Jess is finally going! That New Zealand holiday is at its dawn, and all she can think of is landscapes, walks and adventures. But what she does not expect to find, is what is waiting around the corner - someone.
Someone who will turn her holiday up...
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Jess's eyes, bright with wonder, roved over the scene flashing past. This country would never cease to amaze her. She could be looking at the most mundane of fields and still, somehow, it would seem like something out of the most fantastical adventure.
There was something absolutely exhilarating about the land - so young and still so wild, and yet at the same time, so majestic... surely nothing she would ever see anywhere else could top it.
Well, not many things could at least. Of course, this did not mean she did not want to travel anywhere else. No! Those journeys would come. But while she was here...
Jess sighed, as another pasture changed dramatically into woods. Up ahead, barely discernible in the distance, a strip of brown obscured the horizon; a mountain range. Their destination.
The days leading up to this morning - especially yesterday - had been a blur. All that stood out, really, against the vague memory of dreaming, waiting and packing, were the evenings with James.
But now, in the car... Jess was so full of that delight - that exhilaration of adventure, that grew with every mile they covered - she thought she might float away into the patchy sky.
It was just past ten in the morning, but Jess and her family was already almost halfway to their destination. Just the thought that they would be there soon, struck up a flurry of butterflies in her stomach.
***
They had left early, but the night before had been full of chaos.
Jess had gotten home just as every last remnant of light was swallowed by the horizon. She was terrified of what would greet her in her mother's expression. But she had a plan.
She was going to apologise, sincerely and completely, for being so late. Then she would confess that she had totally lost track of time (this was not a lie), and it had been such a lovely day, that she simply got caught up in the evening. If her mother decided to be particularly harsh, Jess would point out that in her new terms and conditions for her walks, she only had to come back (technically) when they called.
This, was her ingenious, foolproof plan.
To own the truth, Jess had discarded a number on the way home. The 'blame it on the dog' one was almost instantly shunned, by the sight of a sad, deprived Obi Wan running beside her... she had let him down enough for one day.
The 'I fell in the stream' one was pretty quickly given up on, too. This was for the simple fact that though her clothes were still mildly damp (from her and James's foray into the waves, what seemed so long ago), the only reason that plan had even entered her mind, was the memory of it happening to James. And even he had not been able to explain himself.
