Nick O'Connell and the Secret Base

Chapter Two - The Voyage Continues

As Nick exited the airport he looked around, examining his new surrounding like a young deer; somewhat lost and cautious. There was definitely a lot to take in. Nick couldn’t see the city, but he did see the highway, the bus stops, the palm trees, and all the people that actually knew where they had to go in order to reach their final destination. He looked at the paper in front of him that had directions to the bus stop. Turn left at the exit, find the sign with Eastern Airlines on it and look for bus #195, it said. Nick followed the instructions and found the bus stop with ease. Ten minutes until the bus.

 It was 8:13 AM and Nick was exhausted. Jet lag he reckoned plus he hadn’t slept well on the plane as it was his first time flying to the States. Unluckily all the flights from Heathrow to San Francisco had been sold out so Nick had found a flight from Heathrow to LAX. Then there was the drive to the train station and a lovely four hour train ride to the university in Berkeley. It wasn’t as fast or as comfortable as another flight from LAX to SFO but it was cheaper and as a student Nick didn’t have mountains of cash just lying around to be spent. Only reason he could afford the university was because he had gotten a scholarship for a few pieces he had written for a local newspaper that had been published and deemed pretty decent by the critics. Of course there had been areas for improvement but as articles written by a high school student, they had been deemed readable. His Irish luck must have helped him with that a bit. Now If only i was able to find that pot of gold, he thought to himself and that thought brought a smile to his fatigued face.

As the bus arrived, he put his belongings in the luggage area, paid the fare and took a seat. There were still a few minutes before the bus was due to leave. It would take about half an hour for the bus to reach the train station which was close to the centre of LA. He took one last look at his first step into the adult world – the airport. Was he ready for this? Well at least I’m on my way, he thought. Everything would be different than before though. Even the cars were driving on the wrong side of the street, going the wrong way. Nick was used to that though as he had lived in five different countries due to his parents’ jobs. There was obviously England where he was born and lived for about nine years, Ireland where his grandparents lived and he had stayed for three years, France where his father had worked for another three years, Russia again dad’s job for two years, and last and the least of time in Greece, only took a year for their family to break the financial system there. That was another thought that brought a smile to Nick’s face.

The bus had started moving and Nick was on his way to the second checkpoint of his new life. The sleep deprivation was wearing on Nick but he was far too conscious of his new surrounding to sleep. He was a bit of an insomniac, his friends and parents had told him. He would stay up for hours either reading a book or writing a story. That was the way of life he enjoyed. He looked out the window but the road to the train station wasn’t too interesting. He saw the first skyscrapers in the distance on the five lane highway but other than that it was just fences and block shaped buildings, nothing too glamorous. Sleep was slowly settling in and Nick thought what harm would a nap do? He closed his eyes and dozed off, knowing that he would wake up as they reached Union Station.

Once they arrived Nick was awakened, as he expected, by people shuffling by and bumping into him as they were trying to get off the bus. Well that was a refreshing nap, Nick thought. He then made his way off the bus and looked around. The surrounding had magically changed to palm trees and modern structures and Nick took out his information packet again. Platform 9, okay that shouldn’t be too hard to find, he thought. He entered the station and bought a ticket from the office, then dashed towards the platform. With his powernap he had lost track of time and didn’t realise the shuttle from the airport had taken longer to get there than planned. He ran as fast as he could with his luggage, passing platform 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, taking a right turn. He saw platform 9 and saw as the last passengers were getting on. He spurted for the train and barely made it on. That was a close one, he figured while gathering his breath. He gave the ticket to the controller and Gary the controller punched it. Then Nick was left to be on his own.