Chapter 1. A dream come true

We sat in the Black Cat café about a week before our last summer holidays started, talking and waiting for Nick, who had asked us to come. He was late, so we started talking about the work for the holidays.

Liz said that she had had a few phone calls about work, and was asking our opinion about it, when Nick came in, looking around. Liz waved frantically to him. Nick lifted one eyebrow and came up to us, looking as cool as usual.

'I've got good news for some of you,' he said, sitting down on a chair next to Richelle. 'What do you think about a travel around the country?'

The rest of us stared at him.

'What?' Liz gasped.

'What you've heard,' Nick said gloomily. 'My father says that he's sick of luxury five star hotels and beaches with white sand. He wants nature, plain food, nights in tents and this sort of things. Besides he wants to look for new ideas for his business in the countryside. As he put it, there are a lot of whizzes in the countryside. And all of them need someone, who would give them a chance.'

'So?' Tom looked at him.

'So my father rented a microbus and decided that we'd go on a trip around the country,' Nick sighed. 'But my mum refused to go. She said that she needed a break from washing, cooking and other things. So they decided that mum would go to a spa resort with a friend of her and dad together with his workmate would go on a road trip around the country. He wants me to go with them. Um… actually he insists that I go. And he asks if you want to join us. Do you agree?' Nick looked around at us almost pleadingly.

'Do I agree? Of course I do!' Sunny exclaimed. Active rest was the best rest for Sunny.

'I'd like to go, too,' Liz nodded. 'I'd love a few days out of the city.'

'I'm in too,' Tom put in cheerfully. 'It will be interesting, I suppose.'

I didn't mind either. It sounded nice. Really. To travel around the country, sleep in tents, sit around a fire, telling funny stories. What could be better? Besides I was sure that it would be very interesting, at least for me. Dad always was too busy to travel and almost all my life I spent in Raven Hill, helping in the Pen. Not that I didn't like it, I love the Pen and Raven Hill, but the idea of a road trip was really tempting.

On seeing that we all agreed and even that we were glad to go, Nick sighed with relief. He didn't seem very happy to spend part of the holidays in the country with his father and his workmate.

To tell the truth I'd rather go with someone else, but Mr Kontellis. I always was a little bit afraid of him. I don't say that he's bad. No, he's a good man and a good, successful businessman. But for me he's too authoritarian, calm, strong person, the total opposite to my father, a chunky, messy, shy man. Though maybe on this trip I will know Mr Kontellis better and will change my opinion.

Anyway. All of us, except Nick and Richelle, were keen on the idea of this trip. But Nick didn't have a choice. As for Richelle, she seemed to think.

'Sleeping in tents? Cooking food on a fire?' she drawled disappointedly. 'But I was looking forward to the holydays to earn some money, to swim, just to have a good time.'

'We'll have a good time!' Liz interrupted. 'Just imagine! To get away from the city, see new places. To breathe some fresh air.'

'Liz, you know I hate to carry heavy backpacks and eat food, cooked on a fire!'

'You won't have to carry heavy backpacks,' Nick coaxed her. 'It will be a road trip with lots of stops. And we're going to eat in roadside cafes. Besides I'll ask dad to include coastal places into our route. So you will be able to swim and lie on a beach.'

'Oh, okay,' finally Richelle agreed.

'Okay,' Nick nodded. 'I'll tell dad that you all agreed.'

###

That night Mr Kontellis called our parents in turn and asked if we could go. Tom's parents, Sunny's mother and my dad didn't take too much of a problem. Mrs Chan and my father had left us to organize our own lives long ago, and Tom's mother was too busy with his younger brothers. She considered that Tom was grown up enough to make his own decisions. Richelle's parents didn't mind this trip either. Her mum knew that Mr Kontellis was responsible and serious person and that she could easily trust him with her daughter.

As for Mr Brinkley, when he heard about the travel, he just went into raptures about it. So when Mr Kontellis asked if he would like to join us, Mr Brinkley agreed instantly.

