I saw him by the side of the road. Actually I saw his car first, in the distance. Shimmering in the distance; wobbly white in the harsh hot mid-day light. I saw the car on the side of the road right after the road works.

The road works where the stop=go man seemed to take a personal interest in keeping me stationary as long as he possibly could. I knew it was immature and selfish to think this way but i couldn’t help but scowl to myself anyway. When the sign finally turned from stop to slow, I saw the truck tyre in front of me squeeze melted road tar through its tread. Black and snotty; stringy and clingy, oozing out of the road and sticking to the tyre.

I saw the car first because I thought it might have been a radar trap.. It was parked precariously just off the side of the busy road. Then I saw you, as I got closer. I actually saw the gum tree before I saw you though; before I saw you but after I saw the car.

It was a large tree that stood out amidst the short scrubby mulga. It was a tree that had endured a tough life however, with dead limbs and blackened lower trunk. It was misshapen as well, though not unattractively. I imagined large parrots or small furry animals of some description living in the hollows of the dead boughs.

I saw the car and the tree and then I saw you. In the intense heat on the side of the road I saw you and then I saw the cross. This was a lot to see in a short time, because the car I was driving was doing 110. But I saw it all very clearly. I saw your car, then the gum tree, then you and then the cross.

The small white cross and the mixture of fresh and plastic flowers that surrounded it.

Everything was shimmering in the heat. Well I think it was the heat. When I saw you by the side of the road, before I had sped by, I actually thought that the car and the tree and cross were actually shimmering in your radiated grief.

I wondered how long it had taken you to make the small white shimmering cross and whether you had painted it with an oil based paint that wouldn’t be spoiled by the splashing of your tears.