[ IP ] The Long Road

The road is long. They can ’ t remember where they came from and don ’ t know where they ’ re going. All they do is walk. 
 
 
 The first is followed by the second, but the second leads. The first is burnt. The sun beats and her face is blistered and charred. She ’ s never had a hat. The second is beautiful and tanned to perfection. 
 
 
 The second stops. Then the first. She starts to smoke. She would like to but he can ’ t run away. It didn ’ t work the times before so she wo n't try again. She stands and she smokes. The second sits. 
 
 
 The first fears the second and she fears the sun and she fears the cancer that is surely propagating somewhere in her exhausted body but fear is old news. The second stands. They carry on. 
 
 
 The road is coarse but flat and it never winds. The sweltering heat ripples the horizon and the first thinks she can see something in the distance but it ’ s never clear and she ’ s never reached it. 
 
 
 Sometimes she stops to rest or indulge in a semblance of sleep but the second does not stop with her then. The fear swells and she carries on. 
 
 
 In the evening the sun gets low and shadows get long and somehow even over the distance between them a dark outline of the second ’ s head and shoulders creeps and works its way up the first ’ s back. Usually when she wants to rest. But this, the closest they get to contact, brings with it a surge of fear and she runs. Often she passes out and wakes up no less tired. The second is always just as far away. 
 
 
 They carry on. 

