She opened the curtains, and was blinded for a second by the sudden burst of light that entered the room. John stirred on the couch and slowly sat up, groaning and yawning. It was the first time he had slept in 3 days.
John moved on the couch, and slowly sat up.
"How long have you been here?" he asked rubbing his eyes wearily, "I – I must have dozed off"
"That's ok sweetie, you needed some sleep" Missouri replied
"What did you find?" John asked looking at the case of beer on the table
"I bought a case of beer, that's all I could find, and the stuff downstairs is to expensive." She lied
"Ok, I guess that will do" John replied.
"Well, we can open them later. I think I might share with you." She said with a slight smile, but it wasn't returned.
At about 5pm that afternoon, Ali and her father, the officer who had found John an Missouri, whose name they found out was Greg, came around, to see how they were doing, and to tell them that if they weren't feeling comfortable staying at the pub, then they were welcome at their place, which was only about half a mile down the road from the small town.
Greg had driven his car, and he helped John load their stuff into the boot while Missouri and Ali went to the bar to hand in the keys.
"I'm really sorry to intrude," Ali said after they had handed the keys to the girl behind the bar, "but Mr. umm, John, is he ok?"
"I don't really know darling," Missouri replied, "I've never seen him like this."
"Those two boys that everyone has been talking about, the ones you and John found out the road, did you and him have a connection to either of them?" Ali asked sincerely.
"Well, I can only tell you if you swear to me that you will never let anyone know, and you won't tell John that I've been speaking to you about it." Missouri said in a stern voice.
"I swear!" Ali piped up excitedly.
"Ok," Missouri began, "those two boys we found out the road were John's sons."
This seemed to shock Ali, and she just looked at Missouri then out the window at John, she couldn't believe it, his sons, that would be terrible, to find them like that, having been shot on the road, and then left there. Of course, Missouri wasn't going to tell her the whole story that, she felt, wouldn't stay a secret for long.
They walked out to the car in silence, and Ali smiled to John and her father as she climbed into the back of the car, with Missouri climbing in the other side, John opening the passenger side door and Greg already starting the car.
They drove for about 15 minutes, with the only sound in the car being the radio, and Greg humming along.
They eventually reached a gate, and Greg stopped and Ali climbed out and opened it, letting the car drive through before shutting it and getting back in the car, but not bothering with her seatbelt anymore.
The drive way up to the beautiful old farm house, which was probably an outback cattle ranch when it was built, was long and winding and had tall old trees running up the sides.
Greg pulled up out side the front door, and helped John carry all of their stuff up to two of the spare bedrooms upstairs, that were clean, and had new sheets put on the beds, and t he windows had been flung open to let in the fresh breeze.