Chapter 21

Summoned by mom.

“Come home.” she said. Then to give the overseas operator something to gossip about, she said, “All is forgiven.” And disconnected.

What to do, what to do?

Air travel.

When the prospective passengers are unaccompanied teens ... and they have a choice ... go east ... the short way ... OR ... go west ... the long way ... and they don’t know and won’t know until the bank statement that it is they, not mom, who are paying ... which do you suppose they choose?

Got it in one ... Dunedin to Sydney by air. Sydney to Perth by rail. In Perth one can no longer stand to smell ones twin. You had intended to fly out immediately but clean sheets, clean clothes and a good long soak is paramount. The soak came first ... then the sleep.

The recovery is two days for him and three for her. Rather than pay hotel rates for clean clothes, they search out a self service laundry. The one they found is near a beach ... a NUDE beach.

They stayed long enough to use the self service laundry an additional three times.

It takes a long time to dirty clothes when one is not wearing any.

Nicely tanned, the pair fly to Darwin and ‘puddlejump” the islands to Bali

Bali to Singapore.

Singapore to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka to Madagaskar.

Madagascar to USA ... the other USA Union of South Africa.

Canarias comes next. There they were propositioned. “Movie extras?”

Made in the Canaries is a porn series. Of course he knew.

“No.”

North to London.

London to Iceland ... to Greenland ... to New York City.

“Where have you been?”

“Out.”

“What have you been doing?”

“Nothing.”

A serious case of the giggles.