by Nicky Wells
Joe’s face appeared behind Dan. “He has, too, and he’s been driving us all up the wall,” he shouted.
“Hiya, Joe.” I waved weakly. The downside of the tablet-Skype-conversation was that Dan was very rarely on his own as he snatched moments at lunchtime or before a show, when the rest of the band was present.
Joe grinned and blew me a kiss. “You’ll be better soon, you’ll see.” He disappeared from view again.
“Sorry about that,” Dan mumbled, but I laughed. Well, I tried to, at any rate, as the laughter turned into a massive coughing fit.
“You sound like you’ve been smoking forty a day,” Dan commented. “Don’t you think it’s time you all saw the doctor?”
“The doctor doesn’t want us anywhere near the practice,” I explained, my frustration clearly audible in my voice. “You know what the Health Service is like with flu. If you’re not dying, you stay at home, and don’t bother anyone with your germs.” I coughed again, and Dan grimaced.
“Anyway, I think we’re over the worst. It’s just getting back on our feet now.” I swiveled the tablet around so that Dan could see a peacefully sleeping Emily and Josh.
Dan grinned. “I know it’s grim, but you do look rather cozy back there, all snuggled up together.”
“Yeah, well, it was the easiest way.”
There was a commotion at the other end, and Dan turned away briefly. “I gotta go,” he announced when he faced the camera again. “I’ll call you again later.”
Possibly as a result of Jenny’s good home-cooked food—she had served us chicken soup that day—and the relief of having someone else take charge for a little while, and possibly also as a result of the fevers finally breaking, we had an unbroken night’s sleep that night, and things began to improve gradually.
February bled into March. The kids returned to school, and I returned to work. The incessant rain stopped, and there were signs of spring everywhere. Little crocuses and daffodils were pushing up through the soil, and most days, the sun put in a little appearance in the still-cold blue sky. We had weathered the halfway point of Dan’s absence.
Over in the States, the band had finished recording. The album was released early in March, and naturally, the Jones family received a signed copy by courier before the album hit the shelves. By the time the tour went underway, we had fallen into a comfortable routine of chatting and catching up, sometimes altogether as a family, and sometimes just the adults. Dan sent us pictures and reviews for every show, and even made the occasional clip for us to watch. Meanwhile, the children were invited to birthday parties, and we made plans to spend Easter down in Newquay with my parents. Days whizzed past, and I gathered hope.
Chapter Fifty-One
“Please can I take my Lego police station to Granny and Grandad’s house?” Josh begged for the fifteenth time, looking at me with imploring eyes, and I resisted the urge to snap at him—just. Packing the kids into a car for a two-week holiday with my parents in Newquay was already stressful enough without Josh making continuous left-field demands. I suppressed a sigh and crouched down to bring my face on a level with his.
“Sweetheart, there’s so much stuff to play with at Granny and Grandad’s, I really don’t think you need to take your Lego with you. Plus,” I seized on an inspiration, “you wouldn’t want to lose any pieces, would you? It’s already difficult to keep them together here at home.”
Josh looked crestfallen and my resolve nearly crumbled. “Why don’t you…why don’t you go find Scooby. He would be a good thing to take.” Apart from his addiction to Lego, Scooby Doo was his new major love, and he had been given a cute cuddly toy he wouldn’t be parted from at night.
“Good idea,” Josh agreed and raced off to collect his dog.
I straightened up and turned to pick up our bags to put them in the car. I collided head on with an unexpected solid object.
“Oomph.” The solid object gave an amused gasp and wrapped me in his arms. Fear, confusion, and joy raced through my mind in quick succession as I computed his presence in my house. How? Why? What?
“Dan!” I couldn’t keep a high-pitched squeal of excitement from my voice. Dan laughed and scooped me off my feet, swinging me around my small kitchen. I wrapped my arms around his neck and nuzzled in.
