Page 61 of The Trip of a Lifetime

‘Well, it started with me getting stuck in the loo,’ she said and then relayed the events of the entire night, omitting the near kiss in the truck and then the actual kiss outside the bus station. She felt sneaky not telling her nana everything; she usually did.

Martha was the first to know that Erin had started her period, the first to know that she was in love with Damien Greenwell who broke her heart over Briony Evans and a snog after PE, the first to know her A-level results and her admittance to her first choice of uni. All of Erin’s trials and tribulations were something she shared with her grandmother and most recently it was about how Hamish had dumped her. Her nana would console, cajole and be the absolute best at perking her up or being the voice of reason.

But when Erin thought about telling Martha about Sam, the words died on the lips that had just been kissed. The idea she might confide that it was the best kiss of her life and that she was probably half in love with him was redundant. Martha held a fifty-year-old-grudge against Harrison. How could she consider what might come next with his great-nephew? She played out the conversation in her head and knew Martha would warn her off, tell her he was just like his great-uncle and probably making a tactical move to forward his chances in the race.

No, Erin would just have to keep zipped up about it and see what happened at the end of the race.

Piece-to-camera

Cally: Well, Erin, you’ve had quite the side adventure. We’re just sorry we didn’t catch it on camera. Seriously, though. You did really well under the circumstances and working brilliantly with Sam, too. We’re all glad you’re both back and ready to race again. But tell us, what was it like to spend a whole night with Sam?

Erin: Er, well, he was very kind and really good at, um, making sure we were safe.

Cally: That’s brilliant. And Martha, how was it for you?

Martha: I beg your pardon?

Cally: You know, the worry of wondering what had happened to your granddaughter. I’ll bet you couldn’t concentrate on anything else at all.

Martha: Oh, yes, of course. Quite. Yes, exactly that.

‘Cut. Ladies, you’re not giving me much. What’s up with you both? Lost your race spirit?’ Cally said and Noah slunk off with his camera.

‘Just a bit tired,’ Erin and Martha said, almost at exactly the same time, and Cally raised both of her eyebrows before she left the room.

27

MARTHA

We had agreed that while we didn’t consider what we’d done to be a mistake, it would be best to put it to one side so we could carry on with the race.

Harrison had shaken my hand on the threshold of my room before he left, declaring that he agreed wholeheartedly.

‘We should pretend it never happened,’ he said and then leaned in to kiss my cheek and lingered so long I thought I might just follow him back to his room.

Pretend it never happened, I thought, as we left the hotel the following morning to get the next bus out of Winnipeg.

The producers all decided that as we would have arrived at almost the same time we could all leave together too. It was a reminder to me that it was anyone’s race at this point. We were all rested and ready to go and the only thing that might separate us would be how much cash we had. Less than half for us, so we would need to be as thrifty as possible. Right now, I had to stop staring at Harrison and get a grip.

Erin came back from the ticket office to tell me our options were limited.

‘There’s a bus from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay leaving at one thirty this afternoon which would get us there at eleven twenty tonight. Then a bus leaves almost straight away at twelve thirty and gets us as far as Sault Ste. Marie,’ she said.

I opened out the map to see where these places were. ‘There,’ I said, following the road all the way around Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie. ‘That’s a fair chunk of Canada behind us when we get there. Also, there’s bound to be an easy bus to Toronto and on to the falls.’

‘You make it sound as if we’re there already but we’ve got eighteen hours’ travel to get through.’

The thought of another night bus was making me feel queasy.

‘Our only other choice is to try for a lift share or try and get another haul back,’ I said.

We decided to try those options first as we had to wait until one thirty for the bus anyway. Very quickly we ruled out the haul back as there wasn’t anything available in the hire place, although the assistant did try her best to talk us into a rental. Our budget just wouldn’t stretch to an RV, though. We looked at the cost of hiring a car but there wasn’t a drop-off place near where we needed to be and would have involved a costly taxi to get us back on track. Then we spent three hours in a service station car park trying for a lift which proved to be just as fruitless.

‘We’ve lost our touch,’ Erin said.

It made me think about Harrison and yesterday. Is that what happens if you sleep with someone; you lose your competitive edge? It was as this thought went through my head that I saw both Harrison and Sam getting into the back of a car.

‘They got a lift,’ Erin said and she looked so alarmed I threw my arm around her shoulders.