Half the World Away

by Rebecca Banks

  She handed a little package over and Abbie emptied into her hand a tiny shamrock charm.

  ‘So you’ll never be able to forget me.’

  ‘As if I ever could.’

  Abbie could sense that much more time together would see them all get maudlin, and as much as she wanted to squeeze every moment of time in with her loved ones, she didn’t want everyone to start crying, so she told them she had better head through security. After many tight hugs and kisses, and despite their best efforts, a few tears, she went through the security gate.

  She felt like a child who had just had their training wheels taken off their bike. A bit wobbly, but after a few paces she gathered her confidence and felt like she was flying.

  The airport was a blast. She bought some new sunglasses, a multicoloured silk scarf, some too-high heels and a bright blue maxi dress. What was it about airports that made it seem like you had monopoly money in your purse and you weren’t spending real cash?

  Glancing up at the screens, she noticed her flight was boarding. This was it.

  She strode purposefully towards the gate. Armed with her passport, boarding pass and an address scribbled down on a piece of paper to take a taxi to at the other end, she was ready for her next chapter.

  CHAPTER 5

  Standing on tiptoe to stretch her legs and reaching her arms to the sky as she got out of the taxi, an utterly exhausted Abbie stood on the pavement outside her new temporary home. It was difficult to see much, with the street shrouded in the darkness of the late hour, but Abbie didn’t have the energy to look at her surroundings anyway; it had been a hell of a journey. After leaving her old flat in London nearly twenty hours ago, she’d flown across the Atlantic all the way to Las Vegas, and then waited for nearly three hours in the airport for her connecting flight.

  She’d amused herself for ten minutes on the slot machines (net loss four dollars but, hey, she was in Vegas), watched a whole lot of stag and hen parties walk back and forth (or bachelor and bachelorette was the correct terminology here judging by the t-shirt slogans: MEGAN’S BACHELORETTE DOES VEGAS! WATCH OUT BACHELOR ABOUT!) and finally settled down with a Utah travel guide she found in the bookshop, scanning the glossy pages until her flight to Salt Lake City boarded. Reading the statistics about where she was heading, she wondered if it would feel like there was so much more space around her, going from a city with six million people crowding around each other in the ultimate rat race to a place with just 190,000 inhabitants. Was it going to be the proverbial breath of fresh air? Or would she be bored, missing the hustle and bustle of England’s capital? Would she pine for the jam-packed tube and the teeming streets?

  Now she looked up and located the apartment number of the place that the Utah Saints had arranged for her to stay in for three months, until she found a long-term solution. The low, single-storey modern building was covered in light cream horizontal vinyl strips of siding with a grey slate gable roof. A dark grey solid wood front door was the entryway to her new home and she couldn’t wait to get through it.

  The taxi driver carried her two cases up the four steps to the front door and Abbie used the last bit of energy in her body to offer her appreciation and hand him a tip.

  ‘No problem, ma’am. Have a nice day now.’ The driver left her with a friendly wave.

  Wow. So, it really was like that. What a difference from the grunting London cabbies she was used to.

  The email from Hank Henderson’s secretary had told her that the key would be under the doormat, so she fished around in the dark until her hand closed around the cold piece of metal.

  Fiddling it around in the lock, she finally heard a click and the door swung open. She lifted her cases inside, leaving them near the door, and feeling along the wall, she located a switch that suddenly bathed the dark entrance hall with soft light. Through the door to the left was a large kitchen and living space. The kitchen was modern, all silver appliances and dove grey units. The lounge area was carpeted in a soft-looking dark grey pile, with a lighter grey corner sofa and an ash wood dining table with four chairs. A matching bookcase sat against one wall while a huge television was mounted opposite the sofa. It looked like something from a catalogue, and she couldn’t believe her luck.

  On the opposite side of the hallway was the bathroom. Another modern-looking room, this one was all white, with a huge shower cubicle and two sinks. She couldn’t quite comprehend why one sink wouldn’t be enough, but this was America – everything was bigger and better, she’d been told.

  The room next to the lounge was a decent size with a queen bed, decorated like the lounge in neutral tones, with the same dark grey carpet. Built in closets filled the length of one wall with a dresser on the opposite side of the room. It was bigger than her room in London, and she knew she would love staying here.

  As much as she wanted to explore her new place, root about in the kitchen drawers and cupboards and start writing a list of things she’d need to buy, tiredness engulfed her. She couldn’t even think about opening a suitcase so she stripped off her shoes, jeans, jacket and jumper and crawled under the grey covers in her t-shirt. She faintly recognised that she still had her make-up on, but before the thought could fully form, she let the marshmallow-soft mattress and sheets envelop her and fell into a deep slumber.

  Waking up to the sun streaming through the window, Abbie mentally cursed herself for being too tired to close the curtains. She shut her eyes again but quickly realised she was now wide awake and had zero chance of going back to sleep. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was 5:23 a.m. Got to love jet lag. Although she supposed it was better having the whole day to get to grips with the area before she had to report for work the next day.

  First things first though. She needed a shower after the trip she had made yesterday. It was the farthest she’d ever travelled and she felt a long, long way from home.

