Free Now Showing by Ron Elliott Page A

weapon. Then he looked over my shoulder and said, ‘She’s getting away.’
    I turned. She was. Robin was running out of the gap in the hill. Damn. I sighed and turned back in time for Bill to punch me. I fell on my arse in the dirt. Blood dripped onto my chest. ‘You hit me.’
    â€˜It was a fight. You lost.’
    â€˜But I wasn’t looking.’
    â€˜Yeah, that was the idea. Now fuck off and leave me alone.’
    I tried to wipe my nose but it hurt. I got up and looked around for the torch. When I grabbed his gas lamp he didn’t say anything. I got the rifle and went after Robin.

    ***
    Her tracks were easy to follow. She was running straight, with deep steps, fleeing out across the desert.
    Her footprints ended at one of the mine holes where they skidded in the dirt.
    â€˜Rob?’
    The light from the lantern spread easily across the ground but not so well down into the old dig. I tipped the lamp and found her on a ledge, huddled in the corner. The ledge was only about half a metre wide before the shaft went down again beyond.
    â€˜Jesus fucking Christ, Rob.’
    She had scrapes on her arms and a bruise rising on her cheek.
    â€˜Anything broken?’
    She giggled. ‘You said you wanted to meet my family. Careful what you wish for.’ She sounded a little drunk.
    â€˜Can you stand up?’
    â€˜I thought he had all the answers. You know, living out here, away from – all the noise. My mysterious father.’
    I took the light off her and looked around the top of the mine shaft for something to use to drag her out. There was a broken wooden winch but no rope. Only rocks poked from the mound of dirt.
    â€˜All this way and no answers to the meaning of life. What a rip-off.’
    In the shaft were weathered poles of wood stacked lengthways along the sides, but they looked too smooth to climb.
    â€˜Can you stand up?’
    Robin started to get up but saw the edge and she pushed back into the corner. ‘You should leave me.’
    â€˜How about I get you out of this hole, and we’ll see?’
    â€˜Ah, you’re considering it.’
    â€˜Never.’
    â€˜I don’t blame you. I’m a shit.’
    â€˜Can we talk about this later?’
    â€˜That’s what I say.’ She was looking into the darkness below her. ‘I have no idea why I do shit. Why I do anything. Two days ago, I quit uni. I went in and I sold all my books.’
    â€˜Oh.’ I tried to catch up. ‘Yeah, I never saw you as a dentist.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I can’t imagine you being an actual dentist.’
    â€˜Yeah, well, snap. I need to see a shrink.’
    I lay down on the ground with my arm reaching over the side. If she stood, I could almost reach her. ‘I’m going to have to go back to his camp and get some rope.’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Rob, you’re stuck.’
    â€˜Don’t care.’
    â€˜You’re being stupid.’
    â€˜Am not.’
    â€˜Are too.’
    â€˜You are.’
    She smiled.
    I said, ‘We’ll use the rifle. If you can hold on and kind of step up on those logs along the edge of the shaft.’
    She squinted up at the light of the lamp in a studying kind of way and said, ‘You should have held up that petrol station, you know.’
    â€˜Yeah. I really wanted to. But, you know.’
    â€˜The cops would have come. I’d have to take over driving while you held them off with the rifle.’
    â€˜I’d shoot out their tyres.’ I moved the lamp onto a mound so it angled further into the shaft, then got the rifle and lowered the butt end towards her, but she wasn’t moving. I said, ‘Stand up, Rob.’ When she didn’t, I said, ‘Of course, we would have to come out here because the cops would radio for all the police everywhere to get us. We’d have to hide out with your dad.’
    â€˜What? No.’
    â€˜Yeah. We’d be in his