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said.
    â€˜Sydney!’ he said, frozen in amazement with the nozzle halfway to the car.
    â€˜Yep. Drove from Sydney. Going back.’
    I’d pushed it too far. He looked from Robin who wasn’t being part of it and then to the car, weighing it all up for the bullshit it was.
    That’s when I said, ‘Hawaii.’
    â€˜Huh?’
    â€˜Drove from Hawaii before that.’
    â€˜How much?’ he asked.
    â€˜Fill ’er up thanks,’ I said, with the biggest smile, then turned and went to the shop. I hate customers like me.
    The shop was amazing. Old pie signs and basketball singlets mixed with car deodorant trees and bad hats. There were car parts including a muffler suspended from the ceiling. There were maps and prospecting pans. A sign said You are in the Golden Mile. Another said Coolgardie Since 1892.
    I tried on some of the bad hats. I liked the canvas one with the big orange star pattern and the little mirrors in the middle of each star. Then I found the flowers. Maybe they weren’t flowers. It could have been a feather duster. But it looked like a bunch of multicoloured flowers made out of feathers.
    I was about to take them out to her, when I patted my back pocket for my wallet.
    The petrol guy was hanging up the petrol nozzle. I watched him as he walked slowly from the pump and into the shop. It looked like he had a bad back. He said, ‘Sixty-seven dollars forty-three cents. It’s as full as it can be.’
    I didn’t doubt it.
    â€˜Anything else, sir,’ he said in a way I do when I’m dealing with an arsehole.
    â€˜Yep. A packet of – not the Longbeach. B&H. And two Snickers. How much are these flowers, dude?’
    â€˜Twelve.’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Ninety-four dollars. Do you want the hat?’
    â€˜Oh. Um, but of course. I’ll, um, get my wallet from the car.’ Big smile. I went out of the door slowly, but not so slowly it wasn’t casual.
    Robin looked up at me and I pushed the hat forward over my eyes and said in my practised bad Mexican accent, ‘Eese that you, Cisco?’
    â€˜Bad hat,’ she said, not meaning it.
    I lifted my sunglasses so she could see my eyes and pulled out the flowers from behind my back. ‘And for the señorita.’
    That got her. She looked at them and smiled and then I thought she was going to cry. ‘Gracias, señor.’ And I thought I was going to cry. Then she flicked her eyes over my shoulder.
    I turned to see him standing outside the shop, two of his four arms folded. I waved. Turned back.
    She saw something about it all and looked doubtful. Just a flash.
    It was enough. I would do this. What a laugh. I readjusted my sunnies and went to the boot and kicked it in the spot. Up it came to reveal the rifle sitting on top of our stuff. I looked up and he was still waiting. I smiled again. Then reached in like it might be my wallet.
    That’s when the Ford Territory drove in. Mum, Dad and two kids. Holiday gear up to the roof.
    The petrol guy went to them smiling, but it was as if he had two independent eyes, like an ant’s antennas. He was watching me with his left eyeball.
    One of the kids was watching me too. A chubby girl with big round glasses, straight out of Little Miss Sunshine.
    I closed the boot before anyone could see and went to Robin. ‘How much money you got?’
    She looked at me. She knew.
    I tried to make a smile but couldn’t get it going.
    She opened her purse, flicked past her savings card which I knewwas empty and went into the money. A ten-dollar note. And coins. ‘Ten. Um sixteen ... seventeen and about sixty cents. I didn’t know we were doing this Zac, or I would have brought some.’
    I looked up to where he was giving directions while he watched me.
    â€˜Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.’
    I went into the back, pushing broken glass off the seat. I pulled it up. I said, ‘Check in the glove box.’
    There were coins under