A man out here who whined about the sweat-generating heat, and the bush flies in his eyes and up his nose, wouldn’t be a man, and Harry would never have that said of him.
Out here, a man who couldn’t fix a snapped axle on a mail truck in a dry creek bed wouldn’t be worth feeding.
As for thinking he could hear the roar of an oncoming train, well, a man would have to be a mental case to pay that any attention.
So Harry didn’t, until the flash flood carried him and the truck and the mail miles downstream.
Poor Harry. Great narrative. I didn’t quite understand the end of the first para, but the rest of the story compensated. Will put together, and a nice structural template that could lend itself to a myriad stories. Thanks.
Thanks, Leonard. The first sentence was trying to set the scene for what Harry was up against.
It’s a good story. It’s a shame that Harry has such a narrow definition of what it means to be a man.
Thanks, Helen. Harry’s an archetypal bush Australian. 😉
Excellent narrative in so few words.
Many thanks, Helen, much appreciated.
Great read,.. kudos… Loved the ending…
Thanks, Valli. So glad you enjoyed it.
Life can be one harried situation, Doug.
Loved it!
Well done Doug – the clever combination of comment on his prejudices, the visual joke at the end and the variety of sentence constructions using so few words.
Nasty shit. Should’ve been nastier.
Loved it, I can just see Harry and the last lines are chilling, I imagine that’s what it would sound like.
Good one, Doug. ‘Suffering from certainty’ common in the demographic described, I think ?
Wow. Talk about character as plot! I don’t want that last line to be the end of Harry.