James William Hedger

April 1, 2026 AD

Episode 006: Idling

A forty-five-year-old man is sitting in the cab of a firewood delivery truck, parked in a lay-by on an empty road in rural Tasmania. His clothes are soaked through. The heater's dead. The windows are fogged solid. His last delivery just got cancelled by text message. He has nowhere to be and no reason to move. In his shirt pocket there's half a joint his mate gave him earlier. It's still dry. He lights it. And inside that fogged cab, sealed off from the world by a storm that doesn't care who he is or what he's done, Jim Hedger stops pretending that the morning didn't leave a mark. That's the moment.

July 30, 2018 AD

Firewood, Spiders, and Flirtation

Gladys Cramer waits at the Owen property for a routine firewood delivery, armed with only a bottle of Shiraz and mounting frustration. When a huntsman spider invades her sanctuary, terror meets comedy. Then Jim Hedger arrives—rough-edged, dependable, unexpectedly charming. What begins as a transaction becomes something else entirely: awkward attraction, a stolen kiss, and a moment of connection shattered by unfortunate timing and a visitor who changes everything.

July 30, 2018 AD

Fog and Frequency

Corey's text kills the last delivery and the storm kills the road. Parked in a lay-by with the windows fogging shut and the world reduced to rain, Jim finds the half-joint Adrian gave him still dry against his chest. The weed changes the sound of the storm. The wet clothes change the feel of his skin. And the morning — the driveway, the woman, the taste he can't unfeel — changes everything else.

July 30, 2018 AD

Forty Mils

The sky's been making threats all morning and now it's delivering. Jim pushes south toward Glenfern with a full load and a closing window. By the time he reaches the Proctors, the rain's already won. A quick dump, a soaking, and a thermos of tea from a man who knows better than to waste words on weather. The road back is a river. The lay-by is waiting.

July 30, 2018 AD

Idling

The storm seals the cab shut and Corey's text kills the last delivery. Nowhere to be. Jim lights Adrian's joint and lets the rain and the weed do what they do — loosen the cold, soften the morning, bring Gladys back as taste and touch and breath. Parked up on an empty road with the windows fogged and the world gone, Jim stops pretending the morning didn't leave a mark.

July 30, 2018 AD

Knots in the Grain

James Hedger has been delivering firewood across Collinsvale for decades. He knows every driveway, every client, every bend in the road. But a Monday morning drop-off to a property that doesn't feel right — and a woman who feels like even less of it — is about to put a crack in the steadiest man in the valley. Some loads are heavier than timber.

July 30, 2018 AD

Sawdust and Radar

The morning at the Owens' place is still sitting in Jim's chest when he pulls back into the yard. The blue gum needs splitting. The truck needs loading. The sky needs watching. Between the rhythm of the work and the drive south to Glenfern, something should settle — the way it always settles, the way physical labour has always been enough to bury whatever's underneath. Today, it isn't.

July 30, 2018 AD

Split and Loaded

Back at the yard, the truck needs reloading and the sky's turning ugly. Corey Bassett is at the splitter with his true crime podcasts and his opinions, and he can tell something's off with Jim before Jim's ready to admit it. Between the blue gum and the stringybark, the shit-talk and the silence, the morning settles into muscle and sawdust — but it won't stay buried. And the weather's not going to wait.

The Driveways He Knows

Jim Hedger can tell you the age of a tree from the sound the axe makes. He can read a driveway the way other men read faces. He married his wife at twenty-two, buried his father without ceremony, and has spent three decades arriving on time and leaving without lingering. He's the man everyone in Collinsvale relies on and nobody truly knows. That's been fine — until the morning the hills he grew up in started keeping secrets bigger than his own.