One Endless Summer

by Laurie Ellingham

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘I think I might be a bit homesick,’ Jaddi said in a low voice, feeling the last of her frustration slip away.

  ‘You’re what?’ A curious smile spread across Samantha’s face.

  ‘I’m homesick, OK? I know it’s stupid but I miss my life in London—’ Samantha’s cackling laugh stopped Jaddi from saying more.

  ‘How can you, of all people, be homesick? All you’ve ever talked about since the day I met you is how much you want to travel the world.’

  ‘I know,’ Jaddi muttered, ‘I’m as surprised as you are.’

  Samantha snorted and threw her arm around Jaddi. ‘It’ll be all right. You’ll feel better when we get to Cambodia.’

  ‘If we get to Cambodia.’ Jaddi wished she could laugh too. It was ludicrous to even comprehend being homesick. After everything she’d done to get them here. Maybe it wasn’t homesickness, but the growing realisation that she was never going home to the life she’d had before.

  A flash of colour on the road caught Jaddi’s attention.

  ‘Hey look, a car’s coming,’ Lizzie shouted.

  ‘What do we do?’ Samantha hopped over the bushes before scrambling up the ditch to the road.

  ‘Wave it down,’ Jaddi said, a few steps behind Samantha.

  The three of them jumped into the centre of the road and waved their arms in the air until the maroon car pulled over and wound down its window. The familiar smiling face of Tic popped out. ‘One thousand Baht. Phnom Penh. Yes?’

  The three girls glanced at one another for a moment.

  ‘Yes,’ Jaddi said, the others nodding.

  Tic smiled and bounced out of the car. Despite his small frame and skinny arms, he collected their backpacks with ease, and returned them to the boot of his car.

  ‘Maybe we should try and haggle the price down a bit more,’ Lizzie whispered as they slid back into the cool interior of the car.

  ‘Or maybe we should just thank our lucky stars that he came back, and hope he takes us to Cambodia rather than selling us to pirates,’ Samantha said.

  ‘Good point.’ Jaddi breathed a sigh of relief as a blast of cold hair tickled her skin. ‘Right now, I’d pay ten thousand baht for five minutes sitting in this car.’

  ‘Shhh,’ Samantha hissed. ‘Don’t say that or Tic will start charging us for the air con.’

  ‘By the way, Ben,’ Lizzie said, leaning forward as Ben climbed into the front passenger seat with his camera bag, ‘thanks for being such a great help back there. The way you stayed silent as Tic threw out our backpacks was almost as good as your lack of input into a way out of our predicament.’

  ‘Anytime.’ He grinned, not appearing to notice Lizzie’s jibing tone, or more likely, ignoring it, and causing Lizzie to throw back her head and laugh.

  Jaddi glanced at the smiling face of her friend and felt her own sour mood lift. Lizzie was happy; they were finally on the adventure they’d always dreamed of. It was time to take her own advice and start living in the moment.

  CHAPTER 13

  Jaddi

  Jaddi watched Tic’s car disappear around the corner and surveyed the empty street. She checked her watch – nine pm. Not late by anyone’s standards, but after the journey they’d had it felt more like midnight. Hunger, thirst, and exhaustion battled for first place in her list of needs. Not to mention a shower. By the looks of Lizzie, Samantha, and Ben, they felt the same way.

  She stared at the archway leading to their hostel and wished she’d booked the more expensive hotel, much closer to the city centre, with the air conditioning, the pool and the restaurant, rather than the shell of a building staring back at her, promising them nothing but a bed and the most basic of facilities.

  ‘Won’t a pool be fun though, Jaddi?’ Caroline had asked her when they’d poured over Jaddi’s plans in the Channel 6 boardroom two weeks before Christmas. ‘After all the time on a bus, won’t a swim be nice?’

  With the blue-and-white Christmas lights blinking on the tree in the corner of the boardroom, and the rain, running in sheets down the windows, it had been impossible to imagine the heat and the tiredness they would feel. ‘We’ll have a much better experience in this one,’ she’d replied, tapping her finger on the print out of her plans. ‘This isn’t a holiday to us. We want to see the real life of the places we visit, not stay in some high-walled four-star resort.’

  Looking up at the hostel, Jaddi shook her head at her principles. Right now, she’d happily trade real for a chance to jump in a cold pool, or sleep in a comfortable bed.

  ‘This looks … authentic.’ Samantha said.

