Read Desperado Dale (Scenic Route to Paradise) for Free Online

carried, before the gentle giant turned to Sam.
    Dale was an unabashed dog lover and so he
couldn’t but notice how thin the animals were and yet he said, “Beautiful dogs.
Are they yours?”
    The dogs alternately followed and led them
through the hallway and to the left as Sam replied, telling Dale about the dogs
and their master who owned the estate.
    “This place was quite a zoo when I was hired
over three years ago but since then... Well, the owner has only been here once
in that time although his family members continue to visit quite a bit. I’m
sure you read about our country’s economic woes. Austerity and all that? Of
course, you did!” Sam said fiercely as he tossed two long loaves of bread up on
the kitchen counter. “The food lines, the riots and the notorious New Dawn
thugs helping the common person get back what was rightfully theirs... It was
all over the news. Anyway, that was the reason I took this job... Athens was stagnating and then
violent, and then things just got worse. Everyone was moving out of the cities
and going back to the towns and villages where they were born or where their
parents were born. I was born in Athens but we moved to the U.S. when I was an infant.
Most of my family had already immigrated. I came back on a lark and stayed.
    This island is connected to mainland Greece by a ferry. When I
first arrived, there were three ferries a week in each direction. Now there is
one every other week.” Sam’s cheeks puffed as he slowly exhaled and Dale
wondered about this tell-tale sigh. “I had no idea how severe life in Greece would become and I put
off going back to the states... Now? I can’t go back. Not that I want to.” He
shrugged, turning away from Dale.
    The lights from the hallway lit the kitchen with
a shadowy gloom. Sam drew the curtain closed above the sink before crossing to
a bay window and pulling the blinds closed. Although Dale hadn’t responded, Sam
continued, “I haven’t heard from any of my family in months... I mean those in
the states.” He put a match to a gas lantern and then another; hanging them on
decorative hooks that hung from a high ceiling which disappeared into the
shadows after Sam turned off the electric light at the switch.
    Dale still held the basket, as he peered about
for an electric outlet to charge his cell phone. He heaved the groceries up
onto the counter that bisected a dining area from the cooking part of the
kitchen. Sam pulled the basket to his side. Although the room remained dark,
above the steel top counter and behind Sam, the area was surprisingly bright.
Dale’s stomach was rumbling as he watched Sam empty the pantry supplies from
the basket. He noted only the flour was store bought. The other items were a
menagerie of jarred fruits, vegetables and a few dairy products.
    Sam was talking and sorting and organizing when
he stopped suddenly to ask, “And you... uh, Dale? What about your family? I’ve
been rambling on about my struggles, fears and false bravado for how long? Ten
minutes or more... Sorry. And I never answered your question about the dogs. It
has been hard on them and all but two chickens and the milking goat are gone...
either eaten or stolen and then eaten or perhaps, sold. I don’t know.”
    There was a pot of water warming on the gas
stove and Sam was chopping away at leeks. After plugging in his phone, Dale
peeled the first of several potatoes before he finally spoke. “I have two
sisters but I have no idea where they are. Kate was in South Africa on vacation and the
youngest, Merry was supposed to fly out to meet up with me... Well, she was to
meet me and my wife, our little girl and my grandparents on the very day of the
attacks.” Dale shook his head. “Strange but I have a real peace that my sisters
are okay... You ever get that feeling? I do but then again I have an ache in
the pit of my being every time I think of the rest of our family living in the Philadelphia area. We haven’t been
able to get