Enjoy
Kerry dipped her hand idly in the water as the boat moved on. Looking up she smiled at Dave, who was gently rowing the boat across the placid lake. Kerry watched his muscles rippling as he moved the oars back and forth. The sweat shone on his bare chest. Carter had Kerry's feet in his lap and was gently massaging them. He carefully caressed each toe, before moving on to her arches and instep. Kerry squirmed as he lightly brushed the soles of her feet. Leaning back she rested her upper body across Luka's legs. Brushing the hair from her face, he teased her with a strawberry, before lowering it to her waiting mouth. Leaning over he kissed her. Kerry enjoyed the taste of the strawberry. She enjoyed the taste of Luka even more. Sighing with contentment, she started opening the buttons of her blouse, providing a not so subtle hint of the direction she wanted Luka to move his mouth.
Luka smiled down at her and said, "Hold on tight, this is going to get bumpy." Kerry was puzzled, wondering why Carter's voice was coming out of Luka's mouth.
Her eyes flew open in surprise and she realized that the car was veering off the road. Carter was wrestling with the wheel trying to guide them to safety. Kerry clutched frantically at the nearest solid object to brace herself. The fact that it happened to be Luka was a happy coincidence.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was really less than a minute, Carter got the car under control and stopped on the hard shoulder.
"What the hell happened?" asked Luka.
"A tyre blew out," said Carter. Turning around he asked, "Is everyone okay?"
Kerry saw his eyes widen as he looked at her. Glancing down, she started to blush as she realized that the top few buttons of her blouse were undone, giving Carter the view of a lifetime.
"We're fine," she said, as she hurriedly straightened herself up.
Dave sat up in the front seat rubbing his eyes. "Are we there yet?" he asked
A few minutes later, they were all standing on the road looking at the tyre.
"Yes, that is a flat tyre all right," said Luka, giving it an experimental kick.
"It'll only take a few minutes to change it," said Dave.
"Thanks for volunteering Dave," said Carter as he unlocked the trunk.
"Hey, 'tyre-changing' is my middle name," said Dave good-naturedly as he started unloading the cases.
Dave pulled the spare tyre out of the trunk and said "Uh-oh."
"Uh-oh what?" asked Kerry apprehensively, while wondering what else was going to go wrong. "Don't tell me it's flat as well?"
"No chief, it's fine. It's just that it's a space-saver tyre and not a regular one."
"Meaning what exactly?"
"Meaning that we can't drive faster than forty-five miles an hour, and we're only supposed to drive it to the nearest garage."
"How far do you think we are from Galway?" Luka asked Kerry.
Kerry shrugged uncertainly. "Well it's been about three hours since we left Dublin. The country isn't that wide. We can't be more than an hour or two away."
A few minutes later, Dave was still wrestling with the tyre change, and mentally cursing whoever had tightened the nuts the previous time. Luka and Kerry were balanced precariously on her suitcase. Carter was sitting on Dave's backpack, flipping idly through a book.
"Hey guys, this must be a really violent country," said Carter in an effort to lighten the mood.
"Oh yeah," said Kerry lazily, as she leaned against Luka, telling herself that it was just to avoid falling.
"Yeah, I mean just look at all the place names that begin with 'Kill'. There's Kilkee, Kilbaha, Kilrush, Killaloe, Kilcormac, Kilmacud, Kilkenny."
"I have heard of that one," said Luka. "I believe it is twinned with a small mountain town in Colorado."
Kerry ignored his comment and turned her attention to Carter. "Where did you find out all that?" she asked suspiciously.
Carter waved the book at her. "It's all in this guide book of Dave's."
"Guide book?" said Kerry. Snatching the book from Carter, she thumbed quickly through it. Pushing herself up off the cases, she limped over to Dave and swatted him on the head with it.
"Ouch chief, what was that for?" asked Dave in surprise.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me you had this?" asked Kerry, waving the book in his face.
Straightening up Dave said, "It's only something I picked up in the airport. What's the big deal?"
"The 'big deal' is that guide books usually have maps in them."
Kerry quickly unfolded the map and spread it out on the hood of the car. "Maybe now we can find out how to get to Galway."
"It would help if we knew exactly where we are now," commented Luka dryly.
All eyes turned to Carter.
"How should I know?" said Carter helplessly.
"Well you were driving," said Dave. "What's the matter? Did you have your eyes closed?"
"Of course not. But I was concentrating on going in the right direction. I didn't see the point in remembering place names."
"Think Carter," ordered Kerry. "Surely you can remember a signpost?"
