The Whole Wide World, Part 2
Chapter notes: The resort in Dover featured in this chapter is fictitious, as I had neither the time nor the chance to research possible real-life lodgings round the area. On another matter, I heard somewhere – whether canon, fanon or just someone’s idea – that the maiden surname of Hermione’s mother is Puckle, so I am using it here. - Rey
Dover, 9th May 2004
“I must exercise more, don’t I?” I gasp and pant as Sai’yo acts as my crutch along the chalkstone path. “Ten miles…. Thought I could do it…. N’you’re older than me!”
The Jaffa smiles. He looks barely tired, although he does perspire from the late-spring sun beating down on us. And he’s carrying two packs – mine and his. So embarrassing. I thought spending the day hiking along the Cliffs of Dover would be a nice new thing to do after our posh accomodation last night! And here I feel like I’m about to faint while the fatherly-looking Sai’yo is still all too fresh….
“There are sights to see,” he offers. “Would you like to stop and record them? The view of the sea on this particular point is… nice.”
In other words, ‘go rest’. And it’s not the first time he suggested it to me. And, each time, I got to accept it, for the sake of my wheezing breath and puddly muscles.
Yeah. Embarrassing.
O-O-O-O
“Woo-hoo!”
I wish we took this way to see the cliffs, instead of hiking all day long. Sitting at the front of a boat while it’s rushing through and leaping over and cleaving the waves is so fun!
Well, and now I get to see Sai’yo looking as ill as I must have looked while hiking, too. Apparently, the tough Jaffa is seasick….
Pity. I was going to ask if we could travel with a liner ship to somewhere far, like United States or even Asia.
Well, maybe I’ll still ask, with more books as bribe and a good supply of stomach soother as additional promise.
But for now….
“Whee!”
O-O-O-O
“The bane of weekend outings: packed restaurants,” I muse aloud with a sigh as Sai’yo and I approach a road-side eatery near the port, fresh from the boat ride. Our gait is unsteady, our clothes are damp – well, wet, in my case – from the sprays and the drenching of the waves, and I am sure that we are famished despite the nausea from overexertion and seasickness, respectively. But, unfortunately, it’s not just the two of us who think that refuelling our bodies is an immediate must.
And true to the look of the parking lot that we see and go through outside, also the view into the restaurant through the floor-to-ceiling half-transparent windows, it turns out that there’s no empty table inside, or out on the back porch overlooking the sea.
Worse, we passed by two other eating establishments before coming here, and they were even fuller than this.
“You good enough for a takeaway, Sai’yo?” I ask my companion as we approach one of the waitresses milling round.
“Takeaway?” the Jaffa parrots from behind me, sounding confused.
“Food packaged to eat elsewhere,” I explain, then signal to the waitress I aimed for. “Hello, miss. Do you serve takeaway food?”
“You will have to enter your orders to the waiting list if you wish for a takeaway, sir,” she replies apologetically. Then, perhaps pitying my dejected look, she adds that, if we wouldn’t mind sharing a table with a stranger, we needn’t queue just to eat elsewhere.
“There is one table that is occupied by just one woman,” Sai’yo pipes in, apparently having looked round right as he hears the new info.
I nod to him and smile gratefully at the waitress. “All right, then. We’ll ask her. Thanks for your help, miss.”
And, without further ado, Sai’yo leads me to the aforementioned table, which happens to be situated outside, on the farthest reach of the porch.
“Neat,” I comment happily, before stepping up to the woman seated facing the seascape and gearing myself up mentally for an interaction with a total stranger. Then, “Hello, miss. Would you mind sharing the table with us? Everywhere else is full.”
Déjà vu…. I’m like Ron in our first train ride to Hogwarts…. Damn. I miss you, Ron.
Thankfully, before my thoughts can spiral into maudlin-land, the woman tears her gaze away from the seascape and scrutinises us curiously, one by one, from head to toe.
I smile at her, self-consciously. Sai’yo, now standing behind me again, tenses up.
And the woman notices.
“Your companion doesn’t seem to like me,” she remarks, fortunately with a smile back at me and sounding more amused and curious than truly offended.
Her dialect sounds foreign, too. Maybe North American. Nice. We’re meeting a tourist from abroad!
“Just overprotective,” I grin apologetically at her blunt observation. “It’s our first adventure, and we’re trying to have fun. Just, it’s hard to set aside some habbits.”
She nods and motions us to take a seat. My grin turns into a grateful smile, while I let Sai’yo choose first – and he takes the spot with his back facing the fence. “Thank you, miss. You are a stomach saver!” I exclaim theatrically while taking the seat facing the rest of the porch.
