A sign, attached to the base of the petrol bowser, said a live band and female strippers were performing at, The High Pub, to celebrate New Year's Eve. The act had travelled from Cairns and appeared for, One Night Only!

Cody chuckled at how good his timing was. It'd been weeks since he had been in town and that, One Night Only, just happened to be tonight. He was in high spirits. It'd be a good way to celebrate his new life and year in one hit.

He hadn't had a nightmare for over a week. Girls had been on his mind since visiting Snakes Bar.

If his luck held, he wouldn't have to take care of himself. It'd be nice to have a girl to do that. Cody thought about how long it'd been. A year and a half, maybe more, since he had been with a woman.

There had been a time when all he did was fuck. It took away the pain for a while, but the high was short-lived and the urge left him. The want had come back and tonight maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to satisfy the strong urges he'd felt.

Cody filled the truck with diesel and put the pump back on the bowser. The bell above the door clanged as he opened it.

A pimpled-faced, underweight youth, looked at him and nodded. "That's sixty-five bucks."

"I'll have a paper too," Cody said as he lifted one from the pile. He nudged his head toward the door and said, "There's a sign on the pump saying there's a live band playing at a place called, The High Pub. Where's that?"

The kid grinned and jiggled his head like an excited puppy. "Up the road on the corner of Walker Street. I'm going. Want to see the titty girls. Should be good."

"Aren't you a little young?"

"Fuck! What planet are you from, man? Anything like that comes to town, every male in the place, no matter how old he is, will follow the scent." The kid winked. "Just cause I'm not old enough to get in the door, don't mean I haven't got a hidey hole I can watch from."

Cody smirked. "So, you're telling me, if I go, the place will be packed with men. No women?"

"Nah... there'll be women alright. I'm planning to get Lucy Johns in the back seat of me father's car."

A surge of laughter ripped through Cody's chest, as he handed over the money. He shook his head in disbelief. This runt of a kid thought he'd score with some girl. "She's your girlfriend, is she?"

"Not yet!" The kid grinned as he exchanged the money. "I'm working on it. If it don't work out with her, there's others that I got me eye on."

"Any girls my age, gonna be at this pub?" Cody chuckled and cocked his head as he took his change.

"Yeah, heaps of old chicks will be there."

As Cody climbed into his truck he thought about the old chicks. The kid must have thought he was ancient at twenty-four. He reflected on when he was sixteen. He remembered a guy who had been killed in a car accident, aged twenty-eight. Cody had shrugged, thinking the guy had lived a fair life. Now, he was four years off and didn't consider himself anywhere near old.

He headed to the supermarket to buy some supplies. When he'd moved into the shack, he was told he could be flooded in for three months, so he was building his stores.

Cody purchased a bag of chicken feed and a large bag of dog biscuits from the stock suppliers. As he drove down the street, he thought about the girl Fin and wondered if her old man would be at The High Pub, watching the band and strippers.

The hotel was a typical old Australian pub, which had been renovated. It was painted off-white and missionary brown, with iron lace work. The place was packed when Cody entered, the band warmed up in the beer garden. He made his way to the bar to get himself a drink. There were plenty of women. Old chicks were on the menu tonight. Cody figured the average age would have been around thirty. He didn't care how old they were, because the way he felt, he'd take any offer.

The kid had been right. Men of every age range were there. Cody took a mouthful of his beer, grinned to himself, and wondered how many of them thought like him about picking up a woman. Most of the men looked like they hadn't seen the inside of a shower cubicle, or a razor, for months. Cody figured his chances were better than most.

The problem was, that he wasn't good at approaching women. His brother was the player. Cody had stood back and waited for the surplus to look his way.

He found a stool in the back and watched the band play. Utopia was painted on the outside skin of the bass drum. The group consisted of a drummer, lead guitarist, bass player and, keyboard. The lead guitarist was also the main singer, but the drummer sang a few songs too. Cody thought the percussionist had the better voice. They were good and sang a lot of pop and hard rock. The small dance floor was jammed with half-drunken revellers pumping to the beat of the music.

By nine o'clock the place was rocking. A fight was in full swing outside on the footpath. A police wagon pulled up and hauled the brawlers away.

When the strippers came on at ten-thirty, the room shrank. Cody stood on his stool and cooeed with everyone else. The strippers took their clothes off to the lyrics of, "Hey Big Spender". One girl was bleached blonde. The other had dyed pitch-black hair. Cody thought, their name, Ebony and Ivory, was the reason for the hair colour. Both had great figures and big tits. Cody was amazed by what they could do with those breasts. They swung in different directions in perfect time.

By the end of their dance, they were both naked and touched each other in ways that shouldn't be done in public. Cody was so hard he thought it might not have been a good idea to have come here after all. No woman had been anywhere near him, though there had been a few who'd checked him out. He jumped off his stool and went out to the men's, but found it hard to piss while he was aroused.

