Secret Confessions: Down & Dusty — Casey by Rachael Johns

Episode 1—Casey
    THE TOWN OF MILPINYANI SPRINGS WELCOMES YOU! POPULATION 356
    Hah, what a joke. Casey Cooper shook her head as she drove her dirt-encrusted, but near-new, red FJ Cruiser past the dilapidated sign on the outskirts of town. The town she’d been born, bred and married in. Soon, she’d add divorced to that list as well. She doubted there were many people in these parts who’d welcome her return and that suited her just fine as she didn’t plan on hanging around for very long.
    There was nothing left for her here—no family, few friends and certainly not husbands. Once she’d had so much love for the tiny central west Queensland town of Milpinyani Springs and its people, but life had soured her feelings for it and now she wanted nothing more than to move on. If it weren’t for Lucky needing her, she wouldn’t be here, but while she was, she may as well deal with that other pesky issue.
    Joel.
    Despite everything, she couldn’t simply send him the divorce papers via Australia Post. She’d once loved him with everything she had and before she finally turned her back on their marriage and on Milpinyani, she needed to see him one last time.
    Tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, she glanced on either side of the road, reacquainting herself with the lay of the land. She had to concede that despite its dry and dusty terrain, it was beautiful: all deep red earth, clear blue skies and massive eucalypt trees that looked like they were older than time. Her love for this region was why she hadn’t been able to run as far as she’d wanted, and now lived a mere eight-hour drive away on a cattle station in Julia Creek.
    The closer she got to the town centre, the more her heart began to pound with the thought of seeing Joel again. What if he’d shacked up with someone else? In one way, that would make her mission easier, but how could she bear seeing him with another woman? These thoughts whirling through her head, she took a few seconds to realise her car wasn’t driving as smoothly as usual. Granted the gravel roads were full of potholes, but that didn’t account for why it was swinging to the right. Or for that ‘calumph, calumph, calumph’ sound. She tried without success to correct the vehicle and then it dawned.
    ‘No!’ This could not be happening. ‘Shit, shit, shit!’ She slowly pulled the shuddering Cruiser over to the side of the road, unclicked her seatbelt and flung open the door before climbing out. She narrowed her eyes at the culprit as if the back tyre on the driver’s side had purposefully punctured itself to aggravate her. ‘Dammit.’
    Thankfully, growing up on a farm, she’d learned to drive early and her wanker of a stepdad had ensured she knew how to look after the maintenance of any vehicle she sat behind the wheel of. Dating and then marrying a mechanic also hadn’t hurt. How many times had she sat on a crate, watching Joel as he tinkered under the bonnet of a car? This meant she knew how to change a tyre better than a lot of blokes.
    With a sigh that flicked her brown hair up out of her eyes, Casey marched around to the back and uncovered the spare tyre. She frowned as she laid her hands on either side to remove it and then cursed again. Samuel hadn’t replaced the spare from the flat he’d gotten a couple of months ago when he borrowed the Cruiser to go into Townsville. He’d promised.
    ‘Damn the man!’ How the hell did anyone let something like this slip their mind when they lived in the middle of the outback? Storming back to her open door, she snatched her mobile off the dashboard, unsure whether she was going to call Samuel to abuse him or call someone for help. Of course when she went to dial a number—any number—she noticed she had no reception and remembered that phone coverage out here was shit.
    She stared at the long road ahead. It would take her a good hour or so to walk into town from here. Not enthused by that option, she toed off her boots and then