  Heading into the entrance to get her suitcases, she noticed a fourth door that she hadn’t got around to opening last night. In the thick fog of tiredness that had descended upon her, she’d barely noticed it was there.

  Opening the door, her jaw dropped. It was bright and airy and decorated in the same style as the other bedroom, but this room had taken steroids. In the middle was an enormous bed. She didn’t really know what king size was, but this must be even bigger. President size? Along an entire wall ran wardrobes with mirrored sliding doors. She didn’t have enough clothes to fill even five per cent of it. Another huge TV was wall-mounted opposite the bed above a long chest of drawers, and to the side of that, a dresser with a mirror and stool. But the pièce de résistance was at the other end of the room where a huge window opened out to the view of a beautiful park filled with trees. In front of the window was a chaise longue in the same dove grey as the lounge sofa.

  ‘Holy shit.’

  After a moment of stillness she screamed, ran and launched herself into the middle of the bed. This whole thing had to be a dream. There was no way she could be living here. She’d find out it was all a horrible mistake later on and they’d move her to a studio flat above a kebab shop or something.

  Sitting up and looking around the beautiful room, she saw some paperwork on the dresser. Scrambling over, she picked up the note, which was handwritten in perfect cursive.

  Hello Abbie!!

  Welcome to Salt Lake City! We’re all looking forward so much to meeting you! In the meantime, here’s some information for you to help you on your FIRST DAY in Utah!!

  - The key to your company car is in the drawer of this dresser. The car is parked right in front of the apartment in space 4B – that’s your allocated spot.

  - Also in the dresser is your new cell phone and charger. I’ve programmed in a few numbers for you, including mine, so don’t hesitate to call if you need anything! Your number is 555-586-8294. I checked for you and your family can dial it from the UK by putting 001 in front of that number.

  - Your email address is already set up on your cell phone and you’ll g
et your laptop at the office. Your email address is abbie.potter@utahsaints.com.

  - The apartment has Wi-Fi. The network is ‘Liberty4B’ and the password is ‘UT4H4EVA’. (I set that up!)

  - Your closest grocery store is two blocks away. Just head north on S 500 E (north is if the park is on your right ) and you’ll reach it. I’ve marked it on the map I’ve left with this letter. There’s a Walgreen’s drugstore next to it in case you need to buy any medicines. I did put a little survival kit in the kitchen with some basics such as painkillers, Band-Aids, vitamins, sleeping pills, etc.

  - There’s a gas station right across the street from the grocery store if you need to fill up. Your car is DIESEL so be careful to fill with the right gas!

  - If you have any problems with the apartment please call me and I’ll make sure to resolve it with the management agency. We want you to be so happy here so let me know any issue at all!

  - If you come to my office when you arrive I’ll give you an orientation, go through your paperwork and make sure you’re settled in. I thought we could have lunch together too to get to know each other so I’ve booked a table at a restaurant close by for 12.30 p.m. I can’t wait!!

  Have a GREAT day!

  Yours

  Kitty McIntire

  Senior Personal Assistant to Mr Hank Henderson III &

  President of Utah Saints Internal Social Committee

  Dear God. Abbie enjoyed friendly, but this sounded like a Disney princess had swallowed a factory-load of pink cupcakes and flown into town on a multicoloured unicorn.

  Mean Abbie, she chastised herself. This was a different country and a different culture. It wouldn’t do her any harm to enjoy some friendly faces and helpfulness. She was always moaning that Londoners weren’t as friendly as where she came from up north. These guys were obviously incredibly welcoming – she simply needed to get used to it. And she needed to make some friends in this town if she was going to live here. Spending every evening and weekend alone wouldn’t be any fun.

  Thinking of having fun, she jumped into action. There was a whole city at her fingertips that she knew nothing about and only a day before she had to go to work.

  After emptying the entire contents of her suitcases onto the bed in ‘The Royal Suite’ as she had dubbed it, and finally washing off the drudgeries of long-haul travel, she decided to explore the lush green grounds next to her apartment. She only had to cross the street and she was inside, passing a sign identifying it as ‘Liberty Park’.

  It was barely six forty-five when she got to the park but she could see quite a few people on the running tracks and cycle paths and, beyond that, lots of dog walkers on the grassy fields. She didn’t stop to look at the map but instead decided to meander wherever her feet took her. Walking through the park, which was lined with huge trees, she felt a real sense of being grounded. It was a beautiful wintery morning, with shafts of light from the rising sun helping to warm the air a little.

  She walked past the entrance of an aviary, hearing the early morning call of hundreds of birds, and carried on walking until she saw a swimming pool. There was so much to do in this park alone. She’d seen runners, cyclists, swimmers and dog walkers and she’d barely been out half an hour. Further exploration revealed some tennis players getting a game in, she imagined before they went to work, and several mothers with children in pushchairs out for a walk.

  She carried on exploring for a while and was about to work out how to make her way back to the apartment when she saw the glint of sunshine on water through some trees and wandered over to take a look. She emerged into a clearing on a grassy knoll that led down to a duck pond, and gasped at the view. Rising majestically above the trees was a range of breathtaking snow-capped mountains. It must be the Wasatch Mountains that she had read about in her guidebook, but she never imagined she’d be able to see such an incredible sight from the city.

