Chapter 6 - Planning the journey

So here we were. Winter had just ended and the seasonal weather change was starting to show. Trees were blossoming again with their green leaves, birds were singing their happy tunes, and the gardens in the village were showing signs of flowering. The village was as pretty as a picture. A few houses and a few shops, with a pub a little way up the road. It was about fifteen minutes away from the nearest city, and the community spirit was frequently shared between all.

The main house that stood out was rather expansive. It had belonged at one point to a builder, who had an eye for detail. There were three double-rooms, and a single room. One room had a full en-suite bathroom, One had an en-suite shower, and there was a spare bathroom. All of these were on the upper floor, parted evenly around a wooden staircase. This had to be well looked after to prevent any wear and tear causing potential damage, and was often varnished. Downstairs there was a large kitchen, leading to a study. At the bottom of the stairs themselves was where the front door stood. The other side of the staircase was a sitting room, spacious to many, with a conservatory and a little hallway to a back door. Out the back there was a sheltered porch, with a rather sizable garden. Tucked away in the corner of the garden was a shed for all the tools, as the garden was well maintained, and there was a patch of garden reserved for growing all manner of fruit and vegetables, from potatoes to turnips, tomatoes to strawberries.

This house was owned by the parents of a trio of siblings, Andy, Violet, and Drake. More often than not there would be parties hosted here, and Violet was using her prior experience as a restaurant head chef at these events. Andy was the oldest of this trio, having recently divorced from his long-time partner, Crystelle. They had bore just one child in that time, Trevor, who hadn’t seen his dad since. There was written communication, and although Trevor was still relatively young, he knew that it would be his choice, and nothing that his mother said would influence that. Violet, the only girl, was the middle child. She had studied catering courses at college and university, before falling for restaurant manager Chris. It had ups and downs like every relationship, stress of working together meant that he occasionally took himself to a hotel in the city, but they were still persistent on working through it all. Eventually, they were married, and Violet had decided to concentrate on maintaining the house herself. Third in line was Drake. He had been trying to make it in the music industry, but was frequently overlooked. Was he different enough in vocal style? The business experts had often called him in to try recording a song but found that there was too much holding him back. In the end he chose to give that up, but as a hobby in his spare time, he would often tinker around with a little keyboard that he had stashed away. He also had a partner, Jackie, who had been a family friend for a number of years. She had known them all since she was Violets room-mate at university.

The post office, just one of the few other buildings around, was Simon’s livelihood. It had been in his family before him, although he was the sole remaining survivor. No children to hand it down to, he often wondered why he was there. Downsizing from his bank role in the city, he was welcomed into the village by Derek, the postman. Derek had been there for years, he knew how to get everywhere within the village, he also knew everyone who had come and gone over the years. He wouldn’t trade the village for the city, and although it had been suggested to him, some twenty-five to thirty years ago, he had refused.

Moving on to a little grocery store, and there was a man who’s appearance was surprising for his tender years. Neville had, like Derek the postman, been a village stalwart. Yes he had a couple of sisters, but over time they had decided to seek fortune and fame from moving to the city and beyond. One of these sisters had bore a son, Jake, who, having learned of the village ways while younger, asked his mum if he could stay living here with his uncle. It was a heart wrenching decision for him, but he knew he would be able to develop a keen interest in maintaining the shop so it wouldn’t be bought out by corporate societies in the city. His mother explained that she may move around a bit, but she would keep in touch with Neville at least to share how he was doing.
There was no breeze on this early spring morning. The regular commuters were passing through, occasionally stopping to pick up Simon’s stamps or Neville’s nourishments. Yes, even weekends had commuters, and Simon’s was a rare post office. It was open seven days a week, just in case there were important letters from the village that needed to be transported up to the city to carry on their way first thing Monday morning.

Chris and Andy, were in the sitting room, having a general bit of banter about the way the previous week in the restaurant had gone, and whether or not it was time for a change. Chris had been in this place for a long time, but he just wasn’t enjoying it anymore. Ok, there were more businesses competing, which initially stifled some of his regular punters, but a fall-out with his head chef had left him short on staff, overstressing them, and falling behind on quality.

A knock on the front door disrupted their conversation. As they got up to go answer it, they heard Violets voice come through from the study. “I’ll get it!” She was too predictable these days, always coming up with inventive ideas but being a better hostess than some of the city hotels, it was no surprise she was still joyful and full of life. Jake was there.
“Hi Jake, dear,” Violet said, “Do come in. I’ll put the kettle on.”
“Hey, ok. Shall I go to the sitting room?” he replied.
“Sure, Chris and Andy are in there. Just be cautious, Chris isn’t in the best of moods.” she explained hastily.

