Egress Point

Chapter 12

They stepped off the bus at Newhaven port with an hour before the ferry was due to leave. Arebecca could smell the sea in the air. There was a sign pointing to a ticket office, and they followed it to a grubby looking building with a dirty glass sliding door.

Inside the office was an open counter with a single worker dealing with an elderly couple. They had agreed that Em would go first and try to buy both tickets. If she failed, Arebecca would act as an independent customer and proceed in Spanish.

As it happened, there were no problems at all. Em paid for both tickets. She bought open returns in cash which would be valid as long as they came back within a month. The tickets were in her French name, Marie Chouteaux, and Arebecca's Spanish name, Sara Martin. They had about 20 minutes to proceed through UK border control and onto the ferry.

Border control was a couple of booths in the next building over. Beyond the booths the ferry loomed, large and dirty, up against the wharf. The plan was the same, Em first and Arebecca after. There was a small queue and Arebecca felt her nerves tingling more and more, like waiting to give a speech in front of the whole school. She looked at Em, she was hot-faced and sweating. For the first time since meeting her, Arebecca felt a twinge of doubt. And then the border officer nodded at Em.

She walked forwards and presented her ticket and the passport. The officer took them both and asked Em why she was going to France. She gave an answer in French first, and then English. Arebecca heard both, and the French sounded good. She was going on short trip to France with her friend from university. They were going to take the train to Paris. Then he asked her where she was staying and Em faltered. She glanced back at Arebecca with wide eyes, the plan was not going to work. The officer waited.

Arebecca waved at him and smiled. In a Spanish accent she said, "Oh, Marie, I didn't tell you. My father has booked us a wonderful hotel through his work. It's the Pullman Paris, right by the Tour Eiffel. We're there for the next two nights and then we can decide to stay on or return."

The officer looked vacant. Then beckoned Arebecca over and said, "Documents please."

She handed them to him and he glanced down, scanned the passport and waved them through.

Arebecca felt great. That was exciting. She was beaming as the pair of them walked up the ramp onto the ferry. Em looked a little more worse-for-wear.

"I'm not looking forward to the other side," she said. "I'm no good at lying under pressure."

"That was fun!" Arebecca said, doing a twirl down the metal corridor. "Like being on a tiny stage."

"And if you get your lines wrong, you end up in prison." Em clearly wasn't feeling it. "Damn Patey, he's got a lot to answer for."

The crossing time was four hours. They found seats outside at the back of the ferry as it launched, watching the white cliffs disappear behind them. The air was filled with sea salt and the smell of the engines. The wind whipped Arebecca's hair across her face. She felt like she was ready for anything.

They ate their lunch outside and talked a bit about the journey to Paris and what they would do there. And a bit more about negotiating the French border control. And then the sea got a little rough. Not terribly rough, but enough to make walking a little more wobbly than usual. Then everything started to sway more and more. They found some seats inside, in a lounge on the top deck. It wasn't so bad to start with, but after an hour Arebecca was feeling positively nauseous. And Em looked truly awful.

Three hours into the crossing and Em was only looking worse. She doubled over in her seat and started rocking forward and backward. Arebecca helped her to a toilet, where she spent many minutes vomiting into a stall. The sound and smell of vomit was enough to set Arebecca off. For 15 minutes they both emptied their stomachs until there was nothing left. Then they staggered back to the front of the boat and let the wind blow the smell from their baggy tracksuits.

So much for finding another passport. Dieppe grew larger and larger until the boat finally docked They followed the other passengers through the ferry's metal corridors, down a ramp and into a queue at the French border control. This time there were two officers at work. Arebecca could hear the nearest one asking the same questions that they'd had on the English side. She hoped Em's French would work, but she had a bad feeling. And if wasn't just the motion sickness.

Arebecca went first and she stepped forwards as confidently as she could.

"Documents please," the officer asked in French. Arebecca handed them over and resisted the urge to answer him in his own language. She stayed quiet. He switched to English when he saw her passport.

"What is the purpose of your visit?" he scanned the pages of the passport as he spoke.

"A holiday with my friend from university," Arebecca said in husky Spanish-accented English. "We are going to travel down to Paris for a few days, then return."

The officer looked at Arebecca. Then came the almost-inevitable down-and-up, thwarted by the baggy clothing. Then he nodded and handed the passport back. Arebecca stepped past and waited. It was Em's turn.

Grey-faced and with a grim expression, Em staggered to the booth. She held onto the counter with one and and with the other she shoved her passport and ticket into the officer's hand before he could say anything. Then she blurted in French, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to be sick!"

The officer didn't react in time. But luckily for him there was nothing left to come out. Em doubled over and retched and retched as he waited. She finally stood up with strand of mucus dripping from her bottom lip. She wiped it away with the back of her hand and smiled weakly. The guard passed her the documents and waved her through. Arebecca put her arm round Em's waist and helped her through to the terminal building.

"You were great!" Arebecca said. "Truly believable. I was convinced."

Em stared at her and shook her head. Then she turned to the wall and retched some more.

"Patey better fix everything when we find him. I need to spend some time on solid ground. Just a few minutes. I can't get on a train yet."

They walked very slowly through to the train station and sat on a bench. Arebecca left Em sitting on her own while drinking the last of the water. She checked for train times and routes at the ticket office. When she returned Em looked much better. But still a little grey.

"We can catch a train in 20 minutes, change at Rouen and be in Paris by 7pm," Arebecca reported. "I wish my father had actually booked us into the Pullman. It's got great service. And a great restaurant."

"Well, we'll have to figure something out once we arrive. For now, I'm just happy not to be puking. This English money isn't going to be useful. Can you see if there's a bureau de change around here?"

Arebecca took the money and wandered out of the station back toward the terminal building. Inside she found a kiosk with a currency board outside. She changed all the English notes and ended up with about 400 euro. Enough for one night at the Pullman. With no dinner.

The tickets for the train were purchased. Em looked almost normal. Two and a half hours later they were standing in a little pedestrianised square in front of the Gare du Nord. And they were ravenous.