  She’d never seen anything quite like it. Standing by the water she felt like she’d made one of the biggest discoveries in humankind, yet this was something that the people who lived here must see every day. She felt like a very lucky girl at that moment. She wasn’t sure why the gods were shining down on her but, so far, she loved everything about her new home.

  As she walked backwards towards the path, not wanting to tear her gaze away from the vision ahead, it suddenly felt like she’d been hit by a freight train. Losing her balance and falling hard on her left side, she shrieked in shock as her arm made contact with the hard ground.

  ‘Oh my god, are you okay?’

  Looking up, way up, she came face to face with the freight train. Or rather, a tall, broadly built man who had knocked her over with the force of one.

  ‘Well no, thanks to you, but I think I’ll live.’

  She brushed her hands off and started to struggle to her feet. The man reached down to help her up but she waved him away. ‘I’m fine, just watch where you’re going next time.’

  The man raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Hey, lady, I’m really sorry. I didn’t see you. You did walk backwards onto the running track.’

  ‘Well, you should have watched where you were going. I didn’t know it was a stupid running track.’

  She gingerly felt her upper arm, where a bruise was forming already and the top layer of skin was grazed.

  ‘That looks painful. Want me to take a look?’

  ‘I think you’ve done enough, thanks.’

  With that, she started marching off in the direction of where she thought her apartment was. She paused as it didn’t look familiar. She turned around and the freight train was still standing there.

  ‘Where are you from? Australia?’

  ‘England. Why are you still here?’

  ‘Well, you kind of looked lost, and you sound like you don’t come from around here, so I thought you might need some directions.’

  ‘I’m not lost. I live here too.’

  ‘Okay then. Well, I’ll be seeing you, England.’

  ‘I hope not. I don’t know where the hospital is yet and who knows what would happen if you bumped into me again.’

  The freight train laughed. ‘I heard the British sense of humour was good. Now I’ve had it proven. When did you move here?’

  ‘Yesterday. But I’m not lost.’

  ‘Sure, okay. So, you’re leaving then?’

  ‘Yep. I’m just admiring the park for a minute then I’m going.’

  ‘Cool. So, you definitely don’t need me to point you in the right direction?’

  She looked up at the freight train. ‘I’m heading to S Five Hundred E Street. Which is this way, right?’ she said, pointing.

  ‘You’re absolutely right. Just turn one hundred and eighty degrees from where you’re pointing and walk that way. You’ll be there in a heartbeat.’

  ‘Exactly. I was just testing if you really were a local. See you.’

  She could hear the freight train’s laughter half the way back to her new home.

  Once she was back and had washed the dirt off from her fall, she looked at the list she had made of places to visit from her guidebook. What would she do first? There was the temple, which she supposed she really should visit. The museum. Obviously, Salt Lake. She also needed to do some food shopping and should probably figure out where the football (sorry, soccer) club was in relation to the apartment.

  She mulled it over for a while and then made her decision, circling it on her notebook. Sod all of it. She was off to The Gateway Mall. Utah wardrobe, here we come.

  CHAPTER 6

  Pulling into the car park at the club the next morning, Abbie turned off the engine and rested her head and her hands on the steering wheel, her heart pounding and her breathing heavy. The fact that she would have to sit on the wrong side of the car and drive on the wrong side of the road had completely passed her by until she hopped into the car yesterday, excited about the shopping trip to buy new clothes.

  She had remembered quite quickly that the only other time she�
�d driven like that was in France, where she was so jittery that after a few minutes Josh had made her pull over and had taken over for the rest of the journey, telling her that it was obviously something she didn’t feel comfortable doing.

  At that memory, she had resolved to conquer this bizarre upside-down inside-out world of driving and get herself to the mall. The task was made slightly easier by the fact that the executive-style Ford was automatic, so she didn’t have to grapple with the gearstick on the wrong side, like in France with the little Renault they had hired.

  Gingerly pulling out from in front of her apartment, she had thrown all her concentration onto making sure she stayed on the right side of the road. After a few laps around the block, where she only veered over the line a couple of times, she pulled over to set the GPS to the mall.

  Happy that she only had three miles to drive, she pulled back out onto the road. No sooner had she accelerated than she was faced with a rather large truck coming at her head on. She screamed at the realisation she’d inadvertently and unconsciously been driving on the left and swerved quickly back to the right, her whole body shaking in shock.

  After concentrating intensely for the rest of the short trip, which felt like it took an eternity, she gladly parked up and decided to block out the memory of the drive with some serious retail therapy.

  This morning’s journey to the club had been slightly less traumatic. On the upside, she had managed to avoid any head-on meetings with other motorists and, despite making slow progress, her over-the-line veering had reduced. All she needed was practice.

  She focused on slowing her breathing and preparing herself to walk into her new place of work. Counting down from ten to one, she was at number four when she jumped out of her seat at a sharp rap on her window.

  Standing on the other side of the window was a woman about her age, very slim with angular features, long blonde hair and a huge, white-toothed, perfect beam.