SmackDown: MadMike's Revenge!

Round 5: The Dead Hitchhiker - @elveloy

The Dead Hitchhiker

by elveloy

"Lord I'm one, Lord I'm two, Lord I'm three, Lord I'm four, Lord I'm 500 miles from my home. Away from home, away from home, away from home, away from home. Lord I'm five hundred miles from my home." Jerry sang enthusiastically along to the radio as he drove. Although, Australia was a lot further than 500 miles from New Zealand if he was being picky.

The rented car bounced a bit on the gravel surface, but the tourist office had assured him the roads were quite safe as long as he kept to a reasonable speed. Not long now, thought Jerry, taking a quick glance at the glossy tourist brochure on the seat beside him. There should be a public car park coming up soon, where he could leave the car and then take the scenic walk to Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove with its stunning natural arch on the beach was picturesque enough on its own to be worth a visit, but what was really attracting Jerry was the connection with Narnia. Cathedral Cove was the place where Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy discover the ruins of Cair Pavarel in the movie, Prince Caspian.

Jerry knew he had a silly grin on his face but he didn't care. He'd grown up with the Narnia books; The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first book he could remember reading all by himself. So what, if he still loved the stories? And as for the movies, he much preferred fantasy to action films, if he was honest. Tim might scoff all he wanted, but in Jerry's opinion, there was enough violence in the real world without needing to watch more for entertainment. Sword fights, of course, didn't count.

His face fell slightly at the thought of Tim. When he'd first booked the holiday, it had been for two. Then, a week ago...

"What do you mean, you can't go?"

"Sorry, love," Tim had run an apologetic hand through his short dark hair. "Dr Weston says he really can't spare me. Not for a whole week. We're close to a breakthrough and he needs all hands on deck. He's got a specialist consultant flying in from Wellington and everything. Dr Washburn."

"But we've had this holiday booked for months," protested Jerry, still not quite believing Tim was serious. "I've paid for the plane tickets and the hire car already."

"I'm sorry," repeated Tim, looking wretched. "Is there any chance we can postpone the holiday for a few months?"

"It's booked for next week, Tim! Of course we can't postpone it. Not without losing all our money."

"I'll pay you back," offered Tim, unwisely.

Jerry felt anger spring to his aid. "It's not the damned money, Tim. It's our holiday, our first overseas holiday, together. A whole week in New Zealand."

"Jerry, I'm sorry, I didn't-" but Jerry had turned away, heading for the door, not wanting Tim to see the stupid tears in his eyes.

"You do what you want," he'd said over his shoulder, "but I'm going to New Zealand." And they hadn't spoken since.

He pulled off into the Hahei car park.

~~~

Jerry woke the next morning, and leapt eagerly out of his hotel bed. Mount Maunganui was amazing, with its lava dome "mount" and beautiful beaches, he wished he had more time to explore properly. But he didn't.

So what if he was by himself, he was still having fun, wasn't he? Yesterday had been excellent, just as good as he'd hoped, but today was going to be even better. Today he was going to visit Hobbiton, the highlight of the entire trip.