Chapter 22
Part I
It's the first morning of the Easter holidays and even if it's quite early in the morning it's already noisy and chaotic in the house of Miss Peregrine and the children. Finally they are going on their big camping trip.
The last school week has been quite stressful. All of them had to plan the holiday and pack their things while still fulfilling their everyday duties. Ethan has done the most important things. He has rented two family tents. The bigger one has 6 separated areas: 4 small rooms where most of the children sleep ( both couples share a room each, all three boys another as well as Fiona and Bronwyn), one small room for supplies and a bigger corridor of sorts, where all of them would fit in should it rain outside.
In the second tent are 3 areas. One sleeping room for Ethan and Alma, one for Claire and the twins and another free room for clothes and other things.
Then he has rented bikes for all the children who haven't got one yet. For himself and Alma as well as for the teenage couples he has gotten tandem bikes. For the transport of all their things, they use bike trailers, which will be attached to the bikes of the teenagers, the boys and Bronwyn.
In addition to it, Ethan had to arrange a locum doctor for his office and had to book the campsites, they want to stay at during the next weeks. He has chosen quite a few so they will never have to go too far with their bikes to reach the next destination. He's not sure how long especially the little ones can drive in a row without complaining and also for Alma it will be good, not to drive too long.
A few days ago Bronwyn and Miss Peregrine have already brought the guinea pigs to a friend from school, whose parents also Miss Peregrine knows quite well. They are not going away for the holidays and their kids have been only too happy to care for Ginger and Spinner.
Claire's cat is supposed to stay on her own. Miss Peregrine assured her girl that it will be alright as she has been a stray cat before. Nonetheless, they have installed a self-made machine that will provide a bit of cat food every day as well as one for water. For the nights the cat has a little sleeping space next to the terrace door, still under the roof.
While the children had to pack all their toys that they might need, Miss Peregrine was busy with packing their clothes - at least those of the younger ones - and all the other things they will need, like dishes, cooking devices, towels, bathing clothes, blankets, cushions and sleeping mats as well as mosquito repellent. For herself she has packed some books, mostly about pregnancy or the development of a child before and after the birth. Alma hopes to have more time during the holiday as she hasn't had the opportunity to read a lot at home. But she wants to be well informed, to know how to behave during the pregnancy and what to do to ensure her child the best development possible.
Ethan has organized a little table, camp chairs, a camping cooker, a few fishing rods and a big inflatable dinghy. For himself and Alma he has gotten a camp bed and for Alma a breastfeeding pillow. She may not need it for the original purpose yet but it will help her with finding the right position to sleep.
The day before their departure Ethan and Alma went to see Catherine in her doctor's office again. They wanted her to check on Alma and the child before the big trip. Luckily everything was alright once more so Catherine had no objections. The only thing she has detected is a mild iron and magnesium deficiency, for which she gives Alma some pills as she has already complained about symptoms like dizziness or muscle cramps. In the end they get another ultrasound image of their child and Catherine wishes them a wonderful holiday.
So after everyone has gotten ready and they had breakfast together, all members of their big family start loading the trailers with their stuff. Miss Peregrine packs up the last things, like their food out of the fridge and everything they had to use this morning.
But finally everything is ready and they get to leave. All the children are really excited and can't stay quiet for just one second.
Together they make their way to the train station of the city. They want to take the train out of the city as it wouldn't be so nice to drive along the big streets. But only this short trip is easier said than done. None of them has driven a tandem bike before so especially for Ethan, Alma and the teenagers it's quite difficult. Just Olive and Enoch seem to be a dream team and manage to drive very soon. But the rest decides to walk the bike to the train station. In the city it's just too dangerous to practice it.
Arriving at the train station, the children's excitement doesn't wear off, not in the slightest. All the people around them, citizens, tourists and lots of stores. Since living in the city they haven't been out much. They know their way to school and to their hobbies and they have been into the city center a few times, but never here. All the train stations they have seen before were way smaller as they were train stations from up to 70 years ago. Especially the little ones are mesmerized by all the colors and noises. It's already like a holiday far away from home and Ethan and Alma have to make them hurry so they can get their train.
As quickly as possible, they make their way through the crowd - Ethan in the front and Alma in the back, so that no one gets lost.
Arriving at the train, Ethan finds a free railway carriage where they can stay with their bikes and trailers. As they are so many, they occupy the whole carriage on their own. It reminds the children a bit of their trip to London nearly two years ago. But this one is much more comfortable and modern.