“Hey guys,” Jake acknowledge the others in the sitting room. “How’s it goin’?”
Chris shot a disapproving look at Jake. “Not good,” he replied rather grouchily.
“Vi warned me about that,” Jake responded, aiming the comment at Chris’ grouchiness but looking at Andy.
“Things aren’t great. Lets just leave it at that for now,” Andy spoke out, silencing Chris from retorting angrily.
“Tea’s up!” Vi called through. “I would bring it through but I must get back to my planning.”
Jake nipped through, “Thanks,” he whispered, before he went back to the other room. An idea had just popped into his head, although he’d been considering it for a while himself. He would like to travel around and see some of the more global sights. He’d seen some of the postcards that Simon had on display in the post office, and would love to actually have himself there in a picture with it.
“Hey, sorry about that guys,” he said to the other two. “Did either of you want a top up?”
“No thanks, we’re fine,” Andy said back. “What brings you here anyway?”
“I was just thinking something this morning. I’ve been considering asking my uncle what he would think about me going off to travel around the world, taking in some of the sights that Simon’s postcards have,” Jake was enthusiastic. “But I’m not overly sure I would want to do it on my own.”
Andy scanned his eyes over Chris’ face. Chris had a pensive look about him, like he was deep in thought.
“It sounds like an idea,” he mused. “Maybe it would even do me good to get away from work for a while. I’m sure they’d be happy for me, but what would I have to come back to?”
Andy was quick to reply. “Violet does her parties. You have the best chance of keeping this house on that alone, and if you really wanted to, could set up a family business of you and her.”
The more they talked about it, the more excited they got. Jake could sense that something was possible where the three of them headed out together. At least that way they’d be with people that they knew and respected.

Violet popped her head round the corner. “Is everything ok in here?” she enquired inquisitively. “I could hear raised voices but didn’t catch the conversation.”
“Well,” started Jake, but Andy cut across him. “Sorry Jake, but this might be better from me.”
Jake looked crestfallen. It was his idea initially and he wanted to tell the story but he had learnt to respect his elders. Something that wasn’t particularly valuable from what his mother had told him about city life, but this tightly knit community was pretty much all he’d known.
“Jake suggested an idea,” Andy continued. “He was looking at possibly travelling the world and taking in all the sights.”
“Oh that sounds like fun Jake,” Violet beamed.
“But me and Chris have also discussed this,” Andy was intent on getting through the message. “What if we were to go along with Jake, so he had someone he knew around him rather than being overwhelmed by everything by being alone?”
Violet was a little taken aback. “Well, how long would you look to go for?” she asked.
“Possibly four to six months.” Andy admitted. “I know it would seem like forever, and there’s always a risk that we might not all make it back, but we feel we are capable of succeeding.”
“Four to six months,” she repeated back. “That would be the longest we’ve ever spent apart. What if something happened and you couldn’t get in touch with me?”
“I think we’d at least try to send a letter. But some countries take forever to return letters that you might not get it until after we get back,” Jake piped up. “I know this from something Simon was telling me.”
“Just make sure you do. I’m still going to worry every day that you’re gone,” Violet replied, a little shakily. “For now I’m going to throw myself into hosting these parties because I honestly don’t want to think about it until it happens.”
With that, she headed back off to her little studious workspace.

“So,” said Jake, pulling out a pad of paper and a pen from his old school bag that he used for everything these days. “Where would we consider going?”
Chris opened up a little. “Jake, hold that thought a second. We’ve not decided fully if we are going to go anywhere just yet.”
“Indeed,” added Andy. “Lets look at what we are doing right now and if there is a way we can logically take the time out to do this first.”
Even though they spoke sense, Jake was still going to write down a few places anyway. While he thought about where he would like to go, the conversation flowed a little more freely between the older two.
“Ok,” said Andy. “You aren’t happy in your job. Why don’t you consider this opportunity of travelling around the world? There’s all kinds of places, the houses of parliament, Edinburgh castle, the Whitehouse, and that’s just in the UK.”
“It would be nice to see the rainforests in South America,” mulled Chris. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to at least give it a go. What if we don’t like it and are stuck in somewhere like halfway up Mount Everest?”
“We’ll stick together Chris. We have to take into consideration not only where we go, but what we do if the going gets tough. We are relatively bright individuals, and we wont have much time to consider dealing with this if we don’t act upon the idea sooner rather than later,” Andy spun out. “Shall we list a few places that we would like to visit as Jake suggested?”
“I guess no harm could come of it,” Chris at last, agreed.
“So Jake, have you put any places down yourself yet?” Andy asked, looking back over to him.
“Yeah, I’ve got Sydney, for the opera house, India, for the Taj Mahal, and Mount Rushmore, to see the faces of the four guys they put in there,” Jake replied calmly.
“Ok, so how about we list a number of other countries/sightseeing possibilities?” Andy followed up with.
After a few moments of discussion, and with a number of possibilities put up, there was a list of sights to see.

