Cloned

Chapter 12

Emily POV

The plane juddered as we went through another set of turbulence. I was sitting in the air plane seat trying to look calm but clenched my fists every time the plane gave a minute jump. James sat on one side with Maddie on the other. James had headphones in listening to some pop band and Maddie was watching the latest Disney film. The flight attendant had come round earlier asking if we wanted anything to eat but the look of recently heated rice with a dry roll on the side had put me off. I clicked onto the map. Just flying over Greenland with another 5 hours to go. Already it felt like we had been here for an age. I got up and started to weave my way past the other passengers on the search for the loo. Three other passengers were waiting in the line. One nodded at me as we continued our wait. After what seemed to be a year, whilst you are waiting for the toilet, a young man came out and the next passenger practically threw him out the way in his desperacy to have some relief. The young man stumbled over to his seat. I moved forward an inch. Eventually the queue got to me. The bathroom was a claustraphobe's nightmare and not great when the person before you has had curry for his last meal. I gagged at the smell but needed to go. After washing my hands, I made my way back to my seat past all the teenagers and parents off on a trip and the odd businessman downgraded from first class. I sat back down in my seat and closed my eyes. 

Finally there was a voice over the intercom.

“ladies and gentlemen, if you could return to your seats as we will shortly be arriving in Calgary. The temperature outside is 32oC and the weather is sunny. We hope you enjoy your stay.”

I buckled up my seat belt and began to meticulously check for any lost gadgets and money. Within a 20 minutes we had landed and there came the stampede to get off the plane with passengers trying to bundle eachother out the way in a desperate attempt to get to the door first. James had stood up and was grabbing bags from the over head locker. I stood up and woke Maddie.

“are we here now?” she asked sleepily.

“Yes, we have finally arrived.” I replied as I smoothed her hair over and handed her her bag.

We left the plane and began to walk to the baggage carousel. Having never been to Calgary before I was quite shocked at how far we had to walk to get there. After 20 minutes of solid walking, we arrived at passport control and went through the merciless questioning of why we were here. My heart was in my mouth the entire time as I told them that I was applying for a work visa. There was a lot of nods before we were escorted to immigration and had all our visas printed. After an hour of grilling, they allowed us to collect our luggage and walk through the gate. Men and women dressed up as cowboys roamed the halls in front of a statue of a horse and a waterfall. I walked around for a bit and wondered what Sam would look like now. I had emailed Sam about our visit and he said he would send somebody to pick us up. I couldn't see him anywhere so I just continued to mill around trying to convince my son that I knew what I was doing. I was failing to convince him.

“Do they even know that we are coming?” James asked me sceptically.

“Yes, of course they do” sounding harsher than I meant.

“Chill out Mum, keep your tampon in” James replied.

“James, Don't speak to me like that!” I yelled at him. James glared at me and sauntered off, sticking in his headphones and marching off to the mens.

“Excuse me, are you Emily?” a teenage girl asked me. She had copper coloured hair with great blue eyes that reminded me so much of...

“It's just because, I'm Sam's daughter and he sent me here looking for you” she added. I nodded quite shocked.

“cool, have you got all your stuff then?” She said grabbing one of the suitcases.

“I just have my son in the loo. He will be back in a minute...” I said quite shocked at her assertiveness. I didn’t get spoken to like that by a girl who looked like she was graduating next summer.

“ok, I'm Emma by the way. Do you want to stop at Timmy Hortons on the way back?” she asked as she looked at my tired face. What Timmy Hortons was I had no idea. I stared blankly at her.

“You don't know what Timmy Hortons is? Oh my God! You have not lived!” she exclaimed. “It is just the best coffee shop that you will ever go to. Like Starbucks but better and without people constantly instagramming the cups..” she continued without pausing. “We will stop there on the way back...” Coffee sounded like a really good idea at the moment.

Just then James came out of the loos and walked towards us still addicted to his phone, “

“Mum, why is their such shit 3G here?” he asked me but broke off as he looked at Emma. His mouth practically hung open. Maddie couldn't resist telling James to:

“Shut your mouth James, you will catch flies!” Emma seemed oblivious as she wheeled one of the suitcases towards the door.

James POV

I stared after her. Wow. She was fit. I blindly grabbed my suitcase and followed her past the doors, across the road and into the car park. My mother and Maddie following me. I barely even registered that almost every car in the car park was a truck. She led us past some of the biggest trucks, I have even seen, to a truck marked with a dodge ram logo and splattered with more dried mud than you see in the lake district. She threw the suitcase into the back and then reached out for mine. I blindly threw mine into the truck as well but instead of the neat clink that hers made, it was a sound of something breaking. I tried to speak. Big mistake.

“MynamesJames” I said very quickly, half trying to sound like I hadn't said anything at all.

“Sorry, didn't quite get that” she said with a Canadian accent sounding quite oblivious to my mistake.

“My name is James.” I said more slowly, trying not to sound too much like an idiot.

“My name's Emma.” she said quite comfortably as she hopped into the drivers seat with Mum and Maddie sitting in the back. I stared as she switched on the engine. She looked at me.

“Are you coming?” just then the thread of realisation that I was still in the car park. I quickly jumped in beside her. She revved up the gas and started to drive around to find the exit.