Chapter 3

Holly’s final exam started at nine on Thursday morning and lasted three hours. She needed all of the time but didn’t feel panicked or nervous about the questions on the paper or her responses. The students filed out of the large classroom after their papers had been collected, into the sunlight, laughing and joking as for the majority of those assembled, that event marked the end of their college life.

She heard a shout, “Holly!” The voice was Rob’s and she saw him jogging over to her. It wasn’t an exam day for him so she was touched that he had taken the time to find her and catch up. She kissed his lips and slipped her hand into his. “How’d it go, babe?” he asked.

“I think I did OK, no funny questions, nothing that we hadn’t covered at some point, although there was some material from last year that took a while to remember, but I’m happy” she said, swinging her hand with his.

“We should celebrate tonight then!” he said, leading them out to the car park.

“Yeah, but you have one more on Monday don’t you?” she said, looking over at him.

“I know, but I feel like celebrating. We’re one step closer to our big trip!”

“Oh Rob, you should concentrate on doing well in that exam. There’s plenty of time for celebration later,” she said, sensing his hand tighten around her fingers.

“I know then, let’s meet at the Red Lion tonight for a drink. We can talk about it then,” he suggested.

“Hmm, OK, but I can’t be out late, I have to be at the orphanage at eight tomorrow morning.”

“Again? You’re always over there”

“What do you mean? I haven’t been there for about ten days, ever since Reading Period started.” She looked straight ahead, dropping his hand.

“I don’t know, just seems that way” he said, dejected.

“I tell you what. Take me home and I’ll put a budget together for our trip. We can discuss it tonight,” she said with as much cheer as possible.

He dropped her off with a standard kiss and they agreed to meet at seven that evening. In her room, Holly opened a new Excel book and started listing the components of the trip. She looked online for airfares to destinations that seemed to offer a cheap route over to Hong Kong with stops in six cities. She added money for one month’s food and cheap accommodation in each city, plus spending money, insurance, rail travel, entry fees for tourist attractions and then broke it down as an expense per country. She printed it out, saved it then flopped onto her bed. It was three o’clock but the sun was no longer out, the trip was doomed to failure, Addie was right and the evening was going to be horrible.

She showered, changed her clothes, tidied her room and even gathered together some of Rob’s belongings which had drifted into her house. Just as she was leaving she saw a white envelope on the floor by her door with a simple “H” on it, no doubt from Addie. Inside were two twenty dollar bills, and a note saying that she hadn’t been able to get to the shops but hoped that the money made up for all the food she had eaten of hers. They both knew that she had eaten far less than forty dollars of food and Holly was touched by the girl’s kindness and slipped the note into her desk drawer to keep.

She got to the Red Lion just after seven and discovered that Rob hadn’t arrived. At the bar she ordered a small beer and paid cash for it then sat at the bar and watched the TV. Her heart thumped in her chest when the rear door behind the bar opened and Mike emerged. He nodded at her, looked away then turned back and smiled.

“Holly, isn’t it?” he said. She looked up at him, noting that he was indeed in great shape but not as enticing as her imaginary friend.

“Yeah. Mike?”

“Yeah, right! How’s it going?”

“Fine thanks, final exam was this morning.” He wasn’t the catch that she had imagined and the conversation was messing with her fantasy. Maybe in the cellar without quite so much light, maybe tied to a barrel would compensate.

“Ah ha, so now off to make your fortune, eh?”

“Hol!” said a voice behind her, unmistakably Rob. “You got a drink already?”

“Yeah, what do you want?” she asked.

“I’ll have a beer like you thanks” said Rob, nodding at the barman.

“See you later Holly” said Mike as he left through the back door. She nodded at him with a smile. He did have a very nice bum and tight jeans. Maybe tied to the rafters in the basement, naked, inspected and held tight by customers before being serviced by him.

“You OK?” said Rob.

“Sure, how’s your day?”

“Great, got some last minute revision done, thought about a route, you know” he said, taking a seat at a small table away from the door. She sat down next to him and squeezed his leg.

“Did you have any thoughts about costs?” she asked.

“Hol, don’t worry, it’ll sort itself out, I promise.”

“Do you want to see what I worked out?” she said, looking at the label on her beer.

“Go on then, but we can always adjust it, right?”

“Yeah, of course. So how many cities are you thinking of and how long in each?” she asked, as gently as possible. They both knew that the starting point and assumptions would be critical and they had discussed duration and potential cities when the trip had been in the dream stage.

“I dunno. Maybe ten cities over the year, something like that.”

“OK, so I can show you what I worked out for only six cities and six months,” she replied.

“I thought we were going for a year?” he asked, already pouting at the shortened trip.

“Here, these are my quick calculations,” she said, running down the entries with her finger. “Four flights including the return home, eight train rides from city to city, cheap lodging for nights we’re not on the train. Food at fifteen dollars a day each. Entrance fees to tourist sites, subways and bus fares, Internet fees, travel insurance and ten percent contingency.”

“Travel insurance?” he asked.

“In case you get sick or hit by a bus. It pays for your repatriation.”

“Huh, I don’t think we’d need that.”

“Well, just in case. So I make that seventeen thousand six hundred including the contingency” she said, pointing at the total.

“OK, about nine grand each” he said, a little quieter than she had expected.

“No, I mean that’s the cost per person, seventeen grand.”

“That’s dumb, you must have got a formula wrong!” he said, grabbing the sheet of paper.