The JOURNEY

Jim was desperate to find the father he left behind – but was he too late?

- Diane McKay

The boy looked up from his computer game, suddenly realising the car had turned off the busy road and was now on a winding country lane.

‘What are you doing, Dad? Let’s go, I’m tired.’

Jim hit the brake as a pheasant strolled out into the road. He remembered pheasants scuttling out of the way 40 years ago as he and his mother were driven down this lane by Frank – at speed.

He turned to his wife... ‘This is the place – just as I remember it.’

‘Look, don’t get your hopes up. It’s a long time ago. Who knows what’s happened in the meantime.’

Ellie folded the map and stared around at the scene. A flat landscape of fields and woodland. Exactly as her husband had described it to her, and so different from their own lush green hills.

They had been in England for three weeks and were due to fly home in a couple of days. After touring around, they were now heading south.

After turning off the motorway a few miles ago, they had soon found the old lane. It was shorter than Jim remembered it. When he was five, it had seemed so long. He and his mother Lily used to walk down it for the village bus and then, laden with shopping, they’d trudge back again.

This was where his father’s family had farmed for generations. But whether any of them were still around? Well – that was anyone’s guess.

Lily had left Jim’s father when Jim was five. She had made a fresh start with Frank in New Zealand.

Being so young, Jim had adapted pretty well. But he had missed his dad, Sam, and had never forgotten that day when his mother had packed their bags and hurried him into the back seat of Frank’s car. As they had sped away, he remembered the sight of his father standing in the lane watching them go.