Page 76 of The Trip of a Lifetime

‘Ralph, can I push my luck and ask where we can get a taxi around here?’ Martha asked him.

He rolled his eyes good-naturedly and took his personal phone from his pocket.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Two ladies to the Green Gables museum. The bus station, Mount Edward Road. As soon as you can.’

After many thanks from both Martha and Erin they were back out onto the street. They had been ten minutes with Ralph but they both agreed it had been ten minutes well spent. Then after only five minutes more, the taxi appeared on the kerb beside them and they learned it would cost a $120 to get them to the checkpoint.

‘I hope we can afford it,’ Erin said.

‘I hope so too, or we’ll be finding more cleaning jobs to get us off this island,’ said Martha.

‘As long as I don’t have to decapitate any more sea creatures, then I don’t care,’ Erin said. ‘I will have nightmares about that.’

She settled on the back seat next to Noah. ‘After racing hard for days and all the uncomfortable buses we’ve been on and our one-hour head start, we’re still going to be last, aren’t we?’

‘Couldn’t possibly say.’

Try, she wanted to tell him. Just let me know if Sam is there. In some mad way she hoped he’d win. It’s what you would want for friends and loved ones, wasn’t it? Martha was happily chatting away to the driver, about the race, about their Canadian experiences, and about how Anne of Green Gables was her daughter’s favourite book.

Erin sighed inwardly. This was going to be emotional for Martha, of course it would be. She felt so much better for talking so honestly to her grandmother. It had seemed like an experiment to open an emotional wound, one Erin had tried so hard to keep closed. But open it she had and she had survived. More importantly, her relationship with her nana hadn’t been affected as she worried it might be. She should have trusted more in that bond they shared. Martha had basically told her it was unshakable and Erin decided to believe her.

33

MARTHA

The museum was in the north of the island, just a short way from the sea. It was in a pretty building straight from the cover of an Anne of Green Gables edition, unsurprisingly. White-painted boards, dark-green and ornate trim on the edges of the high-pitched roof, and a porch where you could imagine the fictitious character of Anne or the author herself sitting. Someone had gone to the trouble of filling the window boxes with startlingly pink blooms and the whole look was utterly charming. It made me feel instantly nostalgic for a time and place I didn’t know except from the pages of a book my daughter loved.

For the first time on this trip I opened the door without any sort of excitement about the possibility we might be first. That just couldn’t be, unless Femi and Liz had broken down or taken a silly detour. What I hadn’t expected was to be second from last, although why not? Harrison and Sam had somehow managed to be first by a good three hours. How? We had hauled our backsides all the way from Niagara to here and they had found a way to be quicker. Femi and Liz were next, twenty minutes ago, but there was no sign of Priya and Tara.

‘God,’ I said. ‘No matter how hard we race it still all seems to come down to luck, somehow.’

‘It was worth that ten minutes with Ralph for the information we’ve gathered,’ Erin said as we walked back outside to find out what was happening next. I was desperate for a cold drink and to know there was a comfortable bed waiting somewhere. I could only hope our information would buy us back that lost hour advantage on the final leg, somehow.

We found Harrison and Sam sitting on a bench in the pretty gardens. The whole setting was so enchanting, and to see those two sitting among it was both heartening and also a little comical.

‘All this from a book?’ Harrison asked.

‘From an author,’ I said. ‘She grew up on this island and her aunt and uncle built this place. She used to visit.’

‘How do you know this stuff?’ Sam asked. ‘I never retain information like that. Are you a big fan of her books?’

‘My daughter was,’ I said, which made all three of them look a little wary. ‘It’s just a book.’

I tried to lighten the mood. It wasn’t really the time for another trip down the pathway of my memory, but I had a sudden yearning for a reread of the book. I didn’t think our budget could stretch to such an indulgent extra though, so I vowed to get a copy when I was back home.

‘How did you manage a three-hour lead?’ Erin asked them. ‘We thought we’d been pretty quick.’

‘We got a lift from a trucker who was driving through the night and offered to take us, so we gained a few hours but then lost a few waiting for a bus. It wasn’t a great night in the truck. Gaz was livid. How’s your budget holding up?’ Sam asked.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Don’t answer that, Erin. We’re still in a race. Don’t tell them anything.’

‘We just told you about our trip,’ Sam said.

‘More fool you, then,’ I said with a smile, and Harrison laughed.

‘And she’s back!’ he said. ‘I thought you’d lost your competitive spirit there for a moment.’

‘Not a chance,’ I said. ‘I could murder for a glass of wine.’