  Jaddi looked between Samantha and Lizzie, their bemused exhausted faces causing her to laugh out loud. A second later Samantha and Lizzie joined in.

  ‘OK, OK.’ Jaddi held up her hands. ‘I might’ve got a bit carried away booking us into the cheapest accommodations. We can upgrade tomorrow. How about a drink before we go in?’ She nodded to a bar next door. It was empty apart from a young man slouched on a stool by the bar. A neon-blue light above the door flashed 24Hours.

  ‘You’re on.’ Samantha scooped up her backpack. ‘First round’s on me. After the day we’ve had I owe you that much.’

  Lizzie hooked her arm through Samantha’s. ‘We’re here now, and anyway, you don’t get much more authentic that being abandoned by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.’

  ‘Second round’s on me then,’ Jaddi called after them. ‘And I’m getting Sambuca if they have it.’

  Samantha shot her a look and laughed.

  ‘What’s the joke with Sambuca?’ Ben asked from beside her.

  Jaddi glanced at the small area of Ben’s face not covered by the camera. ‘Shall I tell him, Sam, or do you want to?’

  Samantha stepped into the bar, dropped her backpack at the nearest table and spun around. ‘I will tell him, thank you very much. I don’t need you two blowing it out of proportion.’ She turned to Ben and shook her head. ‘Years and years ago I had a few too many Sambuca shots and ended up in a karaoke bar singing Dolly Parton at the top of my voice. And these two won’t let me forget it.’

  ‘Er …’ Lizzie giggled, stepping into the camera shot. ‘You forgot to mention the fact that it wasn’t karaoke night; it was quiz night, but you strong-armed the barmen into switching the machine on just for you.’

  ‘And,’ Jaddi added, feeling a burst of renewed energy, ‘completely derailed the quiz. The team set to win were fuming.’

  ‘Well, I don’t remember that bit so I’m disputing that it actually happened that way.’ Samantha dropped into her chair and retied her hair into a tight ponytail. It had already turned a shade blonder in the sun and looked almost white under the dull orange lights of the bar.

  ‘If you haven’t figured it out yet,’ Jaddi said, turning to Ben, ‘Samantha is the sensible one. Miss Common Sense. She hardly ever, and I mean ever, has too many drinks, makes an idiot of herself, forgets to set her alarm, over sleeps—’

  ‘Unless she has Sambuca,’ Lizzie chipped in, sliding into the chair beside Sam. ‘Isn’t that right, Sambuca Sam?’

  Jaddi turned to Samantha and watched her cheeks burn crimson despite the smile stretched across her face. Even Jaddi couldn’t have predicted how well Lizzie and Samantha would adapt to a camera in their faces, but she didn’t want to push Samantha too far. ‘I’ll get the drinks in.’ Jaddi laughed. ‘Fancy a beer, Ben?’

  Ben hesitated for a moment too long.

  ‘I’ll take that as a yes.’ She grinned just as Ben shook his head.

  ‘Yeah, come on, Ben,’ Samantha said. ‘Turn that thing off for a bit and have a drink with us. You deserve it too after the day we’ve had.’

  ‘You know what they say.’ Lizzie smiled. ‘All filming and no play makes Ben a very grumpy cameraman.’

  Ben lifted the camera from his shoulder, scowled at each of them in turn, before shrugging and pulling up a chair. ‘One beer,’ he said. ‘Then this goes back on.’

>   ‘Absolutely,’ Lizzie grinned.

  Jaddi leant her weight against the bar and turned to watch as Lizzie moved closer to Samantha and whispered something in her ear. A moment later, Samantha’s laugh filled the narrow room. It bounced off the walls, hit Jaddi in the chest and made her snigger. Samantha had two laughs. Her work laugh, as Jaddi had come to think of it – the yes-I-agree-that-is-very-amusing controlled chuckle, which Jaddi had heard more and more of over the past few years; and her goofy, loud, belly laugh that always ended in a snort, sending them all off on another round of giggles. The laugh coming out of Samantha now was the second kind and it was more contagious than the common cold.

  A sense of peace washed over Jaddi. She’d promised them the trip of a lifetime and that was exactly what they were having. She might be responsible for this trip and all its adventures – occasional abandonment by the side of the road notwithstanding – but seeing Samantha loosen up and Lizzie enjoying herself was worth it.

  ‘Was I the only one who thought the Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace looked like he was made of plasticine?’ Lizzie asked, as Jaddi moved back to the table with a tray of drinks.

