Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The night before we moved in we were to stay with Natalie's grandparents, but before we
went there we decided to drive past our new house; we hadn't seen it in months and like chil-
dren on Christmas Eve we were impatient and just couldn't wait for the next day. It was dark
by the time we arrived in town and as we began the 3-kilometre drive out into the countryside
a fog began to fall. The country road to the property, which surely hadn't been this narrow
last summer, also seemed much longer than the 3 kilometres that we remembered, and as the
car headlights picked out the eyes of darting creatures and swooping owls, it all seemed very
cold.
'Are you sure we're on the right road?' Natalie asked, though she knew we were. Eventually,
after what seemed like half an hour, we reached our house - dark, cold and smaller than I'd
remembered it. We didn't even get out, partly because we didn't want to wake Samuel and
Eddie who were sleeping soundly in the back, but also it just didn't look very welcoming.
Neither of us slept well that night.
Monsieur Norbert, owner of the estate agency, was there to greet us at the
notaire's
office
the next morning for the final contract signing, though 'greet' would be over-egging it some-
what. A surly individual, what he lacked in warmth he made up for with laconic aggression,
but as his family owned pretty much everything around here from hotels, restaurants, estate
agencies and a haulage company, he was best not crossed. Not that we were in a mood to
anyway - we just wanted the keys; we wanted to see exactly what we had let ourselves in for.
What a difference a day makes! Whereas the evening before the drive had seemed long,
the darkness and the fog oppressive, the house cold, the next day was glorious with warm
winter sunshine. The fields were wide and seemed to go on forever, and thousands of black
and white lapwings were chattering to each other as we drove serenely down 'our' road. We
opened the gate and drove in. Straightaway Samuel and Eddie went running off exploring the
two and a half acres with outbuildings, an orchard, a pond and a hayloft. 'Our' two and a half
acres with outbuildings, 'our' orchard, 'our' pond and 'our' hayloft.
Natalie and I opened the huge, windowed, stable doors that formed the entrance to the main
house and turned around to look at the land. We stood, almost breathless, soaking it all up as
Samuel and Eddie played in the distance, 'our' distance...
'Well?' I said, stroking Natalie's pregnant stomach, 'Happy Birthday!'
It had all seemingly happened in a blur, but at that moment as we soaked up the surprisingly
warm winter sun on the
terrasse
all doubts, money worries, house-moving stress, pregnancy
fears, travel concerns, everything just melted away. All we could hear was Samuel laughing
somewhere; there was no other sound, nothing at all. It was exactly the peace we had both
been looking for.
'Argghh! Bloody hell!' I screamed again, another electric shock shaking me from my reverie
and bringing me back to reality five years later. I was only halfway around the perimeter
of the fence and I could now feel myself twitching - so much for 'peace'. And so much for
