1.

The Miata started losing motivation as I followed the Gulf of Mexico east. The clunk was worsening and a whine had developed after driving at highway speeds for extended periods. An auto store clerk told me the differential fluid was toast and sold me two quarts of the stuff. I managed to squeeze them into a nook in the boot.

I stopped for the day at a motel outside Mobile, Alabama. The carpet was damp from a leak in the air-conditioning unit and the room stank. I walked to the payphone out the front of a bar across the street and fed in all the coins I had. It rang and rang.

‘Hello, Linda Crawford speaking.’

‘Hey, it’s Mark Ward.’

‘Mark,’ she somehow whispered and yelled at the same time, ‘where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for a month.’

‘I’m in Alabama.’

‘You’re fucking where?’ she said, then apologised to somebody in the room.

‘It’s not important. Why is my bank saying the money still hasn’t arrived?’

‘The buyers fell through. There’s no money coming, Mark.’

‘Fuck me. What happened?’

‘They couldn’t secure the loan – it happens all the time. I called you the same day, but evidently you’re not listed in Alabama.’

‘What happens now?’

‘I’ve contacted other bidders to see if they’re still interested, but I can’t sell the house on your behalf again without permission and a signature.’

‘Okay? You have my permission, forge the signature.’

‘You know I can’t. I’ll send you a new contract, have you sign and send it back.’

‘That could take weeks.’

‘Yes, it probably will.’

‘I don’t have weeks. You don’t know how much I need this money.’

‘Well, this is what happens when you disappear with unfinished business.’

I drummed my forehead with the palm of my free hand then ran it down my face.

‘You know what you can do for me, Linda?’

‘What’s that?’

‘Forge it, then put in right above that your commission’s been tripled.’

She cleared her throat but didn’t speak.

‘I’m glad we’ve reached an agreement,’ I said, gently placing the handset down then smacking the inside of the booth until I’d lost count.

I stepped out and held a cigarette between throbbing fingers. Waves crashed like laughter on the other side of the indifferent interstate. I blew smoke towards the rouge sky then headed back to my broken air conditioner and damp carpet.