Nullarbor Lights
I need to have proof for things. That's just the way I am, I guess. It's not that I don't trust people. In fact, I reckon I'm probably too friendly to strangers sometimes. I just don't take a person's word for it when something important's involved. And the way I look at what happened, it could be pretty bloody important.
The way the mist hangs around early in the mornings at this time of the year would make it hard to see him even if he was still around. I suppose he could still be out there somewhere, but I've got the funny feeling he's a long way away. And I don't like it.
When you look at it, he did thank me and say goodbye, but just to walk off like that, in the middle of the night and in the middle of nowhere, well, it was weird. If only he hadn't said that last thing just when he was leaving. It's going to keep nagging at me, I just know it. I reckon I'm as smart as the next bloke, and I've got some ideas about what he meant. But I don't like any of them because I don't like anything I'll never be able to prove...
The way the mist hangs around early in the mornings at this time of the year would make it hard to see him even if he was still around. I suppose he could still be out there somewhere, but I've got the funny feeling he's a long way away. And I don't like it.
When you look at it, he did thank me and say goodbye, but just to walk off like that, in the middle of the night and in the middle of nowhere, well, it was weird. If only he hadn't said that last thing just when he was leaving. It's going to keep nagging at me, I just know it. I reckon I'm as smart as the next bloke, and I've got some ideas about what he meant. But I don't like any of them because I don't like anything I'll never be able to prove...
Praise for Nullarbor Lights
Winner Ross Reece Memorial Short Story Competition.
Selected as "Best of the Open Short Stories" in the ABC/ABA Literary Awards.
Selected as "Best of the Open Short Stories" in the ABC/ABA Literary Awards.
Publishing History
"Nullarbor Lights" was my first published story and has has been published several times, including in the German anthology Gogols Frau as "Die Lichter von Nullarbor".
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