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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The car was still rumbling on, the steady rhythm and motion of the wheels against the well-paved roads almost as lulling as the rolling green fields beyond the windows.
Had Jess been back home in Malaysia, or, indeed, had she had less on her mind, the muted, green scenery could well have put her to sleep. Yet, as it was, she could not have fallen asleep - even if every mile until their destination was filled with pale skies, pastures, and fluffy white sheep.
They were going to go on a walk. Not just a walk, but a proper hike-cum-trek down South from home. Jess had heard such a multitude of tales about these 'walks', that the thought of going on one herself had, for the past few weeks, been driving her nearly mad.
Now, here they were, finally on their way.
Of course, it could not be a multiple day hike, or even a full day one - Jess's mother could not plod on for that long. But there was that wonderfully mysterious surprise that her uncle told her lay at the end of their walk... And even without that, a few hours on one of those fabled (or at least, fabled in her family) paths, was a true dream come true.
Given all this, it came as quite a surprise, and an almost equal thrill, to find her wonderful daydreams intruded upon by other thoughts.
Thoughts of the person she had left behind in the neighbourhood. Of the person who made her heart beat almost as fast as the anticipation of impending adventure.
The person who thought of her too, and with whom she could at last say she shared these crazy, exhilarating, overwhelming feelings.
Her boyfr-
"Look at these cows! There're so many!"
Jess looked over to the left, where her mother was pointing, and grinned. Her mother seemed to be absorbing her excitement with every trip.
"What's the most cows you've ever seen, Aunt Charlotte?"
Jess's aunt thought it over, turning to her husband. "What do you think, Sam? That once we were heading up to Taupo?"
Uncle Sam nodded, "Yes I'd say so. You don't often get huge clumps of cows in one place," he glanced back at Jess through the rear-view mirror, "they tend to spread themselves out more. But that time-"
"-they were absolutely covering the hillside. It was like a blanket of white and black and brown!" Aunt Charlotte exclaimed. "Must've been at least a couple hundred."
Jess had to suppress a laugh. Finishing each other's sentences was something that, in her mind, people were only ever synced enough to do in movies.
"Yes dear, I did have to steal the best part of that story." Aunt Charlotte turned to Uncle Sam, winking. He spared a quick glance off the road to reply, "Wait 'till we get to the walk, and there are more exciting stories to tell than of cows. Then I won't let you steal my lines so easily."
