Chapter 17
MARTHA
When we filed off the bus at Saskatoon there was a collective groan as our limbs moved for the first time in eight hours.
No one hung around, though. We scattered just as we had done on that first day of the race.
We still didn’t seem to know where we were going.
How I wished to be able to pick up my phone and google hotels and hostels in the area.
Instead, we just followed our noses. In this instance it was the smell of food that had me looking.
The wonderful aroma, it turned out, was coming from a restaurant just along the street from the bus stop.
‘We could just go and share a small, hot meal,’ I said to Erin. I was so hungry on this journey half the time. It was all the exercise that prodded my appetite.
The restaurant was a family-friendly looking place that offered what they called ‘home-cooked meals’. That was what the sign said but as I usually just opened a tin of vegetable soup and popped some bread in the toaster when I was at home, I wondered what this really meant. Pork was the answer.
‘I could just eat the pork casserole,’ I said, looking at the menu pinned to the wall near the door. ‘It’s not too expensive. And if we are paying to eat out, I really need something to fill me up. All we’ve consumed in the last twenty-four hours is crackers and coffee. I need a meal.’
‘That’s settled then,’ Erin said. ‘First stop, food, and we can find out how we can do the last 320 kilometres before the train leaves tomorrow.’
We were offered a table near the window by a very friendly waitress who took our order and then brought over a large fizzy water for me and a small beer for Erin.
‘This is probably the longest I’ve been without alcohol in ages,’ I said, thinking back to that glass of fizz I had on the flight over. That seemed like a lifetime ago now.
‘Well, don’t worry, I’m not going to get on it despite my rather large yearning to. I’ll just have this one beer,’ Erin said.
‘You have whatever you want as long as it’s cheap,’ I said with a grin.
Our food was delicious and so welcome after the snacking we’d done on and off all day.
My back ached from my heavy rucksack and I’d been tempted to ditch the roll mat I’d been lugging around with me.
I hadn’t used it, only the sleeping bag, but I knew that as soon as I offloaded it, I’d probably need it.
‘How was your food?’ the waitress asked us when she came over to clear the plates.
‘The best,’ said Erin, leaning back in her chair.
‘Thank you so much,’ I added.
‘So, are you guys travelling around? How far are you going?’ she asked.
Noah had gone off to have dinner with Cally and said he’d be back in a couple of hours and not to go anywhere without him.
As if we would. I told the waitress all about our trip of a lifetime and how far we had come.
More importantly I told her how far we had to go in case she had any hints and tips for us.
‘Me and Mom love reality TV shows. We watch them all.’
I didn’t tell her that I rarely watched any. The truth was they didn’t interest me and it was another reminder of why I was really in this race. Revenge, Erin would have said, but pride was closer to the truth.
‘Can I ask you about recommendations for somewhere for us to stay tonight?’ I asked the girl once she’d stopped enthusing about the fact we were on a TV show. She was rather sweet really, and her name was Nellie.
‘Hang on for a minute,’ she said. ‘Let me just go and check something.’
She disappeared back into the kitchen and returned five minutes later with a woman who had to be her mother. They both had fiery red curls and even though the colour looked like it was from a bottle, their features were so similar, they were clearly related.
‘I’m Louise,’ she said, wiping her hand on her apron. ‘The owner of Truffle and Grunt pig farm and restaurant.’
‘So, the pork is your own?’ I said. ‘The best way to know quality. It was delicious, thank you.’
I’d had one of the best casseroles I’d ever eaten, that was the truth.
‘I was going to offer you ladies a place to stay tonight. Nell said you were short on cash and I thought you might help me out with shutting up shop here and maybe a bit of help with the pigs in the morning. I’m a staff member down but mostly I’d love to be part of your journey. What do you think?’
I looked at Erin who nodded quickly. The thought of free accommodation was too much to turn down.
‘That sounds great,’ I said. ‘But we do have to get to Canora for the Churchill train leaving at 19.45 tomorrow.’
‘No problem and I can help you with that for sure.’
‘Well, Louise, you might have just become my new best friend,’ I said, beaming at her. ‘We’ll have Noah with us initially if that’s okay. He’s our camera guy and will probably want to film us a bit while we’re working.’
‘Okay, the more the merrier,’ she said.
In the end, there wasn’t too much to do in the restaurant and we were cleaned up and shutting the door by nine. Noah had popped in and back out again saying he’d join us on the farm in the morning.
‘We don’t do a late sitting,’ Louise said as she showed us to her truck.
