CHAPTER FOUR
En Route
Apart from our separation I had the feeling something else unusual was about to happen, and my suspicions were confirmed the minute we returned home. The house looked like it had been burgled! There was hardly anything of David's there and the few items of clothing that were left were strewn all over the place. Very strange! The only conclusion I could come to was that we were about to move again?
What I could not possibly have known was that not only were we about to change where we lived but also, completely, the way we lived.
After 3 moves already I felt I was experienced enough to know the procedure and what to expect: packing of bags, gathering up of all my stuff, a short trip in a car and then we would be at our new home. On this occasion I was wrong about almost everything!
For the next 3 or 4 days before the 'move' happened David went shopping. Nothing exceptional about that if it had not been for the incredible amount of food he bought! If we were about to move, I thought, why did he not wait until we had done so? Then the packing began. This time, though, everything went into David's bags. He somehow found space for all my things, and my blanket was strapped to the outside of his backpack. Another odd aspect of this phase was that it all took place late in the afternoon and early evening. We had never moved in the dark before?
That night we went to bed late and neither of us slept! I could not because I knew David was awake. Something was about to happen.
It was still dark when David got up the next morning. It took a while for him to get all 3 bags outside, and the big one must have been really heavy because he could hardly lift it!
The car trip was supposed to be next. The following 6 hours were so traumatic and confusing that I promised myself I would never again expect things to turn out the same way twice!
David first attached the lead to my collar then struggled to get his big backpack onto his shoulders. With one of the smaller ones slung over one shoulder, he carried the other in his left hand and held the end of my lead with his right!
I could see that walking like this was not going to be easy for him so I was good, staying close and keeping my pace as slow as his. In this way we staggered down the hill to the main road. David wasted no time getting the bags off and stacked in a pile at the side of the road. I was then tied to a tree a meter away. I could not figure any of this out at all so I just lay down and did not take my eyes off David for a second!
We waited about an hour. I half expected one of the few cars that passed to stop for us. But no - just as the sun was rising not a car but a bus stopped. I had been on one once before but not as big a one as this. A human got out and opened some doors in the side of the bus. As David was helping him put the bags inside he said something that clearly upset the other human. His answer was loud and angry. Then I saw them both looking my way and I realized I was somehow the reason for this heated conversation.
The bus human looked as if he was about to take the bags out again when he said something that made David run to the front of the bus. As