Liz's parents at first didn't want to let their daughter go, but after the conversation with Mr Kontellis, who had convinced them that their daughter would be returned home safe and sound, they gave in. Mr Free decided that there were at least two good reasons why this trip would be useful for Liz. Firstly, Liz would learn how to live in unusual conditions and see new places. And secondly, she would avoid another criminal affair, which always had been driving him mad. But he insisted that their dog, Christo, should go with us. Mr Kontellis easily agreed and even said that the dog would be useful in the road trip.

As for us, we decided that parents wouldn't bother us. We were all getting more and more excited, counting down the days. Even Nick and Richelle cheered up. We all started to pack our things, anticipating a funny and interesting journey.

Tom and I didn't lose sleep over packing. To our opinion some necessary clothes and other obvious things would be enough.

Sunny, except clothes, put into her bag two track suits – light and warm ones, climbing and diving equipment, a football ball and badminton rackets.

Liz complained that her mum crammed a lot of warm clothes into her bag.

'Mum! It's so hot!' Liz sighed. 'I don't need so many warm things! They'll just be useless.'

'The weather can change,' her mother objected, cramming two warm sweaters into Liz's bag. 'Besides you're going to sleep in tents. The ground may be cold at night.'

In the end Liz stopped arguing and started to put the warm clothes from the bag back into the wardrobe. Her mother was amazed that such a quite small bag could hold so many things.

'I told you that this bag was really good,' she kept saying to Liz's father. 'It looks so small, but it can hold so many things!'

Saying this, she put a few warm tights into the marvelous bag. That evening Liz replaced these tights with a couple of swimsuits.

In Kontellis's house you could watch another picture. Nick filled his bag with jeans and sweatshirts. He didn't forget even a wool blanket.

'Are you going to travel around Antarctic?' Tom teased him.

Nick just shrugged in reply. 'The weather is unpredictable,' he used to say. 'You never know what can happen.'

As for Richelle, she filled her bag with swimsuits, curling iron, a full set of cosmetics, a manicure set and a lot of clothes of all kinds and colours, from jeans to little dresses.

###

The day before the trip, all participants were to meet in Kontellis's house to discuss details. I met Tom, Liz and Sunny near the Pen and we headed for Nick's place. Richelle was to go there with her father. We decided to walk through the park and the Glen to save time. Everyone was happy and excited and chattered endlessly about the up-coming trip.

'I heard Mr Kontellis had included a town where a lot of artists live into our route,' Tom said as we walked through the Glen towards the park.

'Really?' Liz seemed interested.

'Yeah,' Tom nodded. 'I heard there are several art museums in that town, and most of the houses are painted like…'

We didn't hear what he wanted to say, because all of a sudden Tom disappeared.

'Good heavens! There's a gully here!' Sunny exclaimed in alarm. 'Tom! Are you all right?'

We parted aside the branches of thick bushes, which had devoured Tom so suddenly. The gully wasn't very deep, but the slope here was quite steep. Actually it was easy to break an arm or a leg if you stumbled down there.

'Hurry up,' Sunny was already carefully sliding down the slope into the gully.

Liz and I followed her. When we finally reached the bottom, we saw Tom. He was standing near a luxury car.

'Can you move faster?' Tom exclaimed impatiently when we joined him. 'Look at this.' He stretched out his hand towards the car, looking smug and pleased, as though it was his own purchase.

We all stared at the car. It was a brand new black BMW, shiny and sleek. But how did it get in this gully? It was the last place where I expected to see any car, let alone such a luxury car.

'A cool car,' I mumbled admiringly, trying to see something through the darkened windows. It was useless, though. I could see only my own reflection. 'But why could someone leave it here?'

'This is it,' Tom said, nodding meaningfully. 'It's dangerous to drive down here even on a motorbike, let alone a car. I guess the owner of this car is mad. Or he or she was completely drunk.'

I walked around the car and noticed the tire tracks in the grass. Following them, I came up to the other side of the gully, which was almost flat. I called out the others and pointed at the gentle slope.

'It's easy to drive down this slope,' I said. 'But I still don't understand why someone could park such an expensive car here.'

'Whoever did that, they must have had reasons. Let's go,' Sunny glanced at her watch. 'We're supposed to be in Nick's place by now.'

We climbed out of the gully and started for Kontellis's house, discussing this strange incident on the way.

