Page 39 of The Trip of a Lifetime

In the morning Nellie woke them with steaming mugs of coffee and bacon sandwiches. Of course. And then Noah arrived and he filmed them at work. Nellie had blow-dried her hair and had a full face of make-up. She spent a lot of time making sure she was in camera shot which meant she wasn’t really giving Erin and Martha full instructions, or even bothering about what they were doing. Consequently, the two women spent a lovely couple of hours feeding and playing with the pigs.

It was only when Louise arrived that they really got to work. She had them mucking out the pigpens and carting feed from the back of her truck into the barn. Erin didn’t mind at all. She loved the pigs and being outside and not racing was a nice change from their usual routine. It also meant she could stretch out her back after being curled up on a floor all night.

When they were done, they met Nellie in the kitchen of the farmhouse after Louise said her goodbyes and left for the restaurant.

‘I called my boyfriend and he said he and his friend, Blue, would be happy to get you both to Canora today,’ Nellie said.

‘Really?’ said Erin. ‘That is so generous.’

‘If you can cover their gas, Ray said they’d do it.’

‘We’d be more than happy to,’ Martha said. ‘Wow, the kindness of the people we’ve met in your country is staggering.’

‘They drive fast. Are you okay with that?’

‘When you say “they”, what do you mean?’ Erin asked. ‘Are they both driving?’

‘Well, they’d have to. You can’t both get on the back of Ray’s bike,’ Nellie said and laughed.

‘Motorbikes?’ Martha said. ‘You mean motorbikes?’

‘Yeah, sorry, didn’t I say?’

Noah snorted with laughter.

‘I guess I’ll be in the producer car, then. But we’ll have to get some footage from behind and then with us overtaking you. It will look great on film. A nice change from all these buses.’

‘I’m fine with that,’ Martha said, and she looked to Erin whose mouth was hanging open.

‘I’m not sure I am.’

‘It’s a free ride – well, almost free other than gas. They’re both good riders. You’ll be fine,’ said Nellie.

Erin realised that the decision had already been made in those few words and her grandmother wasn’t saying anything to the contrary. Nellie left the room and Erin turned on Martha.

‘We’re going to get on the back of bikes?’

‘Sure, why not. It’ll be fun.’

‘Nana, you’re seventy.’

‘And…? You seem to be the one who’s not sure. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never been on a motorbike before.’

Erin felt sulky. If she were still with Hamish she’d have loved to have sent him a photo of her on a bike. He’d never believe it of her. How adventurous. But she wasn’t with Hamish and she couldn’t send a photo regardless, not without her phone. Then her thoughts turned to Sam. Would he be impressed she was on the back of a bike? She shook her head. She shouldn’t need validation from a man.

‘Let’s get ready then,’ she said.

* * *

The bikes were big and the men were even bigger. Erin gulped when they pulled up outside the farmhouse, the words ‘Hell’s Angels’ ringing in her head. Ray and his friend looked like twins in their leather jackets and wild beards but when they took off their helmets to greet them, they seemed a little less scary. They were polite and friendly. They offered up helmets to the women and told them there were mics set up inside so they could talk to each other. There was plenty of room, Erin was pleased to see. She didn’t fancy being pushed up against a complete stranger.

‘This is where it gets cosy, honey,’ Blue said to Erin. ‘You can hold onto the bars there or you can just hold onto me.’

He laughed as Erin chose the bars and then they were ready to go. Martha grinned at her from the back of Ray’s bike and then asked Nellie to take a photo of them with their camera.

‘This will be one for the album,’ Martha said as Nellie took it, although there was plenty of footage from Noah as he swung around the bikes with his own camera.

It took Erin a little while to get used to the bike and Blue kept reassuring her with his words coming through the speaker in the helmet. He drove carefully in convoy behind Ray, and with Cally and Noah in the producer car behind them. After a while Ray began to speed up and Blue matched his pace.