"I still can't believe it, Mark.. I never knew you were that stupid.."
Doug muttered as they shuffled down the gravel roads, their cheap canvas
shoes no match for the hard packed dirt that pounded their aching feet
and stones that somehow squirreled themselves inside, and gave them crippling
limps.
"Stupid?? If it was so stupid, then why didn't YOU see the little blinking damn light? You were in the front seat too! You had full view of the dash.. If anyone's stupid.. It's you Doug.."
Elizabeth and Carol walked between the two men, acting as a buffer for their childish arguing. Elizabeth swatted the hands that crossed the barrier and grumbled vexatiously. "Stop it.. Stop it or I'll break your fingers.."
It was ten miles of vast farmer's fields on the single route of dirt before they saw another living soul.
"Zdravo! Kako ste?" The pick-up truck pulled along side the weary road-travellers and the window roll down slightly. A weathered, leathery face peered out from the rusted, dusty truck cab, and smiled toothlessly.
Luka looked up tiredly, his nose and face throbbing. "Da??" He blinked in the blinding sunlight and nodded. "Dobro havla, a vi?"
His colleagues looked at him confused and Luka sighed. "He asked if we were okay.. I said we were fine.."
Abby smacked him again with her purse. "FINE!? FINE!? DOES IT LOOK LIKE WE'RE FINE?!" She growled at him angrily. "Ask him where we are and how do we get to your uncle's damn farm!?"
Luka winced and turned back to the farmer who was interested in this foreign woman's sudden outburst. She sure was a tasty little thing. "Je li ovo put za Drzislav?"
The farmer grinned, his toothless gums loose and pink. A wrinkled, decrepit hand emerged from the window and pointed down the road. "Dite ravno. Skrenite lijevo, ulica lijevo."
Dave's brow furrowed and he looked down the road. "What did he say? All I see is dirt.."
He looked at the dishevelled, filthy people and sighed. "Govorite li engleski?"
Luka nodded readily. "Yes.. We speak english.. Dave.. He said, we keep going down the road and turn left and then it's the first road on the left.."
The farmer nodded. "Da... That's right.." The old man replied, with a thick serbian accent. "You need vozite?"
Luka looked in the back of the man's truck, filthy, bits of straw and dried manure. He rocked back and forth on his sore, blister covered feet and nodded. "Yes, a drive would be good. Jako ste ljubazni. Hvala lijepa." He smiled and climbed into the back of the truck.
"Get in please.. He has offered us a drive to my uncle's farm.. Unless you prefer to walk. The directions he's given.. It's about twelve miles.. Walk if you want, but my feet hurt, and I'm going."
Slowly, the group glanced at each other, more humble, sore, exhausted and jet-lagged than they had before they'd walked ten miles in the scorching sun.
"Luka?? Are you sure he's trustworthy? I mean.. The guy has a rather large pig in his truck, it looks like something out of Deliverance.." Kerry stared at the hog which snorted at her and fell on its side, blinking his great dull eyes before it started to snore and grunt in its sleep.
"You can sit up here with me Miss.." The farmer patted the space between him and the pig.
Kerry bit her lip and looked back in the trailer where her colleagues sat in animal feces and straw. Animal poo, straw and sweaty doctors? Or smelly farmer and his pet pig??
She climbed in between Dave and Benton and the farmer put the truck into gear, and it shuddered down the road, spewing up clouds of dust and exhaust.
The doctors lay back, resting their aching muscles and trying to brace themselves for the hundreds of potholes and rocks that jostled and shook the rickety, rusting truck.
Elizabeth held on to Mark, burying her face into his dusty shirt. This truck was 98% rust and manure, and 2% truck.. She'd be very glad when this ride was over, maybe walking wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all.
***
The farmer's truck pulled up to a long lane and he parked. "Theese is Drzislav farm.. You get out here.."
The doctors piled out of the truck, smellier and sorer than they had been twelve miles ago. The truck rattled away leaving them standing in front of a rather large wooden gate. The once grand, brightly painted sign, hung cock-eyed and peeling of it's once brilliant reds and yellows of the sunrise. ROT IN SUNRISE. The sign stammered, letters fallen and rotted on the roadside.
"This is the farm?? It looks like Manor farm.. You know.. After the animals had run off Mr.Jones.." Dave muttered, much to the surprise of his co-workers.. They never figured him much for a George Orwell fan.
"What Dave?" Carol said surprised, her eyebrows raised.
"A...nim..al... Faarrrrrm..." Dave said slowly. "It... is.. a... boooooook." He rolled his eyes, and entered the gate leaving the doctors standing there astonished and a trifle embarrassed.
They trudged up the lane to the house which was in slightly better shape than the sign out front.
"Wow.... This.. This is great Luka.. It's really nice.." Abby said in a hushed tone, walking from room to room.
"She's right Kovac.. This is a nice little place.. It needs a little work, but I'm up to it if the rest of the gang is.. What do you think??" Benton gave a low whistle and ran a hand along the roughly plastered walls.
"Well, there's nothing else to do.." Carter said glumly, turning the dial on the tv and finding nothing but fuzz and white noise. "What do you want us to do, Luka??"
"I... Well.. I guess the first thing to do is feed those poor animals in the barn and shovel out their stalls. But I think.. There IS ten of us.. Why don't we split up?? Five of us in here, cleaning up, and Four of you, including myself, in the barn. That way, Carter and Dave can recover from their injuries and I can show the rest of you how to run a farm." Luka chuckled slightly, and trailed off into a low sobbing moan.
"You okay Luka??" Kerry asked worriedly. "We can do this.. Maybe you should stay in here with Dave and Carter, Abby and I can stay and help.. I don't think I'd be much help, cleaning out stalls."
Luka nodded glumly, looking around the foyer of his uncle's house. "If you're sure Kerry.. Okay.. Peter, Mark, Doug, Carol.. Elizabeth.. The shovels and pitchforks are in the shed.. The gutter cleaner is pretty much self-explanatory. Just shovel all the feces into the gutter and turn it on.. It'll move it out into the barnyard.. Then you can feed the animals.."
They nodded, filing out of the house and into the blinding sunlight, ready for a day's work.
********