“What are you doing here?” I mumbled into his chest, hardly believing he was real. His warmth, his scent, his lovely Dan-ness. Hmmm-hmmm.
“I thought the tour was going on for another couple of weeks?”
Dan set me down and regarded me with those big eyes of his.
“Aren’t you due in…LA and…New York…and Washington?” I scrabbled to recall the exact schedule, although I had it imprinted on my brain at one point.
“I’ve just come from Washington,” he informed me, “and I’m due in Seattle tomorrow for rehearsal. The next show’s on Monday. But I simply had to come see you.”
I took a closer look at him, noting that he looked a little tired but healthy, with eyes brimming with excitement and…something else. I also clocked his five o’clock shadow and slightly whiffy appearance. “You’re just off the plane?”
Dan nodded.
“Just to see us?”
Dan shook his head. “Not only to see you. I’ve come to collect you. You’re coming with me on the rest of the tour.”
“Wha—?”
I couldn’t finish my question, and no doubt my mouth was hanging open in an unattractive ‘O’, but the children had heard Dan’s voice. Footsteps that sounded like a herd of elephants trampled down the stairs, and within seconds, Emily and Josh were rushing at their godfather, nearly toppling him off his feet. He sat down on the floor and gathered them both in his lap, mischief now dancing in his eyes. He ruffled their hair in response to their many excited exclamations and waited for them to calm down before he launched the killer question.
“How would you two like to come with me and your mummy on an airplane to America and see the rest of my tour?”
“Yay!” Josh jumped to his feet and punched the air, superhero style.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Emily remained on Dan’s lap, but jiggled up and down gleefully.
Dan laughed and clapped his hands. The noise level was astounding.
Joy rose in my heart and brought a lump to my throat. How exciting, how unspeakably thrilling to go on tour with Tuscq again. Possibilities and thoughts jostled for attention. A second tour. A second chance?
I stamped on that notion hard and fast, and my knees grew weak with confused emotions. I sank into a kitchen chair and wrapped my arms around my chest to hold myself together. Dan watched my every move and gave me an encouraging smile when he saw the fruit machine of thoughts come to a standstill on my face.
“What do you think?”
“Er…” I had to clear my throat before I could speak. Where to start? How to start? “That would be lovely and very exciting, but do you really think it’s possible? I mean, the kids are so young…”
“We want to go!” Josh was quick to put a stop to any of my objections on account of their age.
“Want to go,” Emily echoed. Oh heck!
“It’s fine,” Dan reassured me. “It’s absolutely not a problem. Joe and Mick have brought their children on many a tour and—”
“Will Ellen come, with the kids?” I pounced on that idea. I really liked Ellen, and if she was bringing her kids, then that would somehow make it more…okay. My notions of responsible parenting clashed violently with the idea of taking the kids on a rock tour.
Dan shook his head. “They were going to,” he explained. “But James has chicken pox and…”
Enough said; I felt oddly deflated.
“What about Mick’s family?”
“They’ve been out already. They came in the February half-term for a couple of weeks.”
Ah. Well. My mind seized gratefully on the notion that Mick’s kids had gone out to the tour, and that Ellen would have brought hers had it not been for chicken pox. Maybe it was all
right. But…
“When? I mean, it’s the school holidays and all, but…When did you imagine this to happen?”
I noticed the kids had gone absolutely quiet, watching our exchange like spectators at a tennis match, eagerly awaiting a positive outcome. Dan moved Emily onto his other leg and shifted his body around slightly. No doubt her increasing weight was killing him, but he never said a word.
“Today,” he said. “Now.”
“What?” This time, I got the word out whole, even though Emily and Josh erupted into a quick cheer.
“Today?” I repeated incredulously. “But…but…”
Dan grinned at me. “I see you’ve already packed, as it happens, so why not?”
“We’re…we’re going to my parents. Oh God, I can’t just stand them up. They’ll be devastated. They made all these plans…” My heart sank to the boots I wasn’t wearing. I could definitely feel it in my big toe, throbbing away.