After he bought another beer, Cody headed to his spot against the wall to find a tall redhead sitting on his seat. She got off when he came closer.

"I was minding it for you." She beamed. Cody noticed she had a wide gap between her large teeth.

"You can sit on it. I don't mind." He raised his beer at her. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"Thanks, that'd be nice. Scotch and Coke; you want me to hold your beer?"

Cody gave her the bottle and made his way to the bar. If she was offering, he wasn't going to say no.

By the time Cody got back, two other girls stood with the redhead. They were both blonde. One was on the chubby side. She had a pretty face. The other was thin and freckled. He nodded a greeting as he handed the redhead her drink. She grinned again, Cody wished she hadn't, the gap in her teeth made her look freakish.

"Thanks!" she yelled over the music. "I'm Grace by the way. These are my friends Mandy and Aliza! I hope you don't mind that we've taken over your spot."

Cody nodded in answer because he couldn't hear very well. The pretty blonde tapped his shoulder. He bent to listen.

"I'm Mandy, in case you didn't catch that. The redhead is Grace and the other one is Aliza. What's your name?"

"Cody."

Mandy nodded, looked at her friends and yelled, "His name's Cory!"

"No." Cody shook his head. Cory was someone else. He shouted over the music, "Cody! With a D, not an R!"

"Right, Cody." Aliza nodded and grinned. She hollered, "Do you work on one of the stations around here?"

Cody shook his head again. He took a mouthful of his drink and thought how weird this was. He hadn't had a taker all night and now three women were talking to him. A perverted flash ran through his mind. He wondered if they were into group sex and if so, could he manage the three of them. He grinned at the thought then took another swig as he studied each one.

His first preference was the pretty chubby blonde. Cody preferred women with meat on their bones, rather than rake-thin girls. The redhead was the second choice. Though she had the better body, big teeth weren't his thing. The bony blonde came in last.

He took a chance and leaned down so Mandy could hear him. "Have you just arrived?"

"No. We've been here all night." Her face lit up. "The band's great and the girls were sexy."

"Yeah," Cody smirked. "You want me to buy you a drink?"

"No. I don't drink."

"Oh! Should I offer to buy your friend a drink?"

Mandy laughed. "That's up to you. Are you trying to get us all pissed?"

"No. Just being polite." Cody grinned back at her. She was more than pretty when she smiled.

Mandy came closer and whispered, "I should warn you; Grace has had her eye on you all night. We thought you'd have a girlfriend, but no one showed up so, she thought she'd come and say hello. You should talk to her."

"What if I'd prefer to talk to you?" Cody glanced at the redhead and then focused back on the cute blonde. "Will she get pissed off at you?"

Mandy frowned at him and stressed, "Grace has a great body."

"You're prettier. I prefer women with no sharp edges." Cody tweaked an eyebrow and said, "You didn't answer my question. Will she get angry if I talk to you?"

"Yes. She will."

"That sucks." Cody didn't want any rift between this girl and her friend. "Do you care if she gets annoyed with you?"

"Yes and no."

"What if it was the other way around?" He tilted his head in question. "If it was you who had your eye on me but, I showed an interest in her. Would she care about pissing you off?"

"No, not a bit." Mandy grinned and said, "I'm grateful the music is too loud for Grace to hear what we're talking about."

"Right." Cody tipped his head and said, "So, you're a nice girl and she's not."

Mandy roared with laughter. Her face lit up. Cody thought again, that she was more than just pretty.

"I'm used to being second to Grace. I'm not into competing because I'd lose ninety per cent of the time." She nudged her head in Grace's direction. "You should talk to her. Maybe you'll like her. I'm told she gives good... you know..." Mandy blushed and turned her head away.

Puzzled, Cody studied her.

She whispered, "Gobies."

Cody choked on his beer. It leaked from the sides of his mouth. He chuckled and gave her a comical look.

"Well, you can't tell me you're not thinking about it, after seeing those strippers."

"What about you?" He beamed. "Do you give good... gobies?"

"No. I don't give gob at all."

"That's a shame. Do you, ah... do anything at all?"

Mandy smirked. She stood on tip-toe to whisper in his ear, "I think you should talk to Grace."

"So, that's a no."

"That's a no." She smiled and waved. "Goodbye, Cody. It was nice to meet you." Mandy turned to the others and yelled, "I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow."

Cody looked at the two girls. He couldn't do it. Something in him had changed. What the girl looked like hadn't bothered him in the past, as long as he was getting what he wanted. He held up his hand and said to them. "Nice to meet you." Before either one could say or do anything he took the same door as the blonde. Cody looked right and then left. "Hey! Mandy! Wait up!" He trotted after her.

She turned around; her face filled with shock.

