A farm Adventure

A Farm Adventure

They’d been travelling for hours on this back road, which now Ron began to see as a fire trail, something that his sedan couldn’t really negotiate properly. Ron had taken a short cut that he been told about by the service station attendant, which sounded like a good deal. The only problem was that the road had changed from tar to dirt after only 3 kilometres. Then fewer houses were seen as they travelled further along. Ron’s daughter, Susie, was bored and couldn’t find any radio channels to listen to, as they journeyed. Susie and her father, Ron were travelling to meet up with Charlie, Ron’s son and Susie’s brother, who was finishing university and graduating with a PhD.

As they travelled the narrow dirt road, it became worse to drive, with pot holes and wash outs from recent heavy rains. Several times Ron had to slow down to negotiate the road, which only made his mind up never to take the advice of a stranger again. The light became dimmer with sunset and made it all the more harder to see the road ahead.

It was just on dusk when the rains came again, pouring down in a heavy torrent, making visibility hard. Ron was now swearing silently to himself and promising himself to always to stick on highways, instead of short cuts. It was about this time that water flowing across his path, pushed the sedan off into a gulley, that ran beside the road.

Ron tried several times to reverse out, but the car became bogged even further. Finally, he got out and tried to see if there was anything that could be done to extricate the vehicle from the mud. On looking at the wheel, he found that it dug in to the mud and now needed a tow truck to get the car out of this problem. The whole time, Susie was sitting in the front wondering when they were going to get back on the road, when he father came and told her what their problem was.

Ron told Susie that he was going to go for a walk, back the way they came, as he thought he saw a farm house about 3 kilometres back. Susie wasn’t so sure that she wanted to be left alone in the car while her father was gone. So, she told Ron that she was coming along for the walk.

So they started walking in the rain and last light, unable to keep from getting wet. Several times Susie slipped and was covered in mud and water, cursing the rain for coming at that time. Ron had to giggle at the misfortune of his daughter but though that on getting to the farm house everything would be fixed up. After walking the 3 to 4 kilometres they came upon the driveway that Ron had seen and what seemed to be a house off in the distance. So, they opened the gate and walked the 300 metres to the house.

On arriving at the front door of the house, no lights could be seen, though Ron still knocked, hoping the owner was home. Ron knocked several times more before he tried the door handle finding that it opened on turning it. Ron entered the house while Susie waited outside on her fathers instructions. Ron moved into the house and using his cigarette lighter, saw that it was an old shack with two rooms.

The lounge/bedroom with a fire place and an old double bed, which looked dusty and hadn’t been used in years. The other room was the kitchen/bathroom, which had an old shower head tied to the bottom of a canvas bag. Something that you filled with warm water and had a 2 minutes shower. What could be called a kitchen, had an open fire place with a plate above it, supposedly to cook your meal on. He looked out the back and found an old metal water tank filled with water over flowing.

Ron went back outside and told Susie to come in, as the house looked abandoned. Once inside Ron went about starting a fire, in both rooms, with wood that was left inside. Then he found an old boiler pot and filled it with water, putting it above the kitchen fire place to boil. He told Susie that once the water boiled she could have shower and get as clean as she could. Ron investigated the place further and found what looked like an old blanket, dusty but sure to give warmth. So Ron and Susie went about making the best of their situation.

By the time the water was boiled and in the shower bag, Susie was ready to feel a little better. As Susie started showering Ron came into the kitchen/bathroom to get her clothing so he could wash it and get the mud out. As he entered the room Susie was standing under the shower bag, her eyes closed, letting the water run down her supple body.