‘You offer folk food and booze too late and you’ll never get rid of them.
Now, I don’t want you to get all excited about the accommodation.
It’ll be in the barn but not with the pigs.
It’s warm and cosy. Nellie has had sleepovers with her girlfriends in there plenty of times. ’
‘That sounds amazing,’ I said, nudging Erin who opened her mouth to say something. ‘We have roll mats and sleeping bags.’
‘Well, that’s perfect then.’
‘But what will the work be?’ Erin asked. ‘I don’t know anything about pigs.’
‘Just cleaning up a bit and feeding the animals. Nothing too strenuous. I’ll run you through it all in the morning.’
The barn, it turned out, was nothing like I imagined.
If Nellie was having sleepovers in it, I had pictured fairy lights and maybe some mattresses at the very least. There were neither of those things, though.
The barn was being used as a shed really, with huge tubs of pig feed and farm equipment.
It wasn’t warm or cosy and I had to assume that Nellie wasn’t having her sleepovers in May.
Just as I was wondering whether we would have to curl up around the pig feed, Louise pointed to a ladder that led us up to a hayloft. I knew this was what it was used for because when I poked my head up, I could see bits of hay all over the floor. It was dry, I thought, at least it was dry.
‘This will do us very nicely,’ I said before Erin could offer up an opinion of her own. ‘Is there a toilet we can use?’
‘Yes, there’s the farm workers’ biffy,’ Louise said. ‘It’s just behind the barn.’
‘A biffy?’ asked Erin.
‘That’s what we call the outhouse,’ she said.
‘Great,’ I said. ‘Thanks again.’
‘Well, I’ll leave you ladies to get set up then and I’ll see you bright and early in the morning.’
‘I’m so glad Noah isn’t here filming this,’ I said when Louise had gone. ‘The look on your face was priceless. It still is.’
‘I kept waiting for her to tell us it was a joke and that of course we were going to use her spare room. Are we really going to sleep in here?’ Erin said, her face a picture of disgust.
‘This is a great opportunity,’ I said. ‘To not have the cost of accommodation will really help our cash. Unless you have another opportunity up your sleeve?’
‘No,’ she said grudgingly and began to unroll her mat and shake out her sleeping bag.
‘I’m going to check out this biffy. What an adventure,’ I said and Erin shuddered. I chuckled as I climbed back down the ladder.
It was getting colder outside and I decided I’d sleep in my clothes.
Quite honestly, the thought of getting undressed was unpleasant and the only things I was going to remove were my trainers, and maybe not even those.
The day had been quite mild but now the sun had well and truly gone, the temperature had dropped considerably.
The biffy was exactly what I thought it might be and probably all the more unappealing in my weak torchlight.
At least I wouldn’t be able to see any creepy-crawlies sharing the space.
It was a wooden hut with a door that didn’t close properly but at least it wasn’t just a hole in the ground.
There was a proper toilet and even a small sink.
It smelled awful and judging by the full bottle of toilet cleaner on a rickety shelf, wasn’t often, if ever, cleaned.
I exercised my thigh muscles by hovering over the seat as I relieved myself.
Erin was already in her bag when I returned. I considered drinking some of the water from the bottle I kept in my rucksack before I got into mine, but didn’t fancy another trip to the loo in the night so decided against it.
I shuffled closer to Erin to keep us both warm and really it wasn’t that bad.
‘How are we doing with our cash?’ Erin asked in the dark.
‘Churchill will be the halfway point in the race and depending on how much the train fare is up there and back, we’re about halfway through the money. I think that’s pretty good, to be honest.’
‘I think Harrison and Sam might be being a bit spendy,’ Erin said. ‘They made up that massive time difference to get the bus to here. Maybe they got a taxi. They might run out before the end of the race.’
‘That would make our win all the less triumphant,’ I said.
‘Do you really think we’ll win?’
I honestly didn’t. We hadn’t managed to come first at the two checkpoints so far.
I didn’t think I was physically strong enough in truth.
My knee was aching far more than I would admit to and I was fairly exhausted most of the time.
I had such ambitious thoughts at the beginning of the race.
My want to beat Harrison had driven those thoughts but the challenge was huge.
Canada was huge. We weren’t even at the halfway point yet and truthfully I would be delighted to get on a plane at the nearest airport and fly home.
‘I do. I can picture us on the finish line with a cheque for fifty thousand pounds in our hands.’
I listened to the sound of Erin falling asleep but my eyes were wide open in the dark. I was wondering how I was going to make that unlikely picture come true.