Chapter 9
London, England
Dimitri Marick leaned over and lit her cigarette for her. "Still shaky?"
Helen was a casual smoker, but tonight this was her third in one hour.
She inhaled deeply. "Don't ever make me do that again."
Dimitri suppressed a smile. They'd gone out into the country this afternoon and he'd taken her riding. In the back of his mind he hoped that maybe once she sat on the back of a horse and saw the gorgeous countryside from a different perspective, it might spark some interest in riding. Really, who wouldn't love it?
He now cringed when he thought back to it.
Dimitri had helped Helen onto one of the gentlest mares at the stables. But only minutes into the ride, something had spooked the horse and she took off, leaving Helen hanging on for dear life.
Thankfully, Dimitri caught up to the animal and was able to get her to slow down.
Helen was another matter.
She'd hopped off the horse with shaky legs, given him a piece of her mind using a few English expletives he'd never heard before, on what she really she thought about his favourite pastime. Then she absolutely and firmly refused to get back on.
Now they sat on a patio by the Thames and she was still glaring at him, as she took another sip of wine. He'd ordered her favourite, a light Australian Shiraz. He figured a bouquet of flowers to go with breakfast tomorrow was probably a good idea too.
"No more countryside rides. Promise," he held up his hand in apology once more and lit a cigarette of his own. 'At least in this relationship,' he thought. 'There won't be any heated debates on who the better rider is. Not that there was really any debate in the last one...'
"I feel like I've gone through a near-death experience..." Helen mumbled. "I don't know why you insist forcing those animals on me. Obviously they don't like me and the feeling is more than mutual. No more."
"I thought maybe..."
"You thought wrong," she cut him off.
"Helen...I'm sorry," he said softly, meaning it. He was grateful that the ride didn't end with her hurt on the ground. The thought alone brought back memories of Alex breaking Tempus and nearly breaking limbs in the process.
Dimitri reached across the table to grasp Helen's hand. Why was it that everything he was trying to do to better things between them ended up backfiring somehow? Why the hell couldn't he get anything right? "Tell me what I can do to make it up to you?"
She took a deep breath and managed a smile. "You can make it up to me by taking me scuba diving off the coast of Ibiza."
Dimitri raised his brows. Ibiza. He'd all but forgotten about that.
They'd been discussing a trip after the race at Royal Ascot and he vaguely remembered agreeing to Ibiza, even if the idea didn't hold much appeal. In fact, a day later he'd all but agreed to meet a thoroughbred breeder in Dubai instead, thinking surely Helen would be just as pleased to go there. That and he'd mentioned the idea to Andrei who was already keen to go. But maybe now wasn't the best time to suggest that either. Then again, if not now, when?
"Have you ever been to Dubai?" he tried.
She took a sip of wine. "Dubai? No, why?"
"Great shops and some of the most incredible hotels in world."
"You want to go to Dubai instead?" The disappointment was clear, not just in her face but in the way she asked.
"I thought maybe..."
"I don't know. It's a Muslim country in the middle of the desert. I mean, can I even wear a bikini there?"
"Yes. I'll insist."
She wrinkled her nose. "Dimi...I really like Ibiza."
Dimitri did like Ibiza at one point in his life. When he was about twenty-one and wanted nothing more than to party his life away. Mind you, Andrei will probably love it just as much as I did then. However, at this point Ibiza appealed to Dimitri as much as a trip to Euro Disney.
"So is Andrei still coming with us?"
Dimitri stubbed out his cigarette, half finished. Not sure he understood. "Yes, of course. He's worked so hard this past year. He deserves it."
"Does he want to come with us?"
Dimitri laughed. "Sweetheart, he's not sharing a room with us. You know how he is, he'll be off doing his own thing. We'll be lucky if we see him for breakfast in the morning."
He thought he could see the relief in her face and she finally gave his hand a squeeze. "I can't wait, Dimi. It's going to be hot and fun. We're going to dance all night long, watch sunsets on a beach and drink nothing but cocktails with ridiculous little umbrellas in them and then..." She tugged at his index finger. "Well, you can fill in the blank on the rest..."