During the drive, some of the children look outside the window, watching the city disappear in the distance and the landscape changing until there are very few villages and lots of fields and woods.
The boys have started playing cards with Ethan while Emma and Olive are talking to Miss Peregrine. She is showing them the ultrasound image while the girls keep asking questions about how it feels to be pregnant.
Soon they arrive in a small village where they had planned to get off the train. The teenagers, Ethan and Bronwyn carry the bikes and trailers out of the train. The others are already standing on the platform, taking deep breaths of country air. Miss Peregrine urges the children to use their sunscreen because the sun is high up in the sky by now. She herself applies it on the little ones and makes them wear their sunglasses and sun hats before they can start. This time, with lots of space on the road, Ethan and Alma as well as Emma and Jake get the hang of driving their bikes quite quickly. After a couple of minutes they have left the small village behind and are surrounded by a wild landscape. As they seem to be in the middle of nowhere, Miss Peregrine allows Millard to take off his overall, which has gotten really uncomfortable under the hot sun.
Happily the children cycle ahead, doing little races and stunts. The little ones who haven't got so much experience with driving a bike, are cycling with no hands for the first time.
"Look, Miss Peregrine! I can already do it for a couple of meters," Claire shouts from the front.
Alma and Ethan smile about the carefree atmosphere and the fun, that the children already have.
Regularly they do little breaks to drink enough because of the hot weather. All of them are really happy about it although they know that it will rain again soon enough. But during the first day, it would have been really discouraging.
Round about at lunchtime, they reach a small stream where they want to stop for a bigger break. By now they have travelled half of their way for today and everyone is still in a good mood. Parking their bikes next to the road, the children make their way down to the water immediately, while Ethan and Alma unpack their food and two big picnic blankets.
"Miss Peregrine, Ethan, come down here," Olive shouts.
The children are having a water fight, standing with their feet in the stream, splashing water everywhere.
Ethan and Alma have to laugh.
"Come on, let's join them," Ethan suggests and takes Alma by the hand to pull her with him down to the water. As soon as they have left their shoes on the riverside, the children start attacking them as well.
"Stop, stop, not so much," Alma laughs and holds her hands up to keep her head from getting completely wet too. Ethan runs past her into the water and fights back.
If anyone else would have driven by, he must have thought they were crazy. Twelve children and two adults jumping around in the stream, screaming and laughing.
Very soon, all of them are wet from head to toes and breathless from fighting and laughing at the same time. Exhausted they make their way to the blankets, Ethan and Miss Peregrine have already prepared. Miss Peregrine walks over to a trailer to get 2 towels, they can use to at least dry their faces and hair before eating.
The sun is still hot, so the wet clothes feel pleasant but at the same time they are drying on their own. All of them enjoy the delicious food, Miss Peregrine has prepared for their first day: lots of fruits, sandwiches, little sausages and self made lemonade which is still cold as there have been lots of ice cubes in it.
As they are finished, some children have lied down on the ground watching the clouds pass bay, telling each other what shapes they are seeing.
"I can see a dog," Bronwyn says and points at the cloud she's talking about.
"That's not a dog," Millard laughs. "It's a crocodile, can't you see it?"
"No it's definitely a dog," Bronwyn insists. "Miss Peregrine! Isn't this could looking like a dog?"
"I'm not sure Bronwyn," Alma answers. "I guess it depends on how you look at it. I see what you both mean but when I look at it, it rather looks like a little pig."
"A Pig?" Claire snorts. "That one doesn't look like a pig at all."
"To me it does," Miss Peregrine replies. "But I guess it's senseless to argue about it as everyone sees something different."
"Probably," Bronwyn admits and looks back into the sky. Soon the sun gets pretty hot again as their clothes have dried.
"Can we go swimming in the river?" Claire begs while jumping to her feet.
"Yes, it's so hot," Fiona adds and sits up.
"I know," Miss Peregrine answers. "But we should rather keep going. There are still a few miles until we reach our first camping side and I'd rather we arrive early enough. I think Ethan said that there will be a big lake. You can swim there, ok?"
"Yes, that's right," Ethan confirms. "There's a big lake where we can fish and swim and rent little pedal boats with slides on it."
"Ok," Claire says reluctantly.
After Miss Peregrine has gotten the sunscreen again and everyone has used it once more, they go back to their bikes. For the whole afternoon they keep cycling, still with lots of fun, but the more time passes the more tired the children get. The little ones have already asked a couple of times when they will finally arrive and also Miss Peregrine has let Ethan drive alone for some time to rest a bit.
