and this fella was always makin jokes about his cut off hand.
Happened just after I moved here. He said it was a car accident. Personally I dont think there are any accidents. Something always happens for a reason. Anyway in this story, apparently, he had his hand out the window smokin a ciggie and some small critter ran out in front of him, he swerved, it was wet, he lost control, didnt get his hand inside quick enough and hit a road sign, slicing his hand off at the wrist. Drove himself to hospital too. Dont know how he did that. Thats the story he told at the hospital anyway.
Didnt have time to look for it. They sent some coppers out to have a look at the time but they couldnt find anything. Not surprising really. There was a creek nearby. May have gone flyin into that.
Or wild animals and such. They dont mind a free feed.
Yeah, well, the lucky bastard was actually married to the best lookin nurse in the hospital. Cant remember her name. Long legs. Blonde. Not natural.
I mean her hair.
They had three kids. In quick succession too, as I recall. Didnt last though. After the accident she just up and left one day. Not a word. Took the kids too.
He was devastated at the time. Had to work the farm on is own, and at that stage it wasnt a profitable place.
Eh?
Oh, well, the other story, the one I tend to prescribe to is a little
off-putting.
Theres just a few things that dont add up. His next door neighbour heard this massive yell over at his place and not long after saw his ute screaming up the road.
The other thing was that they reckon his tourniquet seemed a bit too well done. The wife and kids werent home that night either, so they couldnt have tied it on.
Itd be pretty hard to tie a knot with only one hand, dont you think? Especially if bloods pissin out where the other shouldve been. There wasnt much blood on his ute or the sign he reckoned he hit either, but like I said, itd been raining so
I mean in a town like this, if people tell you something, you take their word for it, dont ya?
Yeah, but the thing is that when he first went in to hospital, they shunted him in to emergency and of course he had x-rays, yknow, to see if hed broken anything anywhere else in his body. He didnt know it at the time cause theyd knocked him out with about enough anaesthetic to drop a horse, but when the x-rays came back, bugger me dead if his hand wasnt still there. On the x-ray. Bones n all.
Dont ask me how. I dunno how. It just was. When the doctors showed him he just smiled and thanked them for showing him a part of his aura hed never seen before. Now what dyou reckon that meant?
Nah. Never saw it meself, but Johnno did. You ask him next time hes around.
Oh, he tends to drop in every other Christmas to see his mum.
Yknow how you hear those stories of phantom hands but you wouldnt expect one to show up on an x-ray, would ya? Sometimes when he was a bit pissed hed go for his beer with his stump. Now, hed never knock his beer over though, and one time I swear it looked like his arm was resting at just the right angle to be holding his beer, as if his hand was still there. Those same neighbours who heard the scream that night they were sure they saw him pickin up and using a chainsaw in his far back paddock a few months after he left hospital, one of those big bastards that theres no way you can use one-handed, I dont care how strong you are.
He never bothered to get one fitted. Said it wouldnt feel natural. Like only havin one hand is natural!
The joke is that you can always do with an extra hand on a property, but when he lost one, his place went from near bankruptcy to a record auction price for the district!
So what am I saying? Well, if you ask me, and I guess you just did, then Id tell you I went out to his place and there was a nice big chopping block out the back all covered in blood. Where he killed his chickens, he said. Theres always some slaughtering to be done on the farm, he said. That place, it just gave me
just a bad feeling. Not ill, or anxious, or uncertain, or creepy. Just bad. I felt the essence of what bad is. Badness came from all directions. The ground, the air, everywhere.
I cant prove anything, still, I reckon something dark, something
unwholesome went on out there. He lost a hand, but he got somethin else in return. As for the wife and kids
I wouldnt like to speculate too much.
Its a strange one, all right.
Nah, he doesnt live around here anymore.
Overall, he was a good fella, yknow, just a bit weird, though. For my liking.