Life or Death Read Online Free

forehead and wide-set eyes. A shotgun rests in the crook of his arm.
    Audie tries to smile. Dust cracks on his face.
    ‘Howdy?’
    The old man nods uncertainly.
    ‘Wondered if you might spare me some water?’ says Audie. ‘I’m parched.’
    Resting the shotgun on his shoulder, the man steps to the side of the shed and opens the top of the water barrel. He points to a metal ladle hanging on a nail. Audie dips it into the barrel, breaking the still surface, and almost inhales the first mouthful, bringing water up through his nose. He coughs. Drinks again. It’s cooler than he expects.
    The old man takes out a crumpled packet of cigarettes from the pocket of his coveralls and lights one of them, drawing the smoke deep into his lungs, as though seeking to replace any fresh air.
    ‘What are you doing out here?’
    ‘Had a row with my girlfriend. Bitch drove off and left me. I figured she’d come back – but she didn’t.’
    ‘Maybe you shouldn’t be calling her names if you want her to come back.’
    ‘Maybe,’ says Audie, ladling water over his head.
    ‘Where did she dump you?’
    ‘We were camping.’
    ‘By the reservoir.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘That’s fifteen miles from here.’
    ‘I walked every one of them.’
    A tanker rumbles along the track. The old man leans on the weighted end of the boom gate, making it lift skywards. Waves are exchanged. The truck drives on. The dust cloud settles.
    ‘What are you doing out here?’ asks Audie.
    ‘Guarding the place.’
    ‘What are you guarding?’
    ‘It’s a drilling operation. Lots of expensive equipment.’
    Audie holds out his hand and introduces himself, using his middle name, Spencer, because the police are less likely to have released it. The old man doesn’t ask for anything more. They shake.
    ‘I am Ernesto Rodriguez. People call me Ernie because it makes me sound less like a spick.’ He laughs. Another truck is approaching.
    ‘You think one of these drivers might give me a ride?’ asks Audie.
    ‘Where you heading?’
    ‘Anywhere I can catch a bus or a train.’
    ‘What about your girl?’
    ‘I don’t think she’s coming back.’
    ‘Where do you live?’
    ‘I grew up in Dallas, but I’ve been out west for a while.’
    ‘Doing what?’
    ‘Bit of everything.’
    ‘So you heading anywhere and you do a bit of everything.’
    ‘That’s about it.’
    Ernie gazes south across flatlands that are scratched by ravines and dotted with rocky outcrops. A fence runs away from them and seems to dip off the edge of the earth.
    ‘I can give you a ride as far as Freer,’ he says, ‘but I don’t finish for another hour or so.’
    ‘Much obliged.’
    Audie sits in the shade and takes off his boots, gingerly fingering his blisters and the cuts on his hands. More trucks pass through the gate, leaving full, returning empty.
    Ernie is a talker. ‘I used to be a short-order cook until I retired,’ he says. ‘I make twice that now, because of the boom.’
    ‘What boom?’
    ‘Oil and gas, it’s big news. Ever heard of Eagle Ford Shale?’
    Audie shakes his head.
    ‘It’s this sedimentary rock formation, runs right under South and East Texas, and its full of marine fossils from some ancient ocean. That’s what makes the oil. And there’s natural gas trapped down there in the rocks. They just got to dig it up.’
    Ernie makes it sound so easy.
    Just before dusk a pickup truck arrives from the other direction. It’s the night guard. Ernie hands him the keys to padlock the boom gate. Audie waits in the Dodge. He wonders what the two men are talking about and tries not to get paranoid. Ernie returns and climbs behind the wheel. They negotiate the rutted track and swing east onto Farm to Market Road. The windows are open. Ernie dips his head to light a cigarette, holding the wheel with his elbows. He yells above the rushing air, telling Audie how he lives with his daughter and his grandson. They got a house just outside of Pleasanton, which he pronounces