City lights gave way to suburban sprawl and sullen uniformity;
Then finally zilch.
Nothingness.
No housing estates.
No streetlights.
Barely a vehicle encountered.
The jeep's illumination now limited to the pavement ahead and roadside verge. The plains and farmland beyond were hidden in the night.
In the day-light she enjoyed looking over the landscape. Fields ever changing- ploughed or cropped. Seedlings poking greenery through the dark fertile soil, then later the swaying green in the breeze turning slowly to golden vistas of maize or oats.
Some fields sprouting vegetables. Some crops for hay. Some for grain. Some for hay.
Then came the real busy end of the season- picking, harvesting, baling, loading, carting.
Never a dull moment on the land and as the old spent crop is ploughed back in to help fertilise and create; a new cycle of life begins again.
A life born, nurtured, ended and restarted in only four seasons or less.
Not like a human, you could be 99 years old to have lots happen, or nothing.
Some people stayed forever in one place, others were nomads. Then there were the Henrys of the world conquering, and exploring, packing more in a year, than someone like her did in a whole lifetime.
Issy stopped the Jeep before the next section of road. The lanes narrowed here, bends sharper, trees closer, nocturnal animals thicker in number.
Standing in the darkness for moments she took to stretching her kinks out then took a wizz; she was busting. Doing a pee as far away from the edge of the headlights beams that she dared.
She yawned repeatedly, then slapped her own face red to wake herself, it wasn't really helping but she was still lucid, awake. So that was something.
She jumped up and down doing star-jumps followed by swinging of her arms like a carousel at high speed in an attempt to ward off sleep.
If Henry woke up right now he would be mystified, probably angry too seeing as she was now approximately three hours away from the point where he should have been dropped off.
Oh well potatoes, pAtaToes.
And while he slept......Issy had put her turn signal on no less than sixteen times during the journey north, intent on doubling back and returning her stolen property home.... But for the life of her she just couldn't make the jeep respond. To her brains' insanity or hands directions.
The vehicle only seemed to listen to her heart.
Her heart was saying go north- let him breathe again, let him rest and let him open his eyes to the beauty of nature, the nature she enjoyed so very much.
Dumb heart, it was going to get her crazy in trouble, very, very soon.
MOOSE!
Slamming the brakes on, a hand flew protectively over his chest to spare him the jolt to his body against the seat belt. Issy felt her own head lurch at the emergency braking, slightly touch the steering wheel, then bounce back onto the headrest.
The moose ambled away, continuing on his journey nonplussed, and Issy breathed out, expelling a sigh of releif. John groaned and squirmed in his seat, then banged his hand on her's that was still clutching at his chest.
He never ever woke or questioned her driving skills though and seconds later he sighed to himself and was quickly leaning against the window back to being fast asleep, the scotch bottle sliding slowly to lay on the floor.
Issy moved the car on through the night, it would be daylight soon. Dawn was nearing and the movement of animals was always higher in the coming hours. The jeep was faster than a crawl but slower than before. She spotted jackrabbits blitz across the road with eyes lit bright, as the jeeps headlights caught them hovering by the trees that hugged the narrow path.
A light fog surrounded them.
A turtle strolled over the roadway and Issy had to creep around the reptile on the other side of the white line to pass. She yawned, cracked the window further open and watched the sunrise in her rear-view mirror.
A few kilometres more, that's all there was to go, then home. Her gorgeous loyal pet family surely awaiting her return.
Maximus or Max as he was more often called, a large scary looking beautiful Sable German Sheppard. He was only three but mature, massive, and always ready with a lick or two and the cats, Twiddle and Dee, screaming out for dinner and a scratch behind their ears no doubt.
And then there was Ben. An Australian Border Collie, black as tar with a white star on his chest, an old man now, he lay guard at the front door most days Issy wasn't home and when she was... he slept at her feet by the desk as she wrote; Or hunkered down on the deck as she swam in the lake. He had been a constant in her life for fifteen years now, her anchor to the past. Issy knew his time was ebbing but hated to think of the day it finally came.
Miles between neighbours and even more from town. With Ben basically retired, Issy felt safe with the younger Max. He would woof and bark when someone, or something, got close. Growl when goaded and attack if she said the word. She had trained him well and relied on him maybe a little too much.
The cats were strays that turned up one afternoon, Max herding them into his doghouse licking them and loving them. It was the strangest thing to see but they stayed and embedded themselves in her, and Max's, heart. Ben just put up with them.
Issy rolled through the mile of her driveway with Max tagging along close to her bumper, tracking the Jeep. He had probably heard the car from miles away and readied for her return by greeting the jeep at the gate.
It was so lovely now with the sun beginning to stream through the patchy canopy of trees. A promise of a warm day.
Letting the Jeep idle Issy chanced a glance at her passenger, yep still there and this dilemma she created was no dream.
No, definitely not a dream.
Perhaps more likely a 'Yes'.
Yes, this will turn into a nightmare of problems. Yes indeed....
She,
Issy Peterson,
being found guilty.. of temporary insanity. Had indeed,
absconded with a Beatle to the backwoods.
He still frowned in his sleep, head lolled against the dirty window glass; and realising she wouldn't be able to manoeuvre him to a bed, she chose to leave him be.
Right there in the seat.
Seatbelt still belting him in.
At the lake house.
YOU ARE READING
Redemption
Fanfiction1984~ John Lennon wanders through life a shell of his former self. After the death of his wife he stagnates, aimless & uninspired; drinking himself into a stuppor often. She's his sons future mother in law. On a whim Issy takes John out of his comfo...
