Across the Pond
Chapter 2

Copyright© 2014 by The Heartbreak Kid

"Do you know if there's an Internet café in town, Ellie?" I asked her the following morning.

"Hmm—not that I know of, Jim, but I do believe there's a place in Indian Trail; that's only a few minutes drive away. Why, what did you have in mind?"

"Well, it's probably a better way to find out what's going on in the state and maybe further afield."

"That makes sense. If I point you in the right direction, do you think you can find it on your own?" I smiled.

"I hope so! I think I'll see if I can get a cheap cell phone as well, so if you give me your number again, I can always shout for help if I get lost!" Ellie grinned, but then she wrote down the number for me.

It was my first solo journey by car, but it was pretty straight-forward. Having parked the car and checked that it was legal to do so, I found the café that Ellie had mentioned, but before I went in I found a place to buy a map of the state of North Carolina, and elsewhere everything else that I thought I needed. A couple of hours later I arrived back at Ellie's with copious notes about child-friendly attractions, together with a box of tasty-looking hand-made cakes that the café sold. After storing the cakes away for later, Ellie and I sat down to discuss what I'd found out, and there was quite a lot. We sat together, our bodies touching as we hunched over the map, marking some of the places that I'd found so that we could plot possible routes. Ellie seemed quite enthusiastic about our proposed outings: I was, too, but I was also enjoying our close proximity.

Although I was happy with the overall condition of the Honda, as soon as I got the chance, I gave it a thorough examination. We were liable to be covering a lot of territory over the coming weeks and I didn't want us to break down, especially with the kids on board. Even though young Kari didn't know what I was doing, I noticed that she often sat outside and played nearby while I was working on the car, and if I had clean hands, I would sometimes lift her up so that she could see what I was doing. We also sat together on the sofa, me in the middle and Kari and Sammie either side, while I read to them.

The days out were a great success; we didn't go somewhere every day, but still several times a week. Ellie had a baby stroller which Sammie could still fit into, and I would carry her daughter when she got tired of walking. It was at the end of my second week in Stallings when things radically changed.

We had arrived home after a long day out, and we had carried the children to bed and just taken off their outer clothes and put them to bed. Ellie saw nothing wrong in me giving them a quick goodnight kiss, so I first leaned over Kari's bed to kiss her. As I did so, so reached up and put her arms around my neck, and more asleep than awake, she said: "I love you." Without thinking, I replied: "And I love you, too!" Ellie looked at me and smiled. I then leaned over to kiss Sammie, and to the surprise of both Ellie and me, he said, softly: "G'night, Daddy." I was choked up and just stared at Ellie in shock. She just smiled at me again, then led me out of the kid's bedroom.

"Do you want to talk about that?" I asked her.

"Not unless you want to," she replied, "What I really want, is for you to share their momma's bed. You want to do that, Jim?"

"Very much—as long as you're sure. I don't know exactly where this is going yet, but I think, I hope, that it's somewhere good for both of us." Ellie took my hand:

"Well, there's only one way to find out—"


We shared a bed that night, but did little more than kiss and fall asleep in each others arms. It was kind of like a statement of intent, but we were both fully aware of the emotional implications of a full-blown sexual relationship, so despite our needs, we held off.

"You awake, Honey?" Ellie whispered in my ear the next morning.

"I am now."

"And no regrets?"

"Nope. You?"

"Nope. I suppose we better get up then."

I reached over her hip and placed a hand on a soft buttock and firmly but gently pulled her towards me. Ellie giggled.

"Five more minutes shouldn't hurt," I said. I felt her breath in my mouth.

"Okay." It was more like fifteen, but eventually we made it to the bathroom.

We had no trip planned for that day, so we let the kids sleep in. Ellie was now a devoted convert to morning tea, so we took our mugs to the sofa, where we sat together with my free arm around her.

"The way I see it, we've got two choices," I said: "Talk about it now, or talk about it later. The advantage of talking about it now, is that depending on what we may agree on, time might be a factor."

"Okay," Ellie said, "I say we talk about it now. What did you have in mind?"

"Well—first things first, I want us to be a family; I want to marry you and to be the kids real daddy."

"Go on, Jim."

"But I really can't really stay in America any longer than I planned, so—and this is the biggie—could you live in England?"

"Wow, that is a biggie! Let's just look at the facts: first, and most important, how will this affect the kids? In terms of living somewhere else, I think the answer is 'minimally'. Kari is due to start school soon, and I don't suppose English schools are much different to ours; and as far as she is concerned, that little girl loves you and would follow you anywhere you wanted to go. Sammie's got a few more years to go yet, so he won't be a problem, either. I'm the only family they've got so far, so I don't think anyone would object to them going to England.