“Ring them,” Dan said with an impassive face. “See what they say.”
“But…but…” I sounded like a sick parrot. “Even if they’re okay with it, we have no tickets, no visa…”
Dan shifted his weight again so he could raise an arm off the floor. He scrabbled around in the back pocket of his jeans and whipped out a sheaf of papers.
“Et voilà,” he pronounced with a flourish. “Tickets…” He fanned out three sets of airline tickets in his hands. “And visa waiver forms.” He added three more pieces of paper to the fan.
I must have looked at him completely blankly, because he gave the papers to Josh and said, “Here, bring these to your mummy.” Josh took them carefully and transported them the three steps across the room.
“Mummy, please?” he wheedled as a precautionary measure when he handed me the paperwork. “Please say we can go?”
I waggled my head instead of a response and looked at the documents. There were three tickets, economy class, one in each of our names, to leave from Heathrow for SeaTac International airport.
“Today?” I whispered. “At three o’clock?”
Dan nodded.
I cast a look at my oven clock. “In…like… five hours?”
Dan nodded again.
I examined the other documents. They were printouts of something called ESTA.
“Electronic System for Travel Authorization,” Dan offered before I could ask a question. “Remember the old green immigration cards you used to have to fill in on flights to the US?”
My turn to nod. It had been a long time since I had traveled to the States.
“Well, they don’t do those anymore. Instead, you have to fill in this stuff online ahead of time, and it’s a case of going through immigration at the other end.”
I perused the documents more closely. “These have our names and birthdates and passport numbers and everything.”
“Sure. It’s got to match, you see. It’s all done and paid for. We can’t do anything more than present you three on the other side.”
“But…” I was stuck on that word again. “But how did you know our passport numbers? How did you even know the kids had passports?”
It was, in fact, a small miracle that they did have passports. Steve’s parents had insisted, when Emily was a year old, that I should have passports made out for both kids, because I could never know when the mood to travel might take me. I had laughed at the time, but now I saw the wisdom of their words. Nonetheless, how did Dan know all of that?
“I had help,” he grinned.
Something stirred in my mind. A little thought. A conversation I had had with my Dad not too long ago. Something about banks and life insurance and…
I looked Dan squarely in the eye. His entire face was wreathed in smiles.
“Dad?” I said uncertainly. “Is that why he wanted our passport numbers a few weeks ago?”
Dan nodded, almost gleefully.
“Dad’s in on this?” I repeated, just to be clear. “You’ve talked to him about this?” More nods on Dan’s part. “He knows about this plan?”
“Why don’t you just call your parents?” Dan suggested again.
“You know, I just will,” I retorted and went to the lounge to retrieve the phone. Mum picked up on the second ring, almost as if she had been waiting for me to call.
“Sophie love! Is he there yet? I hope you’re not being obstinate and coming up with all sorts of reasons not to go?” She launched into the conversation without preamble, without even a hello.
I laughed. “You really do know about this?”
Mum made an ‘uh-huh’ noise of confirmation.
“And you’ve played along with all these plans for the kids and me to come down for Easter because…?”
“Well, it was just perfect, wasn’t it? Aren’t you all packed and ready to go on holiday?”
“We are, but—”
“No ‘but.’ I expected you’ll have to go to the airport quite soon.” Mum was brisk in her dismissal of any of my unspoken concerns. I could hear a riot of laughter in the kitchen, but I couldn’t make out what the source of the hilarity was.
“Mum…do you really think that’s a good idea? Going on tour again? Taking the kids and all?”
There was silence at the other end, and I held my breath.
“Sweetheart,” Mum eventually spoke. “Only you can answer that question. You have to follow your heart. But I don’t see a really good reason not to go? I mean, it’s like the holiday of a lifetime, isn’t it? Think of all those beautiful cities you’ll get to see…”
Dan had obviously filled them in with a lot of detail about the tour he wanted the Jones family to join. Mum was going all dreamy and faraway on me.