Carter racked his brains frantically. The trouble was, that every place seemed to have two names. And many of the names were so unpronounceable that it was difficult to remember them.
"Have a look at the map," suggested Luka. "Maybe that will jog your memory."
Carter quickly reeled off a few names, and Kerry found them on the map. "I don't believe it Carter," she said in exasperation. "You've been ziz-zagging up and down the country. I thought I told you to head west?"
"I thought I was heading west," said Carter defensively. "It's just difficult to tell what direction 'west' is, when the sun is behind the clouds most of the time."
"Well, why didn't you stop and ask for directions?" asked Kerry. "I should never have let you drive."
"Hey, I didn't want to drive in the first place. You just wanted to get in the back seat."
"Hey c'mon guys, lighten up," said Dave. "This is supposed to be a vacation."
"Shut up Dave," said Carter and Kerry simultaneously.
"There is no need for all this petty bickering," said Luka. "All we have to do is to keep driving until we come to a place that is on the map. Then we can get the tyre repaired, and plan out our route. Okay?"
"Okay," they agreed.
They resumed their journey. To Kerry's disgust, Luka had insisted on taking over the driving. He had not explained his reasons for doing so, but Kerry was sure it was to ensure that their speed was kept at a safe level. Dave had been left in the front seat to prevent any further travel sickness, which left Carter to sit with Kerry in the back seat. Since neither Kerry nor Carter wished to talk to each other, Dave had fallen asleep again soon after the car started moving, and Luka found it difficult to carry on a conversation with someone sitting behind him, the journey passed in silence.
A few minutes later, they passed a sign for Shinrone. A quick check of the map didn't reveal the name, so they kept on going. A little bit later they passed by a small airfield with a lot of planes buzzing around. "We should wake Dave," suggested Luka. "I am sure he would like to see this."
"No way," said Carter. "We don't want him spewing all over the car."
"It is not his fault if he is prone to travel sickness," said Luka. "Have some sympathy."
"It is his fault if he makes a pig of himself, and pays the price later on," said Carter. "Anyway it's too late now, we've gone past it."
They came to the top of a hill passing a sign that said 'Welcome to Birr'. "At last," said Kerry with relief. "Somewhere that's actually on the map."
"Even better," said Luka, "Here is a garage. We should be able to get the tyre mended."
He quickly pulled into the D.R. Tyres car park.
A few minutes later Luka came out of the office and sat behind the wheel again. "Good news and bad news," he said. "Good news; they can fix the tyre. Bad news; they are really busy, so they won't have it fixed until tomorrow morning."
"It could be worse," said Kerry resignedly. "Galway isn't too far from Birr. We should be able to get there in about two hours. The conference doesn't start until the day after tomorrow. We can stay here overnight, drive there tomorrow, and still have plenty of time." Kerry was secretly thinking to herself, 'with any luck they'll be short on rooms and some of us will have to double up, at least that's what always happens in the movies'.
Luka drove into the center of the small town and followed the directions he had been given to reach the car park.
"We passed by a hotel on the way," said Kerry. "Shall we see if there are any vacant rooms?"
"Lead on," said Luka, relieved that things seemed to be going slightly better. "What about the luggage?"
"We'd better leave it here. No point in dragging it all the way to the hotel until we find out if they've any vacancies. Carter do want to come with us or stay here?"
"I think I'd like to stroll around for a bit, maybe stretch my legs," replied Carter. "Shall we wake Dave?"
Kerry shook her head. "We won't be too long. I'll just leave a note in case he wakes up while we're gone."
A few minutes after the three had gone, Dave yawned and opened his eyes. Blinking tiredly he noticed Kerry's note on the dashboard. 'Stay here. We'll be back soon. Kerry Weaver M.D.' He pushed open the door and climbed out of the car. Yawning again, he stretched himself and looked around to see where he was. Hey cool, he thought seeing a 'Ford Prefect' car only a few meters away. Man those things are rare. Looking around he noticed a second one, then a 'Silver Ghost'. A chill ran down his spine as he realized that the Punto was the only car in the car park that was less than fifty years old. "What the hell's going on?" he thought. He looked at the street. A group of people were walking past the entrance to the car park. Dave couldn't believe his eyes; they were all dressed like something out of an old movie. "This is not happening, this is not happening," he repeated to himself. Hearing the sound of an airplane overhead, he glanced up and let out a strangled yelp as he realized that it was a biplane, at least sixty years old.
Then someone put a hand on his shoulder and he screamed.