery man comes." 

"That's what.. Monday.. And it's Friday?"

"Yeah." Freddie says softly,  "I'm sorry about your accident.. the deer are kinda drugged out over here. The stream water bad." 

Brian nods,  "Yeah me and a few buddies do environmental studies and clean up the stream here and there."

Freddie scratches his neck and kneels down,  "Come on. You got to eat, darling." 

Brian takes a few spoonfuls of the thick yellowy warm broth it taste good. Brian let's Freddie feed him even if he's more than capable of feeding himself. He is feeling weak, maybe he should just let Freddie mother him.

Brian finishes the bowl his chest felt better, sore but better. His leg was killing him though and he's about to rip his limb off. Freddie goes out of the room and comes back with a white bottle with a blue lid.

He fishes three white pills out and hands them to Brian, “The best I can give you is Tylenol unless you want whiskey.”

Brain chuckles and takes the pills along with a cup of sweet tasting milk. Brian drinks it and tries to forget the throb of his leg. Freddie reads him books by lantern light. It was calming in a way.

Freddie had a voice made for reading. He put on different voices for each character and was very dramatic with them. It almost made Brian forget about his broken leg. Almost.

Freddie lifts Brian up with ease, Freddie's flannel felt rough against Brian's bare body. He was placed in a massive bed with soft feathery pillows and lots of blankets.

"I got some spare clothes you can put on. I haven't gotten a chance to wash yours up." Freddie tells him grabbing some stuff from the drawers.

"Oh please give me some clothes. I'm cold." Brian whines a little. He was left laying at the foot of the bed like a infant in need of a diaper change. 

Freddie slips a shirt on was massive on Brian and nearly swallowed him up. Then a pair of shorts were heaved onto him, "There we go." Freddie beams as he gingerly lays Brian's head on the pillows.

Brian didn't realize how tired he felt until his head hit the pillows, "Do you think you can eat solids or should we stick to a liquid diet?" Freddie's voice cuts through Brian's thoughts.

Brian rubs his eyes, "I want solids please."

"I'll get to making dinner then." Freddie glances around before swinging a massive cowbell off the bookshelf nearly making Brian scream. He didn't want to get clobber by a cow bell wielding hermit.

"Ring this if you need anything, darling." Freddie sets it next to Brian, "Be back soon." He gives Brian a small shy smile.

Brian watches as Freddie disappeared down the hall leaving the door opened a crack. His heart was still racing from the cowbell or was it from Freddie? 

As if things couldn't get worse he now had to piss like a racehorse so forget sleep. He didn't want to bother Freddie. Brian was just plopped down into Freddie's life. Poor guy already did so much for him.

Brian sits up and winces a shooting splitting pain hits him. He rubs the spot gingerly and winces feeling a knot there. Looks like Freddie did apply some type of cream to the knot but Brian really doesn't want to know what's mashed into his hair. 

Sitting up was the easy part, the hard part was swinging his legs over the bed and standing. Brian moves his good leg over first,  then with both hands he grabs his useless leg still in the splint and lugs it next to his good one. Brian already felt like he was sweating just from ng.moving.

Brain shifts his weight onto his good leg and then he presses his full weight on his broken leg and he cries out in agony and falls onto the floor withering around. Freddie comes running and scoops of Brian gingerly, “What were you thinking!”

“I had to pee.” Brian confesses, “I didn’t want to burden you.”

“Darling, you’re never a burden. I’m here to help until we can get proper medical care.” Freddie carries him to the little bathroom at the end of the hall. He helps Brian get his shorts and briefs off.  Brian’s face is burning red and he whimpers humiliated. Brian at least left him alone to urinate.

Brain cleans up since he made a little mess and asks Freddie to come and get him. Freddie was sweet and kind to him the entire time. And feed him well. The poor man didn’t seem to care that Brian threw it all back up onto the floor. 

Brian nearly wants to cry. He doesn’t deserve this niceness from Freddie. Yet here was this stranger who found and nurtured him for nearly three days now. Brian can’t believe it, he thinks he’s in love. And when he hears the doorbell ring and it is the delivery man, Brian’s sad to go. At least Freddie offered to stay with him in hospital. Freddie is the best thing that ever happened to him.