After nearly 6 hours, sitting on a bike is getting pretty uncomfortable for all of them and they want to reach their destination as soon as possible.
At around half past five, they eventually arrive at the first camping site. Excited but exhausted and with a sore bum they get of their bikes and take a look around. Ethan takes care of the administrative stuff like the check in or the payment. After he comes back with a few papers with information about the camping here they walk their bikes and search for perfect place to stay.
The camping site is huge. At the entrance there's a bigger house with the reception desk, a kiosk as well as the toilets and showers. Then there comes a little parking space and behind they find a large area with lots of trees where you can put up a tent. A few people are already camping here but all in all it's pretty empty. In the middle of this little 'forest' is a big playground, which makes the smaller children's faces light up immediately.
"Can we stay near the playground, please?"Claire asks immediately and also the twins jump up and down.
"I'd rather stay somewhere in the corner where it's a lot more quiet and with less people around," Enoch argues and the other teenagers agree with him.
On the other end of the camping area, they can see a big wooden bridge, obviously leading to the advertised bathing lake.
"I'm sorry children, but I'm with Enoch," Ethan says his opinion. "I'm rather on my own and with lots of nature around me rather than neighbors. What about you?" he asks Miss Peregrine.
"I don't care to be honest," she shrugs. "But I prefer a place not too far away from the toilets as you know that I'm spending a lot of time there at the moment." Miss Peregrine winks at her children who laugh about her comment.
"Does it mean that we have to stay next to the entrance and the parking space?" Hugh asks a bit annoyed.
"I think we'll just walk around and take a look at everything," Ethan suggests. "I'm sure we will find a place that's fine for everyone."
And that's exactly what happens. On the other side of the camping area, near the bridge, they find a beautiful place in the corner, surrounded by bushes. It's only 200 meters away from the playground and 100 meters to the other side is a small wooden hut with toilets.
"That's perfect," Miss Peregrine smiles and takes Ethan's hand. "It was a good idea to go and look around."
They park all the trailers and bikes on the side and decide where exactly they want to place both tents. Miss Peregrine wants the two tent's facing each other as they want to put a tarpaulin over both entrances. Like that they have a roofed outdoor space and both tents are joined so they could walk over to the other tent even if it's raining outside.
While the younger children are allowed to inspect the playground, Miss Peregrine and the girls start unpacking their things and Ethan and the boys put up the tents. Then the girls bring all their things inside and prepare the beds while Ethan starts a small fire and begins to prepare everything for cooking the dinner.
A while later they are all sitting around the camp fire. It's already getting dark outside. They have just finished their dinner. Miss Peregrine has cooked a vegetable soup in a big pot over the fire and Ethan has gotten a few packages with little sausages that they are roasting near the flames, spiked on little sticks.
Now they are singing a few songs and watch the flames dancing. All of them feel very exhausted from the day and the little ones start getting sleepy very soon. Before they fall asleep completely, Miss Peregrine sends them to brush their teeth and to use the toilet one last time before going to bed.
"It's not like at home where you only have to walk through the illuminated living room to reach the bath room. So let's do everything possible to keep you from needing the loo at night and wander around in the dark, alright?" she says.
As Ethan has put out the fire and the children have entered their sleeping rooms, Miss Peregrine and Ethan go into their own tent to get ready.
"Good night and don't forget to close the tents properly. We wouldn't want to have mosquitoes and other little bugs inside the tents at night," Miss Peregrine calls out to the children.
As they have brushed their teeth as well, Ethan and Alma lie down on their camp bed. It's not really small but with their blankets and Alma's huge breastfeeding pillow it seems a bit cramped. Before they go to sleep, Alma lies down in Ethan's arms and he massages and lotions her bump. As it has growing again during the last weeks, the skin is beginning to stretch and itch. Ethan tries to make it as bearable as possible for Alma. But Ethan as well enjoys the procedure. The child is now moving regularly and even he can feel and see it. Besides it's now developing its sensory perception and both of the adults love getting in contact with the child and seeing its reaction. After cuddling for some time, Alma tries to find a comfortable sleeping position with her pillow and drifts off to sleep very soon. She has felt really exhausted after the trip today and was already happy that Ethan had the idea with the tandem bike. If she had to drive all the way on her own, she probably wouldn't have arrived here today. But like this it was manageable and now she's looking forward to some relaxed days, knowing that today was the hardest and longest part of their journey.