Dimitri smiled. Finally he was getting somewhere. He raised his glass in a toast. "To us...and Ibiza."
She grinned, clinking her glass with his. "To good times ahead."
O'Hare International Airport, Chicago
Anna Devane eyed the departures board and cringed. Her ten o'clock departure to Washington had been changed to nearly midnight.
"What a start," she thought. As if a 28-hour trip wasn't long enough, there was now a two-hour delay before she even left the ground. "Is this where I'm supposed to be grateful that my first layover at Dulles is nearly four hours long?" Then there was another layover in Rome, followed by a final switch in airlines in Addis Ababa before she was due to arrive at Gregoire Kayibanda airport in Kigali. It was Sunday now and it would be Tuesday by the time she got to her final destination. That is, if everything went according to plan and one of her four flights didn't get cancelled all together.
You couldn't have done relief work in Guatemala, sweetheart?
Anna debated sitting down on one of the empty chairs in the waiting area, but knew she was too restless to stay seated. Instead, she grabbed her wheeled carry-on suitcase and decided that pacing from one end of the long hallway to the other was a better alternative. Maybe she'd find a coffee shop that sold a cup of relaxing herbal tea.
Anna stopped next to a floor-to-ceiling window and stared at the runways outside.
An Air India jet touched down just as her mind drifted back to her conversation with Robin only a few hours ago.
"Sweetheart, are you alright? I got a call from Sandrine saying you fainted in a market. That you weren't able to take the HIV meds? Robin...what's going on?"
"I'm okay, Mom, really. I got sick because I couldn't keep some of the meds refrigerated out in the camp and they spoiled. They sent me back to Kigali to do some tests."
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"
"It was like getting the flu, Mom. I knew it would take me a week or two to get my T-cell count stable again. I didn't want you to worry."
"Didn't want me to worry? Robin, I'm your mother!"
"Mom...it's okay. I fainted because I walked around the city in the morning heat when I shouldn't have. It's going to be okay."
"And Sandrine? How is it possible that she of all people was there when it happened?"
There had been a considerable pause at the other end. "I know...it's crazy, isn't it?"
"Is she...?"
"She's been really nice, Mom. Her...her husband is paying for my stay."
"Tell him thank you. And that I'll take care of it when I get there. She also said I should come see you. That you needed me...Robin are you sure you're okay?"
"Honestly, Mom. I'm going to be fine."
"Do you want me to come there?"
This time the pause had been even longer and Anna's heart had skipped a beat. No matter what she said, Anna knew Robin wasn't alright. There was something else she wasn't telling her, and her reply only confirmed that suspicion.
"I think...yeah, I think it would be good if you came here."
Anna had bitten her lip, not wanting her daughter to hear how afraid she was for her. "Sweetheart, is there something else I should know?"
"There are some things, yeah. But it's not what you think, Mom. Can you...do you really think you can come?"
Robin would never ask her if there wasn't a really good reason. Anna knew her daughter well enough to know that.
"Yes...yes, of course. I'll find a way to get there as soon as possible."
"Mom...?" Her daughter's voice had been close to tears. "Thanks."
"I love you, sweetheart."
"I love you too."
And here is where that conversation had brought her. To O'Hare waiting for a delayed flight to Washington.
Anna bit her nails and stared out the window, hoping that whatever was wrong with Robin was something that could be fixed with a trip to Africa.
King Faisal Hospital, Kigali, Rwanda
Robin Scorpio stared at door of her private room and yawned. She hadn't slept well. Aside from her mother's phone call there were fever-induced dreams of her father burning and screaming on a tanker that was on fire.
If he hadn't just called her telling her he was on his way to the hospital, Robin might have thought her conversation with him last night was a dream too. A better one, but a dream nonetheless.
She was still trying to fit the pieces together and even with her father's explanations last night, so much of it still didn't make sense.
