“Long Haul from Perth to Exmouth” 2023 Flashscapes Competition Shortlist

A hot wind blows across the tussocky grasslands as the truck hurtles along the North-West Coastal Highway.

When the tears well, he pulls over to the side of the road, climbs down, drops, and does fifty push ups in the shade of the cab. Wedge-tailed eagles drift above him on thermal pockets of noonday heat.

Bill’s conciliatory letter and invitation had shocked him. It had been a long time between tenderness and cups of tea in bed. Back on the road, heading towards that touch, termite mounds blush the woodlands and budgerigars pitch and yaw across long-ago, deep-time country.