The Keeper. Part 1. An Invitation - страница 29

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‘Quite the little show we’re putting on for everyone, eh?’ said his father, putting his things into the boot. ‘There’s plenty of room in here, you know,’ he added, looking puzzled as to why Arthur was still clutching his pack.

‘Yeah, I know, but I might need something.’

‘You can’t be hungry already, surely. Your mum said you just ate before I arrived.’

‘Yeah, I did, but not much.’

‘Fine. Suit yourself.’ He smiled and opened the door for him.

Getting in, Arthur gazed up at the windows of his flat, which all faced that side. He could see his mum peering out, holding his sister. They both waved.

‘It’ll all be okay,’ said his father softly, as Arthur turned to watch them out the back window. ‘Sometimes life throws us curve balls and forces us to do things we don’t necessarily want to. Just try to think of it as a little adventure—nothing more, nothing less.’

6

T8


An unmarked jet had been waiting for them at a small airfield just outside of London. Flanked by two more SUVs, similar to the ones in their convey, the plane had, the moment they were all on board, immediately taxied out to the runway and taken off.

Attempting to work out where they might be going, Arthur had tried to keep track of their route by searching for familiar landmarks on the ground. But no sooner had the aircraft climbed through several large banks of cloud than he’d completely lost his bearings. What he didn’t fail to spot, though, was that after less than an hour in the air, they were no longer flying over land! The words of the blogger had immediately rung in his ears.

And so it was that for the next seven and a half hours their course continued to take them out over open water, finally hitting land again a little after nine o’clock UK time. By now Arthur had worked out with some certainty that wherever it was they were going, it was most definitely in the northwestern hemisphere, because had they been flying east, then it would already have been dark outside. Nose pressed up against the window, he’d watched as a landscape of forests and mountains unfolded in front of them, stretching away to the horizon. In places, it was already buried under blankets of early winter snows.

In between dozing and covertly checking on the cat, who didn’t seem to be having any trouble sleeping the whole way, Arthur had spent quite a large portion of the flight seriously regretting having allowed his mum to talk him out of taking his mobile phone with him. Not only did it have all his games on it, but all his music, too.

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