Global Sightseeing Tour
Taj Mahal
Mount Everest
Mount Rushmore
Sydney Opera House
The Whitehouse
Pentagon
Houses of Parliament
Edinburgh Castle
Table Mountain
Amazon Rainforest
River Nile
Great Barrier Reef

Having compiled their list of historic sights to see, they had to also work out how they were going to get to all of these places. The countries were the UK, India, Australia, South Africa, Egypt, the USA, and the Amazon Rainforest was in South America. The next step was to organise which route would be best to take. Either the USA, India, or Egypt could be the last destination before returning to the UK, to mark the shortest return. Many of these places would need flights or cruise ship to get to, even though money wasn’t exactly a lacklustre commodity for these well off, they still had to make sure they were able to travel as a trio. It took a bit of discussion but they all agreed eventually. They would end in the USA, giving an option of flight or boat return. So they decided that visiting India, Nepal, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, South America, the USA, before returning to the UK, would be the preferred route. This would minimise flight times between countries, allowing more time to spend enjoying the actual sights and tourist attractions surrounding them.

Flicking through her diary, she was looking to see when she had a date free. Violet really was just throwing herself into her little self catering business, where she was sure that the guys in the other room would actually go ahead with the travelling around the world. She wasn’t one for stopping them either, she’d often allow Chris to make up his own mind, and that was one of the things that had kept their relationship going. Another knock on the door. She was a little reluctant to get it, but being used to it, she was there while she heard the others with their discussions.

“Morning Violet,” chirped Derek. “How is your business coming along? You’ve had a fair few letters recently, and I forgot to ask before.”
“Morning Derek,” Violet sighed a little. “The business is starting to pick up a little after the new year lull. This was expected because purse strings are a bit tighter.”
“You don’t seem yourself this morning,” Derek was good at reading people. “Is everything ok?”
“Everything is ok,” She took the letters from him. “Its just Chris, Andy and Jake talking about touring the world and being away for a few months.”
Derek paused briefly to digest the information he had been given.
“I see,” he said. “And you are ok with this?”
“I have to be Derek. I don’t wish to be a martyr, and I’ve never stopped Chris before,” she mulled over while opening the letters. Bank statements, Bills, More business based requests.
“I am sure you will be fine, and their trip will be a successful one,” he encouraged. “You will still have the rest of us around, Drake, Jackie, Neville, Simon and me. We could even join in the hosting of the parties, if you needed a little extra community spirit.”
“This is true,” she reluctantly admitted. “Its not worth disputing that we are a close community. You are like having a second father around,” she added, jokingly.
“Is it my wisdom?” he laughed.
For a split second the tension that she’d been feeling had been lifted. Sure, she was going to miss Chris if he did decide to follow up and take this opportunity, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be her usual self.

“Honey,” Chris called through. “Can I give work a quick call?”
“Sure you can darling,” Violet chirped back. Having Derek stood there made her realise that she was doing the right thing in allowing him to go, and she felt a bit better knowing there was still going to be support.
Chris picked up the phone. “Hey George! I would like to give you my notice with immediate effect,” he pressed. “I’m sorry but I’m not able to lift people’s spirits and I think it would better all around. For all your hard work I would like to thank you and the team, its not been easy of late, and they all deserve a pat on the back.”
There was a pause while George spoke. Andy and Jake couldn’t make out quite what he was saying either.
“Yes I know its difficult to find someone with experience such as mine. But I’m thinking of globe-trotting for a few months. If, when I come back, you haven’t found someone to replace me, I’ll give you a call.”
Hanging up the phone, he turned to the other two.
“Didn’t expect him to take it well,” he sighed. “But that’s over and done with. Shall we consider what we are going to pack?”
Andy voiced a wise option. “How about we travel light? If we need anything, I’m pretty sure we can buy it as we go.”
“Sounds like a great idea,” agreed Jake. “No time like the present.”
“Only one small detail we’ve forgotten,” Andy added. “We would need to let all the others know that this is definitely what we are doing.”
Chris stood up. “Think we need to find a day that Violet has free so we can organise a little gathering before we head off out into the unknown territory of the world.”
With that, he strode out of the sitting room and over to his wife. “So Vi, hun, how’s the diary looking?”
She picked up a little black book she had on the side. “Hmm. Not too hot at the moment, I’ve had a few requests put in, but they aren’t until later in the month,” she replied. “What’s up?”
“We need a day where we can get everyone together,” he was firm. “We’ve agreed that we are all going to go off on this tour around the world, but we would like to tell everyone.”
“How about tonight? If you go sooner, you may well get back sooner,” she was a little tearful, but remained composed.
“Ok, shall we say about seven?” he suggested. “I’ll get Jake to spread the word around, after all, he would probably seem the most enthusiastic about this being so young and slightly naïve.”
“Seven is fine,” Violet was despondent, but she wasn’t about to let that cloud her agreement to this.

Chris headed back off into the sitting room to let Andy and Jake know. “Jake, can you do a favour and go and let everyone know to come here for seven tonight?” Chris asked. “If you don’t wish to, we can all go.”
Jake jumped at the chance. “Its ok, I will do this. I have to tell my uncle anyway that it is organised and what is going to happen.”
“Remember. Seven o’clock. Back here,” Chris called as Jake had got his back and opened the front door.
“Sure,” came the reply, before the door closed.