Bookgirl Downunder

I woke with a jolt and a terrifying feeling I was about to fall from the violently bucking rodeo horse in my dream. But, even now with my eyes open, I wasn’t sure I was properly awake. I was still being bounced vigorously in my seat and there was a cloud of dust all around. It was a disorientating moment, looking across to see Alex grappling with the steering wheel as he navigated the narrow furrows of the bumpy dirt track, seeing him in his black fatigues and not the cowboy outfit I’d seen him wearing in my dream. I let out a little shriek of panic when he suddenly jumped with both feet on the brake, twisting the steering wheel one way as the vehicle skidded almost sideways in the opposite direction before stopping. The cloud of dust that enveloped us glowed orange as it temporarily blocked the sunlight before slowly dissipating to reveal an alien, surreal landscape the likes of which I’d never seen before.

“Where are we?” I mumbled. A voice in my head was saying “You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

Alex had already opened his door, jumped out and made his way around the front of the vehicle. I was still flapping my hands, trying to swat away the particles of dust and grit that swirled in the air around my face when he opened my door. It felt like he’d opened the door to a furnace, such was the sudden gust of heat radiating from the barren, red landscape outside.

“What time is it?”

It felt like I’d been asleep for just a few seconds and I couldn’t figure why it now looked like I was on the moon and not still in Sydney.

“Alex?” I needed to hear him say something, anything to convince me I wasn’t still dreaming.

“Bloody hell!! You sure can sleep. It’s already 2pm! I would have stopped earlier but you looked so beautiful asleep I didn’t want to wake you…”

“Where are we?”

“Not sure myself.”

It wasn’t the answer I expected to hear.

“I’ve got to check the map. May have taken a wrong turn.”

“A wrong turn? You can say that again!” I mumbled to myself.

“Anyway, I suggest you take this opportunity to go to the bathroom and freshen up while i prepare some tucker.”

“Some what?”

“Tucker. Food, you know?”

“Oh, yes, of course.”

I still had no idea what he was talking about. Alex started to walk toward the back of the vehicle.

“Alex?”

“Yes?” He stopped and looked back at me.

“Just one question…”

I actually had a million questions ricocheting like machine gun fire inside my head.

“What’s that?”

“Um…” I started gesturing at the vast emptiness around.

“What is it?” Alex leaned around the back of the vehicle to retrieve a five gallon plastic container of water.

“Where is the bathroom?”

“There!” He waved his arm in a broad sweep, casually indicating no place in particular.

For a minute I thought Alex could see something that I couldn’t. I looked again, staring out and the nothingness all around. In every direction, it was like looking out at the ocean – a flat ocean of red dirt speckled with tufts of low growing grasses stretching out as far as the eye could see. A lone tree in the middle distance, its leafless branches clasping up at the sky like a tortured hand clawing the heavens for moisture, was the only object of any description between us and the horizon far beyond it.

“Where?”

“Anywhere you’d like it to be!”

I found Alex’s casual attitude slightly unnerving.

“You can’t be serious?”

“You see this soil?”

“Yes?” I looked down at the small cloud of dust raised by Alex’s boot stomping on the ground. The red soil was all I could see and I wondered whether it was some kind of riddle he expected me to solve.

“Probably been ten years since this soil has seen a drop of water.”

I started to blush as it slowly dawned on me what he was suggesting. “And…”

“Go on.” Alex waved me away with his hand and chuckled. “You’d be doing the environment a favor!”

I stood staring blankly at him for a minute. I had so many questions but none of them seemed to address the problem. “You mean…?”

“Hurry up! We haven’t got all day.”

Alex turned his attention back to the water container. I looked back out at the emptiness all around, hoping to see something that might afford me a little privacy. The solitary tree in the distance shimmered like a mirage but I started to walk towards it anyway.

“Don’t go too far…”

“Why?” I asked, hearing the warning implied by his tone.

“I don’t want to have to carry you too far if you get bitten by a snake.”

He was laughing but I could tell he wasn’t joking. I immediately remembered a program I’d seen on Discovery Channel. Australia: home to nine out of the ten most deadly snakes in the world. I suddenly felt like peeing right there on the spot in front of Alex. Personal safety above modesty, I reasoned to myself.

“Go on. Just don’t go too far.”

“You’re sure it’s okay?” I still needed one more reassurance.

“You’ll be fine. Just be quick.”

The panic I felt in the pit of my stomach seemed to knot tighter around my bladder with every cautious step I took through the knee-length needles of brown grass. Every ten or so steps I’d glance back, not just to make sure I wasn’t straying too far from the vehicle but to see whether or not Alex was watching. I saw him on the other side of the vehicle, his back to me and standing in a way that suggested he was taking a pee himself. “It’s so easy for guys!” I muttered to myself.

After walking about thirty yards, high stepping cautiously over clumps of sharp, spiny grasses, the cramp in my stomach became unbearable and the urgency of my need to pee won out over modesty. I stepped back and forth between two small clearings of red dirt, eventually deciding the least rocky of the two would be the most stable underfoot for the precarious balancing act I knew squatting would be. I unhitched my belt buckle and unzipped my jeans, grabbed hold of my panties with my thumbs to pull them quickly down together with my jeans until they were at my ankles. Then, after lifting my shirt and holding it pressed tightly just under my breasts and out of the way, I slowly squatted, lowering my bared bottom carefully so as not to sit on any sharp needle of grass.

The relief was instantaneous as my bladder emptied, sending a jet of pee down on the dry, red dirt. It seemed an endless stream that, for the minute or so it lasted, held me trapped on the spot like I was tethered on the end of a golden thread. It was however impossible to relax and completely enjoy the feeling of relief and I had to continually tense muscles to moderate the flow so as not to splash muddy, pee soaked red soil onto my jeans and shoes.

“Come on! Hurry up!” I groaned to myself. The sight of one ferocious looking ant scurrying out of the grasses nearby across the hot, dry soil had me looking for more. The more I looked the more I saw and I suddenly realized I was surrounded by them. I tried to will them not to advance on me, imagining for a second I could generate some kind of force field with my mind, but it did nothing to stop them. In fact, if anything it appeared as if they were now aggressively seeking me out and I shrieked in panic.

The ants were the largest I’d ever seen. An inch or more long with a black, battle-like armor shell covering their backs, a large, orange bloated rear section and pincers on their heads that looked like they could cut steel.

“Alex!” I squealed loudly and leapt to my feet. I hadn’t quite finished peeing and the feeling of hot moisture dribbling down the insides of my thighs felt revolting but it was preferable to being bitten by one of the nasty looking ants. I screamed Alex’s name again as I stumbled through the clumps of sharp grasses, my jeans and panties still trapped like a hobble around my ankles.

“Alex!!!”