Does Mom know he's alive? Did Dad keep track of us all this time, without us knowing? What's he doing in Africa now masquerading as someone called Roger Saunders? Where does Sandrine come in to all this?
Robin thought back to Sandrine Mutanga. She was pregnant. Very pregnant. Is she carrying my little half-brother or sister?
"Good morning, luv."
Her eyes still on the door, she saw her father the instant he stepped through the door.
"Morning, Dad." It felt so strange to say those two words. Together.
"I spoke to your doctor. He said he wants to do another blood test and if your levels haven't decreased you might be alright to go home today. As long you promise to rest for the next few days."
"I'd love that," Robin admitted. She knew if she wasn't in a sterile, noisy hospital room she might actually get a decent night's sleep.
He sat down next to her, taking one of her hands in his. He wore a crisp, white shirt today and a pair of dark, blue slacks that brought out the blue in his eyes. "I'd love it if you came home with me," he told her. "Sandrine and I, we have a nice big home in a gated neighbourhood, just outside the core of the city. You'd have your own bedroom, your privacy, there's a lovely backyard..."
"Dad...I..." The suggestion took her aback. "I don't know."
"I understand if you need to think about it. And I'll understand if you say no. But I want you to know that...that I'd love it if you said yes. If you let me take care of you and spoil you, even if only for a few days."
Robin took a deep breath. "What about Sandrine?"
He held up a paper bag with a smile. "Sandrine told me to bring you something. They're almond cookies. She makes them herself. It's a French recipe she fell in love with when she studied in Paris. She told me they might help your appetite come along. Really, they're that good..."
"Dad..."
"Sandrine would love it if you came to stay with us," he said softly. "Honestly."
Robin didn't know what to think. Yesterday she thought her father was dead. Today he was asking her to move in with him. Even if only for a few days to recuperate. But the truth was, she didn't trust Sandrine. The woman had known all along that her father was alive and had conveniently kept that fact to herself when she'd joined her mother and Sean in searching for Alex two years ago.
"Sandrine lied to us, the entire time she was with us in Paris," Robin told him. "She knew you were alive. Knew you were my father."
He squeezed her hand. "Please don't blame Sandi for my lies. She didn't want to tell you when she came to see you in Paris, because she didn't know whether or not I was alive then. I'd given her no sign of life after I left Kinshasa to track down Faison. She decided that if anything had happened to me...it would be worse to tell you the truth and then to have you find out that Faison had killed me after all."
"What about afterwards? After you got Alex out and brought her to Moscow? Why not end the whole charade then? Why the hell didn't Alex tell Mom? Did you force her to keep your secret?"
"For what it's worth...I asked Alex not to tell Anna. That's all. She didn't like it, but she agreed. I thought she might be good for her word and I see now that I was right. Sandrine on the other hand wanted me to. She wanted me to face your mother at the hospital, then and there. But I wasn't ready to face any of you. I was hurt, physically and I had to go back to Africa to tell the families of two men that a mission I took them on had cost them their lives. I couldn't face you and your mother and Sean on top of it all..."
"But that was over two years ago, Dad! What was your excuse between then and now?"
Her father's shoulder slumped and for the first time he looked as old as he was. "No excuses, luv. None."
"So you just didn't want to see us?" Robin looked at him dumbfounded, knowing her voice was more bitter than she wanted it to be.
"I did want to," he said softly. "And I did go to Paris to see you."
"What?" Robin looked at him in disbelief.
"I went to Paris to see you and your mother a few weeks after coming back from Moscow. I waited on a bench outside your mother's apartment when I saw all of you come outside. You, and your mother. Your little sister. David Hayward. You looked happy, all of you. Really happy. You made a beautiful family. A family that I didn't want to risk breaking up...a family that was no longer mine."
Robin bit her lip. "Dad, that is a bunch of..."