"Then there's me. I've only ever known the American way of life, and from my point of view, my life hasn't been too great so far, so I'm willing to take that chance. Now, don't take this the wrong way, Honey, but here and now, and hand on heart, I'm not sure that we've known each other long enough to say that we're in love—but I think that it's definitely something that can happen in the future. I don't know for sure what living in England will be like, but then again I don't know what staying here will be like, either. That said, if you tell me that it will be okay, I'm more than inclined to believe you."

"I do believe that, Ellie, but I also believe that we owe it to everyone to at least try. Of course there are lots of things that you will find different, even strange, but we have a firm basis for a good life together: I have a good job and my own home, and a family who I'm sure will take you and your kids to their hearts the same way I have. I also think things will be a lot easier if we're married here, though, so shall we start looking into all the legal aspects now. I never asked: is this your house or is it rented?"

"It's only rented. And if that was a marriage proposal, Jim Maclean, I accept! Now, shall we go and break the news to our kids!"


I don't think I've ever seen a person happier than Kari: when we told her the news she held me so tight around the neck that I almost fainted from blood loss to the head! And then for the next few hours she asked me the same questions over again: 'Are you really going to be my daddy?' And: 'Are we really going in an airplane to live in England?'

Another difference that I quickly became aware of, was that marriage laws are very different in North Carolina: unlike in Britain where there is a waiting period once you've officially declared your intent to marry, had I been a US resident we could probably have paid our $60 for a licence and been married that same day; but as it was, I wanted to make sure that everything would be 100% legal in the UK before returning home. In the end it only took a couple of days to ascertain and confirm my eligibility. Ellie had some nice dresses already, but I had to buy a few formal items of clothing and we also bought Kari and Sammie some new clothes. I would have bought Ellie a new wedding ring, too, but she insisted on keeping the one she already had, at least until we were in England. A couple of secretaries from the County Magistrate's office where we got married were our witnesses and they acted as emotionally as they would have if they'd been real family. Maybe it was because I held Kari during the short ceremony and Ellie held Sammie. With our marriage certificate acquired, we could now set about getting travel documents for my new family.

None of them had passports and there were two minors, so we had to apply for these in person. It turned out that it was a good thing that we had acted early, because we requested the expedited service which would take two to three weeks. Ellie insisted that she pay for her family's documents out of the money that I gave her for the car: she said that it was probably the most money that she'd spent in one go in her entire life. I even checked with the British Honorary Consulate in Charlotte, to find out what documents they all needed to enter the UK as potential permanent residents. All of these things were doable, but needed time and patience, and I was lucky that I had a semi-permanent address and the use of a car.

As you would imagine, Kari was getting really excited about her new life; Sammie probably less so, as there had already been several major changes in his young life since I had arrived. However both of them now called me Daddy and neither seemed bothered that I slept in their mother's bed; they even joined us sometimes. It was now time to hit them with another surprise—one that even my new wife didn't know about. I chose to tell everyone after we'd finished eating:

"Kids, when people get married they usually go to a special place to celebrate: it's called a honeymoon. We'll all be going to live in England, soon, but before that we're all going on a honeymoon: we're going to Florida to visit Walt Disney World!"

Ellie reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze, smiled and mouthed the words 'Thank you!' Ellie got down from her chair and gave me a hug and a kiss, followed shortly afterwards by her brother. Both kids were already avid watchers of Disney films and animations on TV. "When are we going, Daddy?" Kari asked.

"In a few days time, Love, and we're going in an airplane!" I looked over towards my wife. "There's a flight from Concord on Friday that will get us to Orlando in just over an hour, then it's a 45-minute drive to the resort; if we have to drive all the way there it will take about eight hours. I thought we needed one last adventure before all our lives change forever." Ellie was still smiling.

"I think that's already happened, Honey: it started the day you walked into our lives."


We all had to get up quite early to get to Concord and make the two-hour check-in time. Once there we had time to kill so we wandered around the facility. Kari wanted to know if the planes we saw were the same as the one we'd be going to England on. Ellie had never flown before, so I think she was the most nervous of all of us. It was only a relatively short flight, but it was incident free and I think it reassured her about the much longer one that was to come. The week itself? Well, the Disney publicity machine talks of the experience as being 'magical', and I don't think that anyone in our family would disagree with that! I even had to promise the kids that I'd take them to Disneyland Paris one day. And as for it being a honeymoon—let's just say that even with us all sharing a family room, Ellie and I still found time to create a little magic of our own!

 
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