"Umm, well, I have to get ready for work, I'm doing the late shift, so I have to leave in about a half hour, but ill be back around about," Greg paused, "10"
"Ok," John muttered, "I'll tell Missouri."
"Right oh then, well, Ali will be here, and my fiancée Jo will be home about 6, she had to go into the city, you know women, she's probably spent all my money by now!" laughed Greg with a huge grin on his face.
"Yeah, pity my wife died when my boys were little…." John replied softly before tears swelled up and he muttered the word 'bathroom' and Greg pointed distractedly down the hall.
John found the bathroom, and locking the door behind him, he broke down and slid down the wall landing on the floor where he sat sobbing. He couldn't handle this anymore.
Meanwhile, Missouri was in her room, which Ali had showed her to, which happened to be near the bathroom. She heard John's sobs, and walked up the hallway to see where it was coming from.
She knocked on the door.
"John, are you ok?" she asked, she tried to open the door but it was locked, "John, open up and we can talk"
The lock on the door clicked open, and John emerged from the bathroom red-eyed with tear streaks down his cheeks.
"I don't want to talk." He whispered, brushing past her and walking quietly down the hallway and out the door.
Missouri stood in the doorway; she wasn't sure whether or not to follow John.
She decided to give him half an hour. If he hadn't come back, she'd go and look for him. She knew that John needed some space, but she hated seeing him like this, it wasn't right.
Half an hour had passed. Missouri was sitting out on the back veranda with Ali, having lunch.
"That was lovely, darling, thank you" Missouri said, "I think I'm going to go for a walk, see if I can find John and ask if he wants to come back to the house to have lunch. I'll be back soon, ok"
"Ok, see you soon." Ali replied, starting to pack up the lunch dishes.
Missouri followed the only track that lead off the main driveway and out into the paddocks.
The track started to thin out just as Missouri reached the middle of the first paddock. Luckily the grass was long, as there hadn't been cattle in it for a while, so Missouri could see where John had gone.
She followed the path of flat grass for a while, and eventually came to a large tree.
There was blood around the roots, she began to get scared, not scared because she was alone in the middle of nowhere, but scared of what she might find.
She walked around the tree, finding only more flat grass, though this time there was a trail of red spots to go with it.
Missouri was hesitant to go down the path, not knowing where it went, what was at the end, or how long it actually was.
She wanted to turn around and get help, go back to the house and get Ali, no, call Greg, she wanted to run, as afar away as possible, and not face what she knew must be coming. Tears began to run down her cheeks.