It was a good drive home. I was free again. We made sure we had plenty of weed. Misty’s dad gave us a giant nuggy of some stuff he had grown, it reeked the car out man. We cranked the beats and drove with the wind. We didn't stop much and I remember almost falling asleep behind the wheel several times.

 

It felt great getting into Queenstown, the familiar mountains, the rivers, and the lake. I looked forward to seeing some old friends. Would it be like old times? We lived at my parents until we found a job. We both found work at Pizza Hutt. It wasn’t ideal but at least we were getting paid. Mum helped with the bond on a flat and we moved in with Karina and Kylie, my old mates. Misty left Pizza Hutt and found a job at a camera shop called “Happy Snappa”, she called herself a happy slappa. She was happy there. One day we were sitting by a lake surrounded by fields, and I tell her I want to live on a farm with her one day. She liked the sound of that.

I moved around a few jobs, going with the breeze. We found a luge from Skyline at the bottom of Fernhill. My mate had told me about it, how he had stolen it with friends and stashed it there. I couldn’t believe my luck! We would race it down Queenstown Hill and Coronet Peak. It was freaking awesome. You have to have two though for a real race. Misty developed this cough, and it started driving the whole flat mental. I had had enough with her. I wanted to be alone for a bit. I thought I could do better. I asked her to leave and she went mental. I told her it was over and she wouldn’t believe me. It took a bit of encouraging to get her to leave. One night I’m asleep in bed and she comes through the door and gets on top of me. She starts slapping me in the head. I strike her back not knowing who it is, and once I realize its her I settle things down. I get her to leave eventually and think no more of it.

 

I landed a job at Shipleys Audiovisual. Working with mixers, lights, PA’s, it was my cup of tea. The hours were crap. Working all day then late into the evening, sometimes the early morning, and I was on minimum wage. I’m pretty sure I was getting ripped off. Still I enjoyed it though. The boss was sweet. It was just me and him, setting up gigs, ometimes with a helping hand. We had a couple of sessions during work hours, just when things were cruisy as. I was “living the dream”. I got to go to some gigs for free, as we were supplying gear. I think I could do this. 
 

I was now living with a couple of Maori fellows, Ronni and Harni. They were good dudes, both liked to jam and played in the Kapa Haka. They often brought back Paua from their diving adventures. They'd mince it up and cook up a big feed. On the weekends we’d take the dirt bike out for a spin. Girls came and went since Misty, no one too serious. I had a couple good friends called Matt and JP. They were from Invercargill, and were a couple of yarners. They shit they talked about, the stories they had. I wanted to be more like these guys.
 

I met JP at my job as a food delivery driver. I started selling him a bit of weed and we got to know each other a bit more. These two fellas became the boys. They were a bit much at times, always getting into scraps. Both were big and loud. One New Years we had a party. Everyone was well and truly pissed and one of the boys came up with the idea to try and flip an old car parked outside the house. Five of us lined her up and up she went, right onto her side. We jumped up on the car and took a photo. It was a riot. The cops showed up and took our statement. We weren’t arrested. They owner didn’t even want reparation, he just wanted it gone.
 

Shipleys went through new management and I was cut in the process. It was going too cooperate and they wanted the old cowboys gone. No dramas there's other fish to fry.

 

Misty moved in next door to the boys, and started associating with the them. I found it rather annoying at first. I didn’t really want her hanging around. Eventually I succumbed to my desires, and we started sleeping together. It was very casual. I didn’t want to be in a relationship with her and the sex was good. She started seeing a guy called Ian. Things were rather awkward. It made me want her more. I wanted her but I didn’t want her. I needed to sort out my shit. It was breaking me apart. One evening I was on the piss, out with two girls heading into a club. As I get to the door I hear my name and turn around, it’s Misty with Ian. She smacks me in the side of the head and storms off. I’m stunned, things aren’t good. I head into the bar and have a good time, drinks and dancing. The bar closes and I head on my own way home. While walking Misty calls me and says Ian has hit and kicked her, she is crying and not sounding to good. I’m furious. I make my way back to the boys, where she said she was, and I storm in mad drunk pissed off. I tell them I’m going to go see Ian and sort it out. Misty tells me he has a knife. I see a baseball bat in the corner, and thinking that a bat should beat a knife, I grab it and storm off running to Ian’s.
 

It was a good kilometre or two away. When I get there he’s standing in the doorway of his cabin. I hit him with the bat and it strikes the back of his head as he tries to dodge it. I throw the bat away thinking I’ve got him stunned, and proceed to throw blows. I get him by the chin with my left hand and punch him with my right. I yell, “You don’t fucking hit girls”, over and over. I think I've got the upper hand, I am the bigger guy and im smashing into his face. He bites my finger and locks on. It hurts like hell and he puts me off balance. He pushes me onto the bed and gets on top of me. What i dont know is that under the pillow is the knife. He pulls it out and is still biting my finger and starts to stab me. I took two punctures to the arm trying to block the attacks, and four to the guts. I didn’t feel anything. I was full of alcohol and adrenaline. I searched for an escape and an idea popped into my head. I quickly poked him in the eyes with two fingers. He jumped off me real quick, it really stunned him. I decided not to hang around much longer and ran out the door. He chased me with the bat and I turn around and say to him stone cold, “Mate you’re going to fucking kill me”. He froze and did nothing, so I walked off bleeding from my wounds.
 

I wanted to head back to the boys and check in with everyone. So I walked. I tried to wave down a taxi to take me there, I said I had been stabbed. He said he’d only take me straight to hospital. I asked him to take me to my mates but he refused, so I walked. When I get there I walk in and say, “Boys, I’ve been stabbed”. I pull up my shirt and their faces drop. They went from chilling and watching movies to this! Matt calls the ambulance and I start getting sleepy. They give me water and I sit trying to stay alert. The ambulance rushes me to Frankton Hospital. They ask if there's someone they can call and I say no. Matt talks some sense into into me and they call my parents. I have to be air lifted to Invercargill and operated on there. It was a scary flight at that time of the morning and there was a lot of turblance. I had damage to my liver, lungs, pancreas, spleen, bowels, and intestine. One more centimetre into my pancreas and it would have hit the main artery and I would have died on the walk home. The doctor said I had won lotto to be alive. Part of me wanted to be dead.
 

So the boys put a new tyre on my car and came down to see me. They took me out for a smoke. I took one puff and coughed my ass off. It hurt like hell. My lung had been punctured, I shouldn’t be smoking. I passed on the rest. It was good to see them. It was hard to walk and I was shitting blood. They gave me morphine on a drip that I could administer every five minutes. It was good for a bit then I started having the most lucid dreams. I thought I was a flying submarine shooting missiles down on Queenstown. Eventually it made me feel sick, so I went off it. I stayed a week and checked out. It took a little while to recover. I moved back in with the parents, it wasn’t bad there. Me and Misty don’t see each other, too much drama. Time passes and things go pretty normal . I start having a feeling of moving out of Queenstown. Try to change things up. I get ahold of Lee and Sarah, and ask if I can come stay with them in Wellington. So off I go, to the big windy city.
 

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