She laughs. “Long day?” she asks, while waving a hand for a passing, harried-looking waiter.
“Very long,” I agree ruefully. “I couldn’t take the hike and my friend here couldn’t take the waves.”
She grins, teasingly. “Ever tried the air?”
I laugh, in turn. “Loved it. Miss it,” I confess. “Only, there’s no air-related experience to be had, here.”
“Fix your eyes, and you can go into air force,” she suggests smilingly.
“Experienced with that, miss?” I smile back, though privately I wince. I keep myself in this form to honour my parents – human parents – including wearing the specs that James Potter was known for other than his messy hair. I even went on this adventure in this form because I dreamt of it while in a much smaller version of it, back when my bedroom was the cupboard under the stairs of Privet Drive number four.
Yep. I’m a ridiculous, irrational, sappy sod, and rather proud of it.
And, praised be my new acquaintance, she chooses a good time to break me out of my private introspection.
“Not really that area,” she beams proudly. “Janet Fraiser, doctor for US Air Force.” She reaches out a hand for a handshake, first to me then to Sai’yo.
“Harry Black, and this is my friend Sai’yo,” I nod. “We’re just hoping to experience many new things, before we go back to work.”
“And your work is, if I might ask?” she prods.
“Lots.” I roll my eyes, rueful. “Looking after a school, properties, people, science club, people, money, people….”
“Busy much?” She raises an eyebrow, partly amused and partly… confused? Suspicious?
“Much,” I agree, as I begin to flip the menu book that the waiter she beckoned has just handed me. “Thanks. – Umm. I think I should eat something light…. My stomach still feels like a blender. Fun trip, though.”
“Salad?” the waiter recommends with a smile. “We also have this.” He points at a particular picture on the page I happen to be on. “It is seafood broth which you could eat with either bread or rice.”
I hum noncommittally and peek through the corner of my eye at the remnants of Janet Fraiser’s meal still spread on the table in front of her. I can detect some kind of steak and… salad, perhaps.
“I’ll have what she had,” I decide after a beat, throwing a small smile at the US Air Force doctor seated perpendicular to me. “Steak and salad, right?”
“Fish steak and veggy salad with light dressing,” she nods.
I give Sai’yo a narrow-eyed look when he agrees with my choice, though. It just seems… fishy, because he seemed to be interested in something on another page entirely and didn’t try to look at what other people are eating, unlike me. But we are among strangers, so I shan’t confront him presently.
In our next lodging is another matter entirely.
And, speaking of which….
“Do you know a hotel near here that is good and… natural, Miss Fraiser?” I ask when the waiter is gone, with the additional orders of two glasses of Coca-Cola – and Sai’yo, again, expressed no personal opinion on the matter.
“Define natural.” She raises her eyebrows.
“Something nature-like?” I hedge. “Truth be told, yesterday was our first experience in a hotel, and I think we chose wrong. It was… too posh.”
She chuckles. “Too ritsy?” she clarifies. “Well, you’re throwing away many people’s dreams, then.” But she does recommend us a small resort not so far away that overlooks the English Channel, which also features a rock-climbing training package. Neat! I can only hope that I won’t embarrass myself like in our hiking excursion today.
We spend most of the time eating in silence, afterwards. When she speaks, Ms. Fraiser mostly addresses me, too, instead of dividing her attention between me and Sai’yo. I don’t try to redirect her attention only because she doesn’t seem to mean ill to Sai’yo by excluding him from the conversation, and Sai’yo himself seems perfectly contented with himself and his meal… barring a slight incident when he drinks his cola and I forgot to warn him about the carbonation.
Well, and, again, this is not something that I am comfortable confronting in the open like this.
And, as our conversation progresses slowly, I find out that Janet Fraiser is the daughter of Emma Fraiser nee Puckle, who was the elder sister of Emilia Granger nee Puckle.
Hermione’s mother.
In fact, she has been in England for a week searching for her aunt’s family, as they have lost contact with each other when her own mother died of cancer and she began her career at the US Air Force, right round the time Hermione Obliviated her parents.
But, if I tell her now about Hermione, I won’t be able to try a night at the resort she mentioned….
Eh. For once, I harden my heart and say nothing, with a promise to myself to acquire a mobile phone for myself – and maybe another for Sai’yo – before we turn in for the night, so that I can tell her about Hermione tomorrow, as she has just given me her mobile’s number.
A coward’s way, perhaps, but it’s still a win-win solution in my book.
I’ve got other matters to delve into, in any case, namely Sai’yo’s refusal or inability to choose for himself and the probability that other Jaffa will have this problem, and also his ability to be virtually invisible to people, forgetable.
Go figure. Even in a holiday, I can’t have a total holiday.