Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“Tessie?” Sally says my name as if she’s uncertain.
“Yeah nah,” I say. “No worries, mate.”
These are phrases I picked up in the Outback. They’re like an antipodean Hakuna Matata, an implication everything will be okay because the speaker of them intends to be chill.
I walk toward her to give her a hug. Sally holds her hands up in shock.
“What happened to your leg? You don’t limp anymore?”
“Yeah, ever since I became a beast of ravening appetite and dark fury my leg has been much better.”
“Wow!” She exclaims. “Good for you.”
She’s not sure what to do with me now. She’s used to Tessie, the girl with the walking stick riding a desk. She doesn’t know Tessie of the Outback.
“Yeah,” I agree. “Really good for me.”
There’s an awkward pause. I’m a little afraid for a second that maybe too much time has gone by. Maybe too much has changed. Maybe we can’t be friends. Think of something to say, Tessie. Think of something to…
“Chief Connor kidnapped Randy Carrot.”
We both say the words at almost the same time as we arrive at the most juicy and shared piece of gossip we know.
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer girl,” Sally says.
“Does he still have her?”
“I think so!”
“Wow. After months?”
“There’s some crazy shit going down back stateside, I have to tell you all about it…”
I cannot wait to hear.
While Sally and I gossip, Order is making a grand declaration to Fury and Justice.
“We will make something unique here. A place not only for mutants, but anybody who seeks peace. Wolves, vampires, mutants, any other cryptid, they will all be welcome here. We cannot end a war by fighting. We can end the war by establishing places of peace.”
“I’ll take it,” Fury the monarch says. “I am king of nothing, regent of a war I do not want. I welcome any and all attempts at peace.”
“Me too,” Justice says. “I have twelve children now. They don’t tell you how many that really is. Sometimes I don’t actually notice that there is a war, because it is functionally indistinguishable from my normal domestic life.”
“Come and have a beer,” Order says. “You’ve all flown a hell of a long way. You must be parched. We’ll put the barbie on too. Time we all ate, I reckon.”
The sunsets in the outback are stunning. Red and gold play across the endless skies in a rolling cascade of natural beauty. My master, the mutant king, Obigor, Justice, Sally and I sit in plastic folding chairs, eating barbecued sausages on bits of white bread, drinking cans of Australian beer, and contemplating the world and our shifting places in it. I don’t know what the future brings. I don’t know if the war will end. I don’t know if we will be able to live the lives of love and family we desire. But I do know that there is a little eternity in every moment, and this sunset feels like my forever home.