I tried a different tack.
“Don’t you think it’s terribly irresponsible, taking the kids into that environment?”
Mum chuckled. “I don’t see why. You took them to the New Year’s show and they were fine, weren’t they?”
“I know, but this is different. It’s—”
“Don’t be silly. You don’t think Dan would let you or the kids come to any harm, do you?”
“Err, no, but—”
“Sophie, if you ‘but’ me once again, I’ll personally come down there and shove you on that plane. Just go!”
Whoa! I recoiled from the handset and looked at it in shock. What had just happened? I hadn’t heard my Mum raise her voice to me since I was a teenager. Mum spoke again, more softly.
“Just go. Have fun. Show the kids what sights you can. Make the most of it. You deserve it.”
I swallowed hard. “I love you, Mum.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
Another thought occurred to me, although I suppressed the ‘but’ before Mum could blow a gasket. “What about you and Dad? What are you going to do over Easter?”
Mum laughed. “We’ve a list of invitations for Easter parties as long as my arm, and we might just have a few days in London or something.”
“You didn’t plan for us to come at all, did you?”
“Nope,” Mum confirmed dryly. “We knew you’d be otherwise engaged.”
Suddenly, I couldn’t hold the joy in anymore. At the end of the day, this was a dream come true—again. Dan had obviously moved heaven and earth for us to join the band in the States. The tickets were there, the visas were there, the suitcases were packed. All that remained was to retrieve our passports and we could go.
“Mum?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“I gotta go.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
“And did you pack these bags yourself?” The officious check-in agent cast her eyes over our luggage. Mine, and the kids, that was. Dan didn’t have any, although that wasn’t obvious in the humdrum collection of suitcases and bags.
“I certainly have,” I piped up. Josh and Emily stood silently beside me, overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the airport and the vastness of the terminal building. Their eyes, however, gleamed with excitement.
“Excuse me, sir, madam?” Another airline official approached us from behind the counter. She spoke very quietly and blushed slightly.
“Are you…aren’t you Dan Hunter?”
Dan smiled at her graciously. “I am,” he whispered back, mimicking her secretive voice. “It’s very nice to meet you, Lilly.” He used her name as though he hadn’t just read it off her name tag. What a smooth operator. Lilly thought so, too. She nearly giggled and touched her hand self-consciously to her hair.
“Would it be incredibly rude if I asked you for an autograph?”
Behind-the-counter lady shot Lilly an aggrieved look, but according to her name tag, Lilly was the senior check-in manager and evidently outranked the other agent.
“Not at all,” Dan obliged. “Have you…?” He motioned for a pen and a piece of paper and wrote Lilly a little message. Lilly blushed and smiled.
“Um…are you all traveling together?” she asked.
“Sure,” Dan explained. “This is my friend, Sophie, and these are my godchildren, Emily and Josh.”
Lilly’s eyes widened. “Godchildren. Wow. I had no idea.” Dan smiled, and we all stood there awkwardly for a moment. Then Lilly spoke again.
“If…um, without meaning to be…intrusive or anything, but…um, how come you’re traveling economy with us today?”
Dan gave a belly laugh. “Not intrusive at all. I don’t often travel economy, do I?”
Lilly had meanwhile gone back behind the desk and was tapping away at the computer terminal. “No, I can see that,” she agreed. “You’ve been doing rather a lot of flying with us these past few weeks. So how come…?”
Dan shrugged. “This was a last minute booking and, well…” He shrugged. “Budgets,” he mumbled under his breath, but we all heard him anyway. I felt a little uncomfortable. I hadn’t even considered the cost of it all. I shifted from foot to foot and tried to look inconspicuous. Dan picked up on my emotion.
“Ah, there you have it. I knew you’d be embarrassed when you’d think about the tickets,” he mumbled. “It’s okay, really. I want the kids and you to come, and don’t you start talking about paying me back.”