Page 49 of The Trip of a Lifetime

ERIN

They sat on the side of the road outside the service station for over half an hour before Erin began to worry no one was coming back for them. She hadn’t got her coat and the warmth from the bus had long gone, leaving her core becoming chilly. She wrapped her arms around herself, drew her cardigan closer.

To start with, every time she could see headlights in the distance, she jumped up in anticipation of the bus pulling up, but after the first thirty minutes slipped closer to an hour she stopped. There wasn’t much traffic anyway, it was the middle of the night.

They established they had no money, no food and no way of contacting anyone.

‘We could go into the service station and use their phone,’ Erin had suggested quickly but Sam had just shaken his head.

‘Who are you going to call?’ he asked.

‘Ghostbusters?’ Erin had said with a smile because this had been only two minutes into her ordeal. Now, fifty-nine minutes in, she had no stomach for humour. They had agreed they couldn’t call the police because it was hardly an emergency. They talked about a taxi with the promise to pay when they’d caught up with the others in Winnipeg but what if the bus had turned around? They would be in a very difficult position in Winnipeg with no money.

‘We should have been given emergency numbers,’ Sam had said crossly and he kicked a stone with the tip of his trainer which skittered across the dusty car park.

‘We both had trackers, though. They’re designed to know where we are at all times and with the ability for us to be able to contact the production team in an emergency,’ Erin said.

‘Shame both of our partners felt the need to control everything.’

‘Martha was about to relinquish that control but she got ill and forgot. God, I hope she’s okay.’

‘Harrison will look after her,’ Sam said as if there were no question about it.

‘She hates him, though.’

‘Well, she might just have to get over it.’ He let his stare stay on Erin for a moment.

‘Men,’ she muttered.

And then there was nothing between them for a few minutes and absolutely no vehicles went past in either direction.

‘Surely Noah will realise and maybe send the car back for us if the bus can’t turn around,’ Erin said and stood up. It was uncomfortable on the ground with her knees drawn up to her chin.

‘Yeah, but he can’t because before I came back for you, he was getting in the car with your producer.’

‘Well, your guy then. What’s his name?’

‘Gaz, but I don’t hold out a lot of hope for him. He wasn’t feeling well either and had been nodding off a lot during the journey.’

‘So, what you’re saying is, if Martha or Harrison or Gaz don’t wake up until Winnipeg, we’re stuffed?’

Erin started pacing then, back and forth in front of Sam, her heart rate rising with every stride until he got up and took hold of her arm.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘We will work out what to do.’

She shivered then and he offered her his jumper but when he took it off she could see he only had a T-shirt underneath and she wasn’t about to let him freeze to death.

‘I’m fine,’ she said but he ignored her and placed the jumper around her shoulders. She let it sit there for just a moment, taking in the warmth, the smell of him on the fabric and then reluctantly handed it back, buttoning up her cardigan. ‘I am grateful and thank you, but honestly, I’m okay.’

And that was when an old man in a small truck pulled in for fuel. While he was filling up, Sam walked over to him. Erin watched them talking but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. Sam almost skipped back to her, his eyes alight with something that Erin hoped was a resolution to their problem.

‘Chuck has offered to take us to Winnipeg with him. He says he’s going anyway; he’s going home and would be happy to help us out. How amazing is that?’

‘But we’d have to commit to not staying here and waiting, though,’ Erin said. ‘What happens if they turn around and come back for us?’

‘I don’t think that’s going to happen. We can hopefully catch them up. His truck looks like it would go faster than that shitty old bus.’

‘Okay,’ Erin said slowly, not completely convinced it was the right thing to do.