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2.
THE END OF MAYcame around quickly. Gabi wished she hadn’t bought a suitcase from the local charity shop when it suddenly developed a dodgy wheel halfway home. Dragging it up the hill to Nana’s with a rucksack on her back was like a full-on workout, and it was too early in the morning to put her body through that kind of torture. Maybe she should have travelled lighter, but Nana had made it clear as they’d planned for the trip that she had no desire to think about their return. She was going to play it by ear, she’d said. The open-endedness felt a little daunting until Gabi started telling those around her that she was leaving. Her manager didn’t beg for her to stay, and he found someone to take her job within two days. The new tenant taking over her flat was moving in later in the day. If it wasn’t for her best mate, Issa, who cried when Gabi told her about the trip, it was as though she’d never meant anything to anyone. Issa tended to be overdramatic, but she’d promised to take good care of Gabi’s stereo and espresso machine while she was away.
“We’re going on a voyage of discovery. The future is our destiny,” Nana had said.
Gabi had found the lack of certainty disconcerting at first, not knowing what lay ahead or what she might do when they returned. On reflection, she’d realised the sorry state of her life. She’d become comfortable with a lack of drive, though admittedly unhappy and unenthused by anything. She’d talked herself around the fear of leaving what she knew behind, because she had to be strong for Nana and settled with the idea that she could always move back into the farmhouse when they returned until she decided what to do next.
She stopped for a moment and leaned against the post box to take a few deep breaths. The farmhouse was shrouded in darkness, and she squinted to confirm what she was seeing. Nana stood outside her front door with two suitcases at her feet.
“You’re late,” Nana said as Gabi approached.
Nana leaned on her walking stick, looking typically Nana in her fuchsia pink rain mac with matching hat and handbag. It might be four-thirty in the morning, but with an untypical heat wave for late May, it was eighteen degrees. Gabi would have perspired just looking at her if she hadn’t already sweated her backside off dragging her bloody case with its dodgy wheel. The two suitcases at Nana’s side screamed out that they would need to pass through oversized baggage, which would mean another queue to contend with at the airport, but Gabi’s first concern was how the hell they were going to get them that far when they had three train stations and the London Underground to navigate before they reached the airport.
“The taxi isn’t due for another fifteen minutes, Nana.”
“It might have been early, and then what?”
“The driver would have waited.” It wasn’t a long walk to Nana’s, but it would have been easier for the driver to pass by Gabi’s place, but Nana had insisted that they meet at the farmhouse and save the driver the bother of stopping twice.
“You know I don’t like to be late, Gabriela.”
Gabi put down her bags and stretched her back. She kissed her nana on the cheeks. The smell of soap and the foundation cream that she’d used for as long as Gabi could remember was comforting. Nana pressed her lips tightly together and stared down the road like a skittish cat. Perhaps she was more nervous than she let on.Bless her.At seventy-five and having not travelled abroad since she arrived in the UK, it was no surprise she might be a bit anxious about the journey. “We’ve got an itinerary. We’ll be fine.”
“Not if we miss the taxi to Exeter, we won’t,” Nana said.
“He’s coming straight to your door.”
“And if we’re late, we’ll miss the train to London.”
“We’re here, aren’t we?”
“That’s not the point. You could’ve been late.”
Gabi rolled her eyes. “We have plenty of time between all our changes, so we don’t need to rush, and a taxi will be waiting for us in Granada. You can relax. I’ve sorted it.”
Nana patted Gabi’s hand. “I know, Gabriela. I’m a little nervous.”
Gabi took Nana’s hand. “That’s why I’m with you. And look, here it comes.” The driver was early. Gabi was glad she hadn’t been any later.
Nana used the cane to make her way down the steps and along the path, and greeted the driver with a jolly, “Good morning.”
He opened the door for her, and she took a seat in the back, leaving Gabi staring at the bags and wondering whether it would have been easier to just buy what they needed in Spain. The driver opened the boot of the car and stood next to it, apparently not eager to help. She dropped their bags at the back of the car and smiled at him. “Nice morning,” she said.
He grunted, giving the impression he was about as enthused at working at this hour as Gabi was being awake, and groaned as he lifted Gabi’s case into his boot.Wimp.Gabi strained under the weight of Nana’s first case, lugged it down the path, and smiled at the driver as he struggled to lift it. The second case was a fraction lighter, but it was still going to need to go through oversized baggage. Gabi had never had any inclination to work out before five a.m. The adverts for those early morning gym classes were a crock. No, it didn’t feel great straining muscles before they’d fully woken up, and no, shifting overweight suitcases didn’t set her up for the day. If she was at the flat now, she’d be turning over in bed and enjoying the restorative effects of a long lie-in before a strong sweet coffee. That would be the perfect set-up for the day.
She sat next to Nana and fastened her seatbelt. Her shirt clung to her back and beads of sweat formed on her brow. Nana was still wrapped in her coat and wearing her hat. “Aren’t you warm?” she asked.
“It’s better to be prepared than caught short, cariño.”
“Hm.”
“And I ran out of space in the cases,” Nana said.
No shit.“An outfit for every season, eh?”
Nana took Gabi’s hand and squeezed it. “I couldn’t decide what to leave behind.”
Gabi frowned. “How did you manage to lift the cases to the door?”
