One day I woke up on an old filthy two-seater brown couch with a sharp pain in my lower back and crank in my neck. My legs were hanging over the armrest as the silky grey Burmese cat slept comfortably between my thighs; Tucked into a perfect round ball. I flipped the blanket away from my chest and stretched my arms above my head. The cat fled with a cry; meow. The air had a thick scent of java. I stared towards the open kitchen and Nick's long wavy blond hair had covered his face as he stood in front of two white mugs,"How do you take it mate?" he had asked me without eye contact in a croaky Aussie voice."Two sugars and no milk buddy." I answered him with my mixed broken Australian-Canadian accent. He made his way over and handed me the cuppa. The warmth of the mug felt comforting. He gently grooved his buttocks into the couch, and sat upright as he drank his brew dew with two hands, resting his elbows on the knees. The arabica stimulant drug slowly kicked in as I guzzled it down carefully, sip by sip with a soft blow before taking small doses. Two colleagues sat together without a word to one another. After the calm before the storm, we began make a lot of noise to prepare ourselves for the long haul; a five-hour drive from Sydney to Australia's capital with a tight schedule to set up an exciting event for a New Year Eve party in a nightclub as the countdown had already begun.
Everything was black outside, owls hooted in the distance. It blew my mind that I was still able to see the stars glowing enormously bright at four thirty in the morning. A young man came out to the driveway before Nick and I settled into the box truck. He was a thin well bone-structure male with short messy brown hair and narrow eyes. Half awake and half asleep. His smile towards Nick was soft with a hint of femininity. He walked with his legs close together and swayed his hip sideways. They held each other for a minute or two as they spoke secretly before they embraced, mouth to mouth with affection. It had never occurred to me that Nick was gay; he was well built with blue wide eyes, and had patchy tattoos all over his body with a massive detailed stealthy lion on his right forearm. From what I had known about Nick was that he had an interest towards sports and loved rock 'n' roll music; he was a typical Sydney-sider surfer stereotype. The way he held himself was never imageable that he had a sexual taste towards men. People are hard to predict in this day and age. Whether he was gay or not, he had the best work ethic and the most important aspect about him was that he treated everyone with respect, regardless of their particular flavour.
Nick controlled the truck along the wide Federal Highway that lead us to Canberra. When we arrived at our pit stop on the Southern Tablelands, it was time for Brekkie; a bacon egg roll with tomato sauce and a smoko. We agreed to swap responsibilities behind the big helm. There was yet another two and half hour drive to the Good Vibes club. We were not very conservable due to the fact that I took the advantage to catch up on sleep in the passage seat since we left Nick's unkempt house. I decided to break the thick ice and asked a few curious questions as I held the wheel at nine and three, "So Nick, how does it work?" He looked at me very disturbed knowing that I was asking the ultimate question from a straight man's inquisitive interest about homosexuals."How do you know who takes the lead when it comes to the bedroom? Do you play Rochhambeau, or flip a coin?Is missionary possible?" Nick smiled and reinforced the question back to me."Once , I lost at the beginning as I had chosen rock and she chose paper. She made me follow her lead but I think I had won because she was still not very satisfied in the end" There was an awkward moment of silence until we both let out a laugh that shook the box. It helped to take the heat off my shoulders due to the questions were personal, and quite confronting. Nick graphically explained how two man can perform missionary, along with other preference between top and bottom."There is no who's the guy and who's the girl. Men are men, simple as that" Nick said very clearly."And the very most important thing, the lube is a gay man's best friend" The more he gave out the details, and learning about how two men can make love, the subject nearly had me loosing control of the wheel, trying to stay within the lane on the road.
We switched on the radio, passing beside Lake George. After a few tunes, the Announcer delivered an emergency news, "We have a new update regarding the outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan City, which has been identified as Coronavirus. It has rapidly reached to other cities in China and across the globe as we can confirm that there are serval reported cases in India, Thailand, Iran, and Italy. The Australian health department encourages anyone who have visited Wuhan in the past month or have any symptoms, such as fever, chills, a cough and or even a sore throat to get tested immediately to prevent the spread and self isolate until further notice. The health department have provided more information on the web site." Nick asked me something that I did not pay any attention to as I changed lanes and overtook a car driving below the speed limit. I heard a prop fall down in the back of the truck with a loud sound of a thud."I'm sure it will be fine" I said, worried.
Canberra is a place that has always been known to be boring and vague, surrounded with ten-foot reptilian boxing kangaroos. Over the course of time that I have frequently visited the Nation's capital, I have learned to appreciate rugged plains, the hills and the people. Traffic is a breeze with humongous roundabouts to keep the flow on the road, compared to Sydney's continuous stop and go. Canberra constantly surprises the people with the food and wine offerings. It doesn't take long to discover a new national park, a new suburban town with an epic skatepark, or a new trend of some sort of gallery; the city grows like a virus. As we drove into the city centre and arrived at Good Vibes club, there were aluminium fence blocking the road to the loading dock entry with heavy security personnel wearing face mask. We were redirected to a different route to submit our identification, and told that we had to be scanned with infrared thermometer gun before they could search inside the vehicle.
I pushed the truck down into a narrow laneway nervously, rubbing the tires on the edge of the sidewalk. I stared curiously at the surrounding security guards with their faces covered up. Before Nick tried to call out for a warning, it was far too late to prevent the catastrophe accident. A thick tree brach had made contact onto the cargo's left side, cutting deeply into the metal box, ripping the sheet of its body and knocking over everything inside. I slammed the breaks with both feet. We quickly jumped out and saw the damaged that I had done. My face was horrified. Nick had his hands on his head griping his hair with shock."LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!" He vented furiously with a nasty look towards me. After a few minutes of Nick cursing and I stood in one spot nervously, there was only one explanation I could give him,"I got very anxious about the people who were wearing the masks, they made me feel like I am filled with dirt and germs" He look at me like a devil about to drag my soul to hell. "Don't worry Nick, the show will go on. We will prevail. The show mush go on!" I said with a broken voice.
The event had survived through the night with missing props, two broken mega speakers, shattered sponsored logos and a wrecked truck, which ultimately cost me my job on the first day of the new year.
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