The following is a teaser snippet from chapter one 'A family reunion' of my new up coming novel 'An Extra Ordinary Journey'. The novel is based on true events that occurred during my time living off gtid on a narrow boat in the UK.
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The journey back home to the UK from Finland had been both long and tiring. James and Jenifer gratefully ate a hearty meal cooked by Erica, Jenifer’s daughter, and spent the night sleeping in the lounge on a camp bed and the settee. This was much to the amusement of Phil, Erica’s husband and Jenifer's son in law, who joked several times, “oh, I almost forgot your homeless now aren’t you?”
“No Phil we’re not homeless,” was the standard response from Jenifer. “We’re just crashing at yours for the night.”.
Straight after breakfast the next morning it was time to collect ‘Tommy’ from the barn where Erica and Phil had looked after him along with many other of James and Jenifer’s belongings. Tommy was a ginger tabby, about 4 years old and a good mouser. So he probably enjoyed his few days staying in the barn. He purred loudly at the sight of seeing Jenifer and rubbed himself lovingly against her legs before walking willingly into the cat travel basket Jenifer was holding.
Tommy was carefully placed in the car inside his basket. As many other possessions as possible that Erica had been looking after were strategically placed into the car leaving enough room for ‘Duke’.
Duke was younger than Tommy being about 18 months old. A large chocolate Labrador dog. He had been specially bred to remain slim so his near thirty kilo body weight was mainly muscle. A beautiful looking dog with bounds of energy and a playful nature.
“Bye Erica, Bye Phil, thanks for everything and we’ll ring you soon,” James called out while waving out of the car window.
Jesica began to drive away. It was about a forty minute drive to the dog sitters house from Erica and Phil’s. Karen and John were their names, a lucky find really. James and Jesica met them through work and they had looked after Duke on a couple of other occasions. It was a real home from home for him and he loved staying there. So there were no concerns about Duke while he was there.
“I hope Duke wants to come home this time,” James joked as they pulled into Karen and John’s driveway.
“Duke come here boy,” Jesica called out as she stepped from the car.
Karen opened the house door and Duke came bounding up the garden path towards Jessica and James. He began Jumping up and running rings around them, tail waging, when he reached them.
“Good boy, good boy,” James and Jesica both said simultaneously while patting and hugging him.
After a brief conversation with Karen Duke was ushered into the car. He sniffed Tommy through the cat carry basket and lay down beside him.
A family of four again it was now time to head off to Hinkley Marina in Leicestershire. A car journey that would take them about two and a half hours to where their new boat ‘Lorimar’ and a new life awaited them.
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I will be releasing further teaser snippets of each chapter as I complete them. The header photo for this article is Duke.
You can read teaser releases from other chapters using the links below.
..dupater