"I remembered what happened when Holly came back into my life after I thought she was dead," he explained, not letting her cut him off. "I remember how conflicted I felt. You and Anna...you were my family then. Yet I felt like I owed it to Holly...to let her know I still loved her. But how could do that without hurting your mother? I learned then, that you can't go back in time. The past really is a foreign country."
Robin frowned. "You're quoting L.P Hartley to try and make me understand? Sorry...not buying it."
"All of you looked so happy, luv. You were a family now and I had no right to come between that. I had no right to ask your mother to make a choice..."
"You deduced all that from one look at us from a distance?" Robin challenged him. "You say you didn't want Mom to be forced to make a choice, but what about me? Mom might have found another husband. But you're the only father I have!"
Her father made no move to avoid her glare, or defend himself against her accusations. It was the only way he knew how to fight his battles. Head on. That was exactly how she remembered him. You haven't changed in that respect, Dad.
"I'm not trying to say I made the right decisions, luv. I'm just telling you why I made them. Why they seemed like the right ones at the time."
Robin sighed. It felt like a bitter pill to swallow.
"I love you, Robin," he said as if reading her mind. As if knowing that was the reaffirmation she needed, even if it felt wrong to ask for it. Of course her father loved her. That was one thing she never questioned. "You were in my thoughts every single day."
Except you made no effort to be a part of my life. Instead you carved out a new life here in Africa. You created a new family for yourself.
"Sandrine's baby...is it yours?" she asked.
Her father nodded. "Yes."
"You're married..." she said softly. "You have a new family. If I...if I hadn't fainted at the market and had seen you anyway...then, you're saying, I should've walked away. Ignored you. I mean, that's your logic right? The past and the present don't mix. I have no right to be part of your new family."
Robin saw him flinch. That one hurt. Good.
"No, luv. That's not true."
"I fell into your new life by accident," she added. "You're forced to make space for me now but..." She was crying now. Why did it all hurt so much all of a sudden? This wasn't what she'd felt yesterday. "I don't want you to have to do that."
Robin felt his arms around her.
"Sweetheart, you have no idea how happy it makes me to be in the same room as you..."
Robin pushed him away. She wasn't ready for this right now and she suddenly, childishly, wished her mother was here already. "Dad?"
He wiped away a tear from her cheek. Like he'd done when she fell and scraped her knees as a kid.
"What is it?"
"Can you leave me alone for a bit?"
Judging from the way his eyes darkened in response, she guessed that hurt him too. She tried to tell herself that she didn't care.
"Alright, luv. Whatever you need. But I'll be back later." He kissed her cheek and then pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from her bedside drawer. "This is my phone number. If you need to talk to me, call me. Anytime."
"Thanks," she mumbled after he left, knowing he couldn't hear her.
Robin wasn't sure how euphoria of discovering her father was alive yesterday had somehow given way to anger and frustration today.
I'm so glad you're back Dad. But it makes me so angry to know that you never tried to find a way back to us. All these years...
She sank back into her pillow as she wiped away the last of her tears, determined not to cry anymore.
Enough of that. There are starving, homeless people fleeing the DRC who'd give an arm and a leg to trade places with me.
She wasn't an impressionable teenager anymore. Her innocence had died a long time ago, along with the first man she'd loved. She was an adult now. A doctor, capable of travelling to war zones and amputating someone's limbs on the spot.
Even the fact that she'd asked her mother to come here, bothered her now.
I wanted you to see Dad face to face, like I did. Because in the back of my mind, I was picturing some kind of clichéd, romantic reunion between two of the people I love most in my life. But I was wrong. It's contrived and manipulative.
Robin realized now that it was a mistake. She should have told her mother the truth over the phone and let her make the decision on her own. Instead her mother now worried over her health, while having no idea what exactly would await her once she landed in Kigali.
I still love you, Dad. That's never going to change. No matter how angry I am. But if you want me to respect you again, you're going to have to earn it this time. You say you're grateful to have me back in your life, but lets face it, if I hadn't fallen face down at the market, I'd still think you were dead.
Robin stared at the door, wondering when her father would walk back through it. Wondering what she'd say when he did.