  ‘Completely.’ Ben nodded. ‘Didn’t you just want to poke it and see if your finger disappeared?’

  ‘Are you two off your heads?’ Samantha frowned. ‘The Emerald Buddha is one of Bangkok’s most precious statutes. It’s clothed in gold, for goodness’ sake. Nobody even knows when it was made, or who made it. Legend has it, it was made in India by Hindu gods in forty-three BC.’

  Lizzie and Ben looked at each other and laughed. A second later the smile dropped from Ben’s face. He sat back and looked between the girls, an observer once more. Jaddi didn’t mind. At least he’d let his guard down for a minute. She was sure it wouldn’t be the last time she’d see him relax.

  ‘You’re such a guidebook geek, Sam.’ Lizzie laughed. ‘Although, that’s one of the reasons we love you.’

  ‘I’m going to take that as a compliment,’ Samantha said.

  ‘Here we go.’ Jaddi slid the tray onto the table. ‘A beer for you, Ben.’ She handed him the bottle.

  ‘Thanks.’ He fiddled with the label for a moment before taking two long gulps.

  ‘Coke for you, Lizzie.’

  ‘Rock and roll.’ Lizzie grinned.

  ‘And—’

  ‘And,’ Samantha cut in, ‘what on earth is that?’ She pointed to a yellow beach bucket with a giant cocktail umbrella and two straws sticking out the top.

  ‘It’s a beach-bucket cocktail.’

  ‘What’s in it?’ Samantha asked, eying the red liquid.

  ‘I have no idea, but according to Jim, over there –’ Jaddi twisted around and waved at the barman ‘– it’s what all the backpackers drink in Cambodia.’

  Jaddi leant forward and took a long sip of fruity liquid. A second later the scorch of spirits burnt her throat. ‘Wow.’

  ‘Yikes!’ Samantha laughed, before glancing around the bar. ‘I hope they haven’t got karaoke here. This is way worse than Sambuca. Hey, does it feel weird to anyone that the first episode of the documentary was on TV last night?’

  ‘Was it?’ Lizzie said. ‘I’ve completely lost track of days of the week.’

  Samantha shrugged. ‘I’m sure hardly anyone watched it.’

  ‘Humf,’ Ben said, his gaze suddenly focused on the bottle of beer in his hands.

  ‘What?’ Lizzie asked.

  ‘Do you really want to know?’ He raised his eyebrows and looked between them.

  Jaddi gave a short shake of her head. She knew what was coming. She’d seen the number of likes on their Facebook page skyrocket overnight. She knew the documentary had been aired and the advertising Caroline had done in the build up to it had paid off. But she’d hoped to shield that side of things from Lizzie.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Lizzie smiled. ‘Do I?’

  He shrugged.

  ‘Tell us,’ Samantha answered for Lizzie, leaning closer to the table for another slurp from the bucket. Jaddi thought about protesting, but she could tell by the glint of interest in Lizzie’s eye that it was too late.

  Ben sat up, rubbed a hand against the bristle of his beard before retrieving a tablet from the side pocket of his bag. He pressed several buttons before passing it to Lizzie. ‘I downloaded this from The Sun’s website before we left Bangkok.’

  ‘Oh.’ Lizzie handed the tablet to Samantha as Jaddi leaned over to look.

  Lovely Lizzie Steals the Nation’s Heart

  The Girl with Three Months to Live highest-rated TV show on Saturday night

  If viewing figures are anything to go by, then there wasn’t a dry eye in the nation last night as 17.1 million people tuned in to watch Channel 6’s The Girl with Three Months to Live, making it the most-watched show on Saturday night TV since last summer’s final of So You Think You Can Sing?.

  The documentary follows Lizzie Appleton (29) and her two friends Jaddi Patel (28) and Samantha Jeffrey (29) as they embark on a whirlwind, backpacking trip around the world, after Lizzie was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour and given only three months to live.

  Girl-next-door Lizzie’s touching and funny video diaries were by far the highlight of last night’s episode. ‘There is something so inspiring about Lizzie,’ explains Channel 6 producer, Caroline Wilks. ‘This could’ve been a harrowing countdown to her death, but instead, Lizzie and the girls’ strong bond and playful personalities have made this an unmissable show.’

