Chapter 15
15
‘But we are so close…’ Deva wheedled, hoping that if he persisted, maybe there was a chance he could change Aunt Lucie’s mind.
‘No, Deva, we’re sticking to the main road and that is final!’ Lucie said, and she knew it sounded a bit harsh, but really, she had already detoured through Paris and talked him down from a statue; hadn’t she done enough? And not forgetting that he’d thrown her extremely expensive bag into the crowd! Although, by some miracle – maybe the spirit of Coco Chanel was looking out for Deva – on the walk back to the hotel, they had actually found it, somewhat squashed, grubby and trampled, hanging from a railing.
‘But I don’t know when I’m going to get this chance again,’ Deva pleaded from the back seat.
‘If it’s so important to you, why don’t you book a trip over before the end of the summer?’ Lucie suggested, hands on the wheel as she looked forwards, eyes on the road. There was a straightforward plan for today and she didn’t want to deviate from it. No impromptu trips to Paris, or evenings on top of statues.
Today was about getting though the hours of travel and then arriving safely at the wedding destination in good time. There, Zoe and Deva would join the rest of the family for the pre-wedding dinner, while Lucie would head south on her own to the little B pointing at himself, he said, ‘Deva, and this is my Aunt Lucie. Zoe is in the car.’
Pete pointed under the bonnet and with some simple words tried to convey the problem.
Lucie’s grasp of car mechanics was not exactly extensive, and from the sliver of light from Deva’s phone and explanations only along the lines of ‘bad here’, ‘make fix good’, ‘only short, short’, she was not learning anything more.
‘We can drive for a short time?’ Deva clarified.
Pete nodded vigorously.
‘Where is a town? Where is help?’ Deva asked him.
Pete pointed back down the steep hill they’d climbed up in the car all those hours ago now and then pointed right.
Right was away from the main road, Lucie realised. Right was deeper into this unknown region and away from their route.
‘Maybe we should go back to the main road,’ she suggested to Deva. ‘We have no idea where this town is, how long it will take to get there, or if the car could even make it. We could end up sitting at the side of another deserted road.’
‘Town?’ Deva pointed right. ‘Or big road?’ He pointed left, hoping Pete would understand him. ‘Which one is close? Is near? Is soon? Quick?’ He tried a variety of words, hoping Pete would understand.
‘Car… town,’ Pete said emphatically, pointing right again.
‘Can you make the car work?’ Lucie asked.
‘Yes,’ was all the reply she got as Pete turned his attention back to under the bonnet.
Pete began to turn the cap off one container and moved a wire or two around, talking to himself in a language that sounded completely unfamiliar and unrecognisable to Lucie. She wondered where this young guy was from and how he had ended up here, in the middle of the barren French hillside. She didn’t think it was going to be a happy story.
After a few minutes of this, he smiled at them and with the words ‘make drive’, indicated that he had done what he needed to do and they could hopefully get to the nearby town.
‘Thank you very much,’ Lucie said, eager now for them to be in the car and driving away from a situation that still made her feel uneasy.
But Pete, putting the bonnet carefully back down on the engine, then turned to them and, looking first at Lucie, then Deva, asked: ‘Help me? Brother, sick.’
Now her sense of mistrust was dialling up again.
‘Where is he?’ Lucie asked.
The boy pointed off the road into the hillside. Could he be trusted? Could she really be sure it was safe to follow this guy off the road and towards who knew where?
‘I’ll go and ask Zoe what she thinks,’ Lucie said to Deva.
Opening the car door, Lucie leaned in and told her daughter: ‘He thinks he’s fixed the car enough for us to drive to a nearby town…’
‘Well, that’s pretty amazing. Good for him,’ Zoe replied.
‘Yes, but now, he’s asking if we can come and see his brother, who is ill. And apparently, this brother is off the road, into the countryside. I don’t know how far… hopefully not too far. I just don’t know if we should trust him, Zoe. Maybe it’s a trick. Do you think I should go and take a look? I can come back and tell you what I think.’
But Zoe was already opening the car door and hoisting herself out of the passenger’s seat.
‘Zoe, you are going to stay here,’ Lucie insisted. ‘I’ll go and look, find out how far away the brother is.’
‘Mum!’ Zoe protested. ‘I’m the nurse, and I’m pregnant, not unable to walk.’
‘But… but… what if the brother doesn’t exist? And, anyway, you must be so tired,’ Lucie countered.
‘I work in ICU. Believe me, this is a picnic,’ came Zoe’s reply.
‘OK… OK,’ Lucie relented. ‘But I’m going with you and Deva can stay with the car.’
‘Fine. Let me get my kit out of my bag.’
‘What kit?’
‘I always carry a medical first aid kit, ever since…’ She broke off because she didn’t need to remind her mother.
‘Oh,’ was Lucie’s quiet response. There was no danger she would ever forget that very close call. Her daughter had been one of four nursing students out for dinner when her friend had accidentally eaten peanut sauce and a last-minute change of handbag meant she wasn’t carrying her epi pen. The restaurant had no first aid kit and the ambulance had almost not made it in time. Lucie remembered now that Zoe could hardly even tell her about it the next day because she was so upset and almost completely hoarse from running up and down the street, into other restaurants and bars, screaming for an epi pen, to no avail.
‘Nothing worse than knowing what you need to do, but not having the kit,’ Zoe said briskly, as she opened the boot of the car and unzipped her travel bag.
When the robust, neatly packaged kit was in her hands, Lucie told Pete that she and Zoe would walk with him to where his brother was. The smile and obvious relief in his face when he realised what she was saying gave Lucie a little more faith that this was all as it seemed and everything was going to be OK.
But still, in a low voice, she told Deva, ‘You’ll stay here with the car. I’ve locked the boot and I’m taking the key, so if anyone else turns up, they can’t ’ – she wanted it to sound light, almost jokey – ‘drive off with you, or anything.’
‘Yeah, of course… no worries, it’ll be fine,’ Deva said. ‘He’s a good guy, I can tell. He’s a ’fugee. Like my dad was once. Dad always said everyone suspects you’re a villain when you’re just a human who wants to be alive, in a safe place.’
Lucie took a last look at Deva and hoped he was right, hoped his trust had been put in the right place. She smiled at him, liking the cheerful and alert look on his face. It was only when she was walking away, following Pete with Zoe by her side, that Lucie realised Deva was still wearing her black lace dress… Yes, she glanced over her shoulder to check. He was.
It suited him so completely, fitted him so well, and clearly he was so at home and comfortable in it that she hadn’t even noticed. And no one else seemed to be noticing it – or mentioning it either. She shrugged. Time to concentrate now on Zoe and this young man just ahead of them leading the way over the stony, dusty ground towards, hopefully, not any kind of trap or trick, but another young man who needed their help.