It suddenly occurred to her that reconciling her gratitude with her disappointment might take more time than she thought.
Vancouver, Canada
Alex picked up a toy train off the floor and put in on the shelf. It was a shiny silver Amtrak car and she stuck it next to a German, wooden locomotive, before taking another glance at her watch. It was getting dark outside already.
Ahmad had insisted she stay home another day and take it easy until tomorrow. Alex should've been grateful but instead she was restless.
Part of her wondered when the shock of what happened at the clinic last night would hit her. She expected to be wide awake all night, but instead she'd slept well. So well, that she hadn't heard her alarm and overslept by nearly two hours. When she did wake up she felt fine. Calm and well-rested. Even the soreness on her arm was only mildly annoying.
What did leave her edgy was the thought of the conversation she needed to have with Maria.
You need to tell her. You can't put it off another day. It's a minor miracle that she hasn't mentioned anything as it is. But how do I tell the person who's been my rock the last two years that I can't pay her salary right now?
What in the world am I going to do if she leaves?
That thought was more disturbing to her than anything else right now. Maria wasn't just a nanny. The woman had travelled from Scotland to Australia and now to Canada with her. She'd seen Alex through one of the worst years of her life and taught her how to be a mother. Liam loved her.
Not just Liam. Me too.
She'd have to find a way to convince her to stay. Begging and pleading were not out of the question.
"Alejandra, no vas a trabajar hoy?"
Alex nearly hit the bookshelf when she spun around. "Jesus Christ, when did you get in here?"
"Stop thinking so hard that you lose your hearing," the old woman chided her.
Maria looked at the rolled up sleeve on her bandaged arm. "Que te paso?" she asked with a frown.
"Yo hago boxing con criminales."
Maria cringed. "Your Spanish. Por favor. It hurts my ears, Alejandra."
The old woman put aside the laundry basket she was holding to examine her arm. "Tell me what happened...en ingles."
Alex sat down on the couch with her and explained to her what happened at the clinic the night before.
Maria gasped. "Ay! Go back to bed, I will make you something nice..."
Alex laughed. "I'm not sick, Maria! I got a few stitches, that's all."
"You lose blood," Maria shot back, her face dead serious now.
"Not any more then when I chop vegetables."
"It's not funny, Alejandra," Maria chided her. "I don't like you working in this clinic. What I will do if something happen to you? You have a young son that needs a mother! You are his only family, mi hija. Two years with you and I have never seen you with any family."
Alex looked at her guiltily. It wasn't true. She did have a family. A husband she still loved more than she had a right to. A son that she missed like crazy. A sister who made her feel whole. And two beautiful nieces that she adored. She'd deprived her son of all of them the last two years.
"You're right," she admitted. "I'll be more careful. Promise."
"Please," Maria repeated. "Not for me. For Liam."
"Maria...since you're here," Alex paused, taking a deep breath. "There's something else I need to tell you."
Maria's face was even more sombre when Alex hesitated, unable to get the words out.
"Tell me," she demanded.
"Maria...the last two years. You know, I didn't work," How do I put this into words? "I had enough funds put aside that I could...but I...I shouldn't have waited this long. It was stupid and careless and there's no excuse..."
"Que dices?"
"I'm saying...I can't pay you, right now. I'm hoping that with the job at the clinic and the research I'm helping this doctor in California with that next month..." Who was she kidding? Next month wasn't bloody likely either.
Maria looked like she was about to laugh. "That's it?"
"What do you mean?"
"I was afraid maybe you are sick or you are telling me we are moving again or that you are moving without me..."
"Move without you?" Alex raised her brows. "Maria...I'm trying to tell you I can't pay you right now. At all."
The old woman took one of Alex's hands into hers. "Can you pay for the rent and the food for us?"
"Yes...yes."
"Then it is okay."
"Maria...I know you send the money to your son, in Spain, that he's not working..."
"Alejandra..." Maria squeezed her hand. "Mi hijo...