  Can’t wait for next week’s episode of The Girl With Three Months to Live? Following last night’s record-breaking ratings, Channel 6 will now be uploading extra footage, including excerpts from Lizzie’s video diaries, to their website every day. We certainly can’t get enough of hunky cameraman, Ben Holmes. Let’s hope his appearance in front of the camera last night wasn’t a one-off.

  Trepidation sucked away the colour from Jaddi’s face as her eyes scanned the article. This wasn’t just popular; this was insane. Seventeen point one million people had just upped the stakes of their trip. Seventeen million. The thought made the inside of her cheeks throb.

  Jaddi flicked her gaze to Lizzie. Their eyes met. Lizzie’s expression, the mirror image of her own. Jaddi could almost see the same thought racing through Lizzie’s mind.

  ‘Wow,’ Samantha said. ‘Seventeen million? Surely that’s a typo?’

  ‘Seventeen point one,’ Ben said, tucking the tablet back into his bag. ‘Caroline emailed me this morning with the news. She’s thrilled, of course. She also wants more video diaries, Lizzie, if you’re up for it?’

  ‘I guess.’ Lizzie shrugged. ‘Although knowing seventeen million people will be watching me might make it even more weird.’

  ‘Are you all right, Lizzie?’ Ben asked, his eyes watching her face. ‘You’ve gone a funny colour.’

  ‘She’s in shock.’ Jaddi forced a grin. ‘More alarming than the viewing figures is their description of you, Ben. Hunky? Seriously?’

  CHAPTER 14

  Day 6

  Lizzie

  Lizzie nodded her thanks to the night clerk and knocked gently on Ben’s door, now unlocked by the manager and swinging open.

  ‘Wakey-wakey, Ben,’ she said.

  Her words, like a cattle prod, jolted Ben to life, his body springing upwards as his eyes shot open. ‘Huh?’

  ‘And he’s awake,’ Lizzie said into the handheld camera, as she stepped further into the room. The light from the hallway behind her illuminated Ben’s single-occupancy room, which seemed substantially larger than their four-person room further down the corridor, and the walls were white rather than lime-green.

  Ben stared at Lizzie before flopping back onto his mattress and fumbling his hand on the floor until he found his glasses.

  ‘Good morning,’ Lizzie said with a wide grin. ‘Welcome to day six. I’m here in Ben’s room at the Cosy Backpackers Youth Hostel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Ben doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to be dragged out of bed to spend
four hours travelling further north to Siem Reap and to the Buddhist temple of Angkor Wat.’

  Lizzie stared at her reflection in the screen of the camera. Her skin and hair shone from the shower she’d had ten minutes earlier. She looked healthier than she had in months. She felt it too, Lizzie thought, with a zing of excitement for her unscheduled trip across Cambodia.

  ‘What time is it?’ Ben said in a croaky voice, reaching for a bottle of water. ‘My body clock is screwed. It feels like four in the morning.’

  Lizzie fiddled with the camera in her hands so that the lens focused on Ben. ‘Just before three,’ she replied, enjoying the anguish scrunching on Ben’s face.

  ‘Three. You’ve got to be kidding.’ Ben sat up, swinging his long legs out of the bed and pulling the bed sheet along with him, keeping the lower half of his torso and groin covered.

  ‘Poor cameraman Ben, getting a taste of his own medicine this morning.’ Lizzie grinned, trying not to stare at the sprinkling of dark hair across his broad chest. ‘How does it feel to be woken up with a camera in your face? Here’s a little known fact about Ben. He hates cameras.’

  ‘I’m a cameraman,’ Ben said, rubbing the palms of his hands across his face. ‘Of course I don’t hate cameras.’

  ‘Being behind them maybe, but in front of them, you’re worse than Samantha at dodging the lens during my video diaries.’

  Ben shrugged, took another swig of water from the bottle, and as if proving a point, lifted his hand in a wave. ‘Hello, viewers,’ he said with a sideways smirk. He turned his gaze on Lizzie and frowned. ‘What’s this about a road trip?’

  ‘As per your instructions, I’m letting you know my whereabouts. I’m leaving in five minutes to travel to Siem Reap to watch the sun rise over the Angkor Wat temple.’

  ‘I thought it was sunsets you were interested in,’ he said.

  ‘Both. Anyway, the night manager’s brother has agreed to take me for twenty dollars. Come if you want to, or sleep in and meet me back here later today. We’re catching the bus to Mondulkiri at ten this evening.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it make more sense to travel up at a more reasonable time of day and watch the sun rise tomorrow morning?’