By the time the two of them crossed the field, the ‘help’ had already pulled up; a large pick-up truck with a car already being towed behind it. The driver, and his passenger, jumped out.
“Well, well, well… Isn’t this a turn-up,” said the passenger; the same man whom Joel had refused to help at the petrol station earlier.
“Shit,” Joel muttered under his breath.
“What seems to be the trouble?” asked the other man — the driver of the truck.
Even if the stranger they had met earlier at the petrol station hadn’t mentioned the fact he wanted to call for his brother, you’d have been able to tell they were brothers just by looking at them. The only difference between the two of them was that the brother with the tow truck looked older. He had more specks of grey in his dark hair — longer hair than his brother’s at near shoulder length.
“We ran out of petrol,” said Dan.
“Too bad, petrol station is miles away,” said the younger of the brothers — the one they had abandoned earlier.
“Hush now, Johnny,” said the other brother.
“Stephen… These fucks…” Johnny fell silent as his brother, Stephen, shot him a look.
“You’ll have to excuse my brother,” said Stephen. “He’s been stuck with his car most of the night.”
“Because they wouldn’t help me….” Johnny moaned under his breath.
Joel spoke up, “Look we’re sorry. As you can see, we clearly didn’t have the petrol to help out. We didn’t even make it to our destination!”
“There you go,” said Johnny, “they apologised.” He addressed Joel, “Although, had you helped him… You’d have been a lot closer to the nearest petrol station…”
“We don’t know the area, we’re only over this way because we got lost,” said Joel.
“Regardless, it doesn’t matter… Doesn’t change a damned thing now, does it?” Johnny continued, a smile on his face. “Anyway, as you can see, I’m already helping my brother out… Unless of course you’d like for me to leave his car here whilst we tow you to a petrol station?”
Dan could tell by the expression on Joel’s face that he was desperate to agree that this was a good idea; leave the car there and tow them to get some fuel. He jumped in before Joel had a chance to annoy the strangers so much that they’d just leave them there stranded, “How about you give us a ride to the nearest? We could just hitch a lift until one of us has enough phone signal to make a call… Get some help? Or, if we happen to get to a station first, we could jump out there?”
“No petrol stations where we’re going,” said Johnny. “We only live a little way from here. Sorry.”
Johnny turned away from the group and returned to the passenger seat of the tow truck. Once in, he slammed the door behind him.
Stephen made an excuse, “You’ll have to excuse him. He always gets cranky when he’s tired and hungry. He’s right, though, we only live down the road. Tell you what, I could drive him home… I could dump his car… Come back for you and take you where ever you want… How’s that grab you?”
“Or we could come with you… Make a call from your place, if that’s okay, and then… You wouldn’t have to come back out. If you only live down the road, we could walk back…” said Michael — sensing that neither brother would return for them.
“Or we could get someone to collect us from your place?” Dan offered.
Stephen turned his attention to Hayley. “Come back to our place?”
“Probably be easier that way,” Michael said.
Hayley shifted uneasily under the continuing gaze of the stranger.
“I’m not sure,” said Stephen. He looked back to Michael. “I’ll have to check with my brother. You okay to wait a minute?”
“Sure,” said Dan.
“Thanks,” Stephen walked over to the tow truck and jumped in next to his brother. He closed the door behind him so none of the group — watching on — could hear what was being said.
“Of all the people to show up,” said Joel.
“Just play it cool,” Dan told him. “We need to make the best of this situation. Unless… Unless you’d rather be sitting here for the rest of the day?”
“No, I’d rather be at the camp-site,” he said. He fired Michael a look to remind him that this was all his fault. Michael smiled.
The driver’s door opened and Stephen stepped down onto the road.
“Okay — hop in,” said Stephen. “You might have to sit on each others’ laps but… Should be enough room for you all to squeeze in,” he continued.
“What about our stuff?” asked Joel.
“Your stuff? Yeah, we aren’t going to fit that in,” said Stephen. “Seriously though, look around… It isn’t going anywhere… We’ll be back in about thirty minutes or so… I’ll take you back to my house… We’ll off-load my brother’s car… We’ll come back and tow you to the nearest petrol station. Your stuff will still be here…”
“I’ll wait here,” said Joel, “at least we won’t all have to squeeze in together… One of us should wait.”
“Up to you,” said Stephen, “I’m not going to twist your arm to come. All of you can stay, if you want…”
Joel turned to the rest of the group, “I’ll wait here…”
Dan stepped over to the tow-truck, “I’ll come with you,” he told Stephen.
“Me too,” said Hayley.
Stephen smiled, “So that’s settled… Unless anyone else wants to come along for the ride too?”
Charlotte stepped forward, “I’ll come,” she said — not because she felt it was necessary to go, she just wanted to get away from anymore awkward conversations with Michael.
“Okay, jump on in then,” said Stephen. He opened the back door of the tow-truck so his new passengers could climb aboard. Dan was first in, followed by Hayley and Charlotte. Stephen closed the door behind Charlotte and climbed into the front seat.
The engine of the tow-truck kicked into life as he wound down the window to talk to Joel, “So we’ll be back in about thirty minutes. You guys just hang tight and don’t go anywhere.”
Joel nodded.
“Thank you,” said Lara. She felt as though someone should say it and it was clear Joel wasn’t going to be the first in line to offer up some thanks for reasons unknown to her.
“My pleasure,” Stephen smiled. “What kind of human being would I be if I had just left you guys stranded?” He gave Lara a wink as the tow-truck pulled away from the conked out van.
“What was all that about?” Lara asked Joel.
“What?”
“You were rude. They’re helping us out and you were rude.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“You were a little bit,” Michael chipped in.
“You know what, I don’t want to hear from you — this is your fault. Go for a walk, or something,” Joel told Michael.
“What’s wrong with you?” said Lara. “You’re like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde… One minute all nice — sweet even…”
“When was that?” Michael asked.
“The next, you’re back to being a bastard!” she finished.
“I’m tired,” said Joel, “and I don’t trust them. There’s something about them. Had we all gone with them — they’d probably have called one of their friends to come and take anything of worth from the van… It’s in the papers all the time, that sort of crime.”
“Well I don’t know what papers you’ve been reading,” Lara said. She turned her back on Joel and climbed back into the van. Once in, she laid down on the row of seats at the back.