Naked Hero - The Journey Away

not? It’ll kill itself in there if we don’t get it out soon... and your Aunt Maureen will kill us both if it makes a mess of her house in the process. We’ll go in and chase it out. What do you say?”
    “You do it, Dad. I don’t like them.”
    The man felt the grip tightened, and a cheek laid against his hip for added effect. There was no faking going on - it was an honest plea. And of course he would do it. He would do anything for his boy. Protect him with his very life. Even go into a house and confront a sparrow - that’s how much he loved him. But fear! That was not something to be ruled by. He had allowed it in himself for far too long. He would not instil such a thing in his son.
    “It’s a two man job if you ask me. Grab your beach towel once we’re in there and we’ll try to corner it or force it out the door. Come on! It’s only a wee bird - it can do us no harm.”
    “I don’t like them.”
    “I’m not asking you to like them. I just want you to help me chase it out the house.”
    “Can we not just wait till it flies out by itself?”
    “Now come on! That’s not the way I’ve been showing you, is it? You need to make things happen, not just wait and hope for the best. Be brave, my wee Scottish soldier, and help me out here, will you? Do it for your old dad, eh?”
    “Aye, all right,” he responded, knowing that there could be no other choice. He would face the ordeal, this ultimate terror, which paled the threat of Mr. Murdoch into a puppy dog to be stroked. And as for those kelpies, they could go hang themselves - only reality would save the day.
    Still the best day - by a long, long, stretch, in the company of the perfect man.



Chapter 1
    Joey from Thailand was a sight to behold! With his well developed muscles and chocolate coloured skin that was elaborately inked with an array of tattoos, this exotic young creature made for an arresting spectacle. His remarkable torso was proudly bared above immodest white trunks that looked like they’d been sprayed on him - his only item of clothing other than a pair of tennis shoes. There were platinum rings piercing his nipples and ferocious looking shark’s teeth hanging round his neck, a chunky Rolex adorning his left wrist and an impossibly large diamond sparkling in his right ear - all of which were fake just like the colour of his hair. Joey sported a blood red Mohican that added three inches to his height, which at five foot eight was fairly tall for his type, but not quite as tall as Joey would like as he was the sort of young lad who preferred to stand out in a crowd. Sadly for Joey he was on his own at this moment – a state which he wasn’t particularly fond of. This dazzling figure was hovering at the doorway of a function room in Sydney’s Park Hyatt Hotel, supposedly greeting all the guests as they arrived, but actually waiting for one in particular.
    Lewis saw him from a distance and came to a halt. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, wondering yet again why the hell he was here. It was an insane decision – another in a long line of idiotic moves on his part, and not one that he really wanted to go through with. Yet still he’d turned up in spite of all the advice not to – pig-headed stubbornness and a fickle trick of fate conspiring to bring him when he should have stayed away.
    Eyes re-opened and Lewis sighed out the breath. People had spotted him but Joey wasn’t one of them – the Thai being pre-occupied by the poor state of his fingernails which he was inspecting with thoughts to a manicure. The option was there to turn and walk away, but the mulishness in Lewis refused to retreat, and with a shake of his head he boldly stepped forward to the flamboyance that was there.
    Alerted by a presence, Joey looked up. A cheesy smile leapt onto his face as he registered the man approaching. Wandering eyes took Lewis in, and liking what they saw made a blatant suggestion. It was politely declined with what looked like a grimace. Poor Joey was devastated for all of two seconds, but he hid it well and got on with the task he’d been set.
    “Mr. Macleod, you are most welcome. Please, come,” bid Joey with a wave of his hand, inviting the new arrival to enter. The door was opened and the scantily-dressed Thai escorted Lewis inside.
    They were hit by a wealth of humanity confined. The room was busy with several hundred people – conversation and laughter filled the artificially cooled air. Then with a ripple of