Cody slowed to a walk as he got closer. "Can I walk you home?"

"What about Grace?"

"She's not my type."

"But... what about blow jobs and the other?"

Cody laughed and slipped his hands into his back pockets. "I know she's your friend, and I shouldn't say this, but she scared me. Those big teeth of hers. She might have slipped and bit my, you know what, off."

"Oh! My! God! Are you serious?" Mandy covered her mouth and laughed. "I've never known anyone to turn Grace down."

Cody shrugged and cocked his head. "Maybe if you hadn't talked to me, I could be in the toilets getting the deed done right now. So, you blew it for me."

"I blew it for you! You've got to be kidding me. I can't believe you'd prefer to walk me home over getting it on with Grace or Aliza."

"Yeah... stupid, hey? Because you don't do anything but, you've got a pretty face and you're a nice girl. Maybe nice is more important to me than sex. At least for tonight." Cody cocked his head, grinned and raised his eyebrows. "So, am I walking or driving you home?"

"I just live a couple of streets away. Walking would be nice. Thanks."

"Have you lived here all your life?" Cody asked as they walked. He wasn't great at conversations.

"Yes," Mandy said as she scrunched her face. "I guess that sounds boring." She shrugged and continued, "I don't want to go anywhere. I like it here." She turned to look at Cody and said, "What about you? I know most of the locals and you're not one of them. Where are you from?"

"South." Cody said, "I like it here too."

Mandy laughed. "They ain't much North of here so of course you've got to be from South." She raised her eyebrows and said, "Where South?"

"Just south."

"Oh..." She gave him a curious look. "It's like that is it? Not going to talk about you."

"Not tonight," Cody said with a grin.

Mandy laughed again. "What can we talk about if you're going to be like that?"

"How old are you?"

"Almost twenty," she said and then asked, "You?"

"Twenty-four." He said, "Do you know a girl named Fin?"

"Yeah, I know Fin," Mandy said in a sombre tone. "I went to primary school with her, until her mother died." She paused and then said, "I see her around. She looks weird now." She studied Cody's face and asked, "Do you know her?"

"No. Just saw her once with her father. He hits her. She could use a friend."

"Are you suggesting I should be her friend?"

"Maybe." He shrugged and said, "You're a nice girl. Isn't that what nice girls do?"

"I'm sorry, Cody." A look of panic filled Mandy's face. "I don't want to get involved. I've heard some horror stories about things that have happened to her." She shook her head and gave him a forlorn expression. "It's way out of my league."

Cody rubbed his hand up the back of his head and barred his teeth. "Sorry. I wasn't trying to push that onto you. I was trying to make conversation about stuff that's familiar to both of us. So far, that's all I know anything about."

Mandy smiled and nodded but the euphoria from a moment ago was gone. She changed the subject by asking, "Why did you move here?"

"Privacy," Cody smirked at her. "Maybe it's not so private after all."

"Are you saying I'm nosey?" Mandy huffed in the pretence of being offended, and then continued, "I'm just trying to make conversation. It's a natural question for a person to ask."

"Yeah. Sorry," Cody took a breath and said, "I'd had enough of the city and wanted to give country life a go."

"So why Cooktown? Are you from Cairns?"

"Further south. Cooktown was as quiet as I could get where there were decent facilities."

"That means you're from out of state?"

"Now you're being nosey," Cody chuckled.

Mandy laughed as she agreed. "I think you're from Melbourne and you've run away from a possessive girlfriend who gives bad head and has left you with a fear of teeth."

Cody laughed some more. He liked this girl and wondered if she had a boyfriend. He didn't ask.

"This is my house," Mandy said stopping in front of a low-set Queenslander that looked like it could use some repairs. "Thanks for walking me home."

"No worries."

"What will you do now?" she asked as she lifted the latch on the gate.

Cody shrugged and looked back the way they had come. "Maybe I'll head back and take another look at your friend. Maybe I'll go home."

"It was nice to meet you, Cody." Mandy smiled at him. "We might see each other again one day."

"Maybe." Cody hiked his shoulders and grinned. "It's a small place."

She raised her hand in farewell and then stepped through the gate.

Cody pushed his hands in his pockets as he watched her go inside. He headed back towards, The High Pub, wondering what to do.

He thought about Mandy's two friends. Their images didn't get any reaction from his body. The girl Fin flashed through his mind. He shouldn't have mentioned her to Mandy, but he hadn't known what else to talk about.

As he walked, the memory of the girl being hit by her father wouldn't disappear. A sudden urgent need to check on her, hammered in his head as if the thought of her had awakened some ancient male warrior instinct. He couldn't understand this, because he hadn't yet seen her face.

On automatic Cody climbed into his truck and drove to Snakes.  

A more light-hearted chapter. I hope you enjoyed. xo