'I reckon the car is stolen,' I said. 'Why else would anyone leave his or her car in such a place?'

'Do you think someone stole the car and hid it in a gully?' Tom asked.

'Why not?' I shrugged. 'Who would think to look for the stolen car in the gully? No one. It can stay there for a while and then the robbers easily will sell it.'

'We should report to the police,' Liz stopped dead.

'Hey, cool it, Liz,' Sunny objected. 'It's just a theory. We don't know anything for sure. What if everything's all right and it's just teenagers, who wanted to be alone. We'll look really stupid, don't you think?'

'But let's at least write down the car number,' Liz insisted. 'Then we'll be able to call Greta Vortek and ask her to check if someone reported the car with this number stolen.'

We looked at each other. Liz had a point. We all could see that. We turned round and ran back to the Glen. But when we climbed down into the gully, there wasn't any car. Neither the black BMW, nor any other car.

We stared at each other, bewildered.

'I told you,' Sunny snorted. 'It was just teenagers or something.'

'All the same, we should have noticed the number plate,' Liz exclaimed. 'Why didn't we think of that!'

'Did the car have the number plate?' Tom's forehead wrinkled in a frown. 'I don't remember.'

Neither did I. I was so astonished to see such a luxury car in such an unusual place that didn't even think about the number plate.

So we had nothing to do but to go to Nick's place.

###

When we came up to Nick's house, we saw that all participants of the trip had already gathered. Mr Brinkley's car was parked in front of Kontellis's house. A new microbus Hyundai IMAX stood on the driveway near the garage. As I knew, Mr Kontellis had been driving on this car for a few days in order to adapt himself to the unusual dimensions. Next to the microbus, contrasting with its elegance, an old, yellow Mercedes stood. I couldn't help gazing at it. I've never seen a car in such a state before. There were dents and scratches all over the car. Even the roof didn't avoid this fate. The car looked as if its owner preferred to roll down hills like a ball.

Liz pressed the doorbell. Nick opened the door and led us into the spacious lounge room. Except Mr and Mrs Kontellis and the Brinkley family, there was a tall, thin guy of about twenty five, sitting in an armchair.

'This is Liz Free, Tom Moysten, Sunny Chan and Elmo Zimmer,' Mr Kontellis introduced us to the thin guy. Then he turned to us, 'this is Arnold Power, my workmate,' he said.

'Call me just Arnold,' the guy smiled friendly at us.

I heard Sunny and Tom giggling. And I could understand that. The last thing you could see in this bony guy was power. Arnold Power turned out to be a young, promising inventor.

I noticed that Richelle was looking at Arnold disdainfully. Arnold belonged to that type of people who didn't care how they look. The wide trousers were a little bit short for him, the wrinkled shirt hung on him like a sack, the shirt collar was twisted awry. His hair was tangled and unkempt.

'I heard you're going to take a dog along with you,' Arnold said. 'I want to warn you that I won't be able to ride in one car with the dog. I'm allergic to dogs.'

'Maybe you won't go then?' Richelle said with a hope in her voice.

'No, I'll go,' Arnold objected firmly. 'I want to help Mr Kontellis to find young talented inventors. Besides, my brains need rest and refection. I'm completely exhausted. I don't even have inspiration for new inventions. I'll just go on my own car.'

'Okay,' Mr Kontellis nodded.

'Here's our route,' the guy went on. 'The first place we'll visit is Ashfield. Firstly, there is an old monastery in this town. You must see it. It's really grand and interesting. And secondly, I've got a holiday house there, where we can spend the night. Also we can buy some food there. There's no need to buy a lot of perishable goods here in Raven Hill.'

'Okay,' Mr Brinkley said importantly.' Let's check what we have.'

'I bought three big tents,' Mr Kontellis began to enumerate, 'a camp stove, torches, two large bottles of water, canned food…'

###

The rest of that day and the whole next day we spent packing the last things into our bags and calling each other, asking and telling new details. Our parents did the same. Tom's mum, for example, knowing how much her son likes to eat, brought a huge box full of canned food.

Liz's mum kept calling Mrs Kontellis or Mrs Brinkley or Mrs Chan, asking their advices, until Mr Kontellis assured her that "the kids will be returned home safe and sound".