Jason Jones in: A Gas Station

Jason Jones pulled off the road with a sigh of relief. He'd been driving for hours, and whoever owned the van he'd stolen hadn't filled up in a while. Pulling into gas station, Jason swiped the credit card he'd stolen from the Quebec punks and inserted the pump into the tank. Then he heard a voice from behind him: "Aren't you a little young to be driving?"

Jason spun about, raising his fists; then lowering them as he saw the old man inside the doorway of the concessions shack, raising his hands in the air. "Quick to fight, aren't you?" the man commented. "Don't worry, I'm not going to call the Mounties down on you. Here, why don't you come inside, and we can talk while your tank fills."

With some hesitation, Jason locked the van and walked inside the building. Along with the usual paraphernalia, the old man had set up a large brown recliner near the heater, which he sat as Jason entered. Beside him was a large bird cage, holding a blue bird with red feathers along the edges of its wings - a parrot, perhaps, Jason thought. The old man offered Jason a folding chair, but Jason remained standing. The old man sighed. "How long have you been driving?"

Jason replied, "Six hours," omitting half an hour from the tally, to disguise his origin. The old man nodded. "All right. If you haven't hit anyone in that time, you'll probably do all right from here. Another thing. Have you gotten into any fights on the drive?"

Jason hesitated, then nodded, "Yes." The blue-feathered bird was looking at him with its head cocked sideways.

The old man frowned. "You need to be careful, young man. I recognized that look in your eyes, when you heard me outside. You've got a blood lust - a hunger for fighting. And that's going to get you in trouble, if you don't learn to control it."

Jason, feeling rather awkward, agreed "All right," and went outside to check on the van. The tank was full. Jason withdrew the hose, got in the van and started the engine. From the concessions building, the old man shouted to him, "If you don't change... you're going to die alone, far from your home, entirely due to your own choices."

Jason accelerated away from the station, heading southward. In the side mirrors, he thought he saw the blue bird, a speck of distant color, rising into the sunset.