Arrival

Six weeks later the journey away from Devon was nightmarish. Chriss felt she was the lucky one having only George with her in the old green car. It was nerve wracking nonetheless. She drove quietly past the old Montessori school with its beautiful Wisteria creeping now like an endless
brown twisted web of wood, no flowers now and no life around. The day was damp and cold, the sky grey and dank. It was December after all and school was closed for Christmas holidays.

Chriss felt an excitement well up inside her, she was going home and taking two new members of the family with her, William and Maria. Both William and Maria were in the car with Peter and following a mobile call Chriss discovered that Maria was screaming most of the time; but Peter was more able to tackle that kind of thing and she knew Maria was safe with him. Her motherly instinct came through nonetheless realising that if she was in the car with Maria she would be stopping every mile or so, giving Maria a cuddle and feeding her and trying to keep her happy. Peter commented later that Maria had screamed virtually all the way to Surrey, falling asleep finally with sheer exhaustion. The whole trip would only have served to upset her in an extreme fashion if she was in the car with a poor and screaming baby.

After 50 miles or so, Chriss started to feel tired, her eyes slowly giving in to that awful heavy feeling, fluttering and slowly closing. She began to feel strangely relaxed, thankfully George was behaving so well and talking excitedly to her as they travelled along the endless roads.
Stopping now along a wide country lane, she opened the door of the car and stepped out bravely facing the brisk wind and wetness. 'Will I ever get there?' she thought to herself knowing full well there was another 150 miles to go and a little panic began to set in. She looked into the back window at George who was now fast asleep, his head sweetly to one side, he looked so peaceful. 'Right, must get on', she said to herself and stepped back into the car switched on the engine and then away again into the pelting rain.

She wondered how Peter was doing, he must have been at least one hour ahead of her. They had started to drive the long roads to Surrey in convey, had stopped because Chriss felt tired, and after some discussion on some open country lane they had decided to let him drive ahead as he was already an hour or so behind schedule for the collection of the keys to the rented home in Surrey.

Chriss watched longingly as Peter drove off, she hated being left and did not relish the lonely drive of 150 miles or so on her own, with George. She felt concerned and nervous, as this was the first time she was left to cope with a long drive by herself. To cheer herself she started to wonder what the house looked like, she remembered the area well and how to get there, but she had not ever seen the house. Peter's colleague had seen it and had chosen it for them, and told them that it was very suitable so she knew it would be fine, but still she wondered - it kept her entertained. Then before she realised it, she was on the motorway driving towards London - still a long way off and along unknown roads in the darkness.

The motorway was very busy the closer Chriss approached the London end. She became rather nervous with all the traffic as she had only been driving a few years now and hated busy roads.
She decided to pull into the next services and she recognised them straight away 'oh good, something familiar' she muttered remembering driving into the same services with Peter on one of his many business trips down to London. The whole journey seemed to be taking forever, a lot longer than if Peter was driving. Chriss and George quickly enjoyed a little snack and drink at the services, refreshed themselves together and then returned to the car. It was getting dark and a sense of urgency had descended upon her.

Further along the motorway she accidentally took the wrong slip road off the motorway and found herself in dark unknown territory. It was raining outside and really dark now and she was finding it difficult to see clearly through the moonless night and worse still she was noticing some fog descending. 'Gotta try to get there quickly' she murmered to herself and although she was panicking inside, she tried to make it seem fun for George who was asking now, every moment it seemed, 'are we nearly there, mummy?'
'Not yet George' she replied gently.

By some miracle, she found herself travelling down the long road, fortunately fully lit by mid island lamposts, towards Heathrow airport. This she instantly recognised, but had no idea how to get out of the maze of rush hour traffic she had found herself in, in the midst of a foggy, rainy and moonless evening. Following signs she felt were pointing in the right direction and going around roundabouts she felt were taking her somewhere significant, she miraculously ended up at Hampton Court. How she and George got there, she does not know, perhaps by instinct, but now she really did know where she was and happily knew how to get to Cobham on the A3. This area was home territory to her and she was pleased to be surrounded by familiar landmarks and somehow, familiar drivers and familar cars. Finally reaching the A3, coming off the slip road, she drove down the crowded A3 full of fast moving traffic, going home for the weekend. As she passed over the M25 and turned left into Effingham Lane, the fog came down with a vengeance. Chriss could hardly see 3 feet ahead and being an inexperienced driver in fog she became quite nervous and the road became unfamiliar to her. All she could see as she gazed out of the windscreen in front of her was a roundish gap in the dark fog and the faint white lines on the road in front of her, merely 3 feet of it. She strained her eyes to see clearly and felt surrounded by an encompassing heavy darkness. It was not a pleasant feeling in unfamiliar territory and in the middle of absolutely nowhere but somewhere in Surrey. George was even commenting on the thick fog and she spent most of her time reassuring him and telling him everything was fine.

A fast driver behind her became impatient with her slow 20 mph speed and hooted and honked annoying her beyond belief. However, she did not speed up and the rude driver revved past her at high speed into the thick ominous fog in front of them. 'Well' she sighed wishing she could do the same thing and speed up into the dark fog ahead of her. Eventually, in thick fog, and darkness, hardly seeing clearly ahead, she found the road in Surrey where her new home was to be, quite miraculously and by accident finding the name of the road on a sign ahead of her.

Peter had been waiting in the next door neighbours house, he had arrived just in time to collect the keys from the agent waiting in the rented house for them both to appear. The neighbour had walked over after noticing the two small children and Peter on his own in the driveway and kindly invited them in for a cup of tea and biscuits. Chriss finally arrived several hours later, with George in tow and both felt relieved to have reached their destination. Peter was relieved to know that everyone was safe and warm and together again at last. The journey had been quite a nightmare for Chriss!

Chriss of course, loved the house. It was large enough for them all and the front garden was lovely with a huge, long and steep drive. It was to be the place where the family spent most of their time, when outside as there was a slope leading down to the house and the boys in particular loved riding their pedal cars down the slope, crashing into each other in the process.

After leaving the neighbours house, and very late at night, the whole family finally and peacefully fell asleep in their sleeping bags on the floor. It felt exciting to be in their new home, after arriving safely and being able to join up together again. They were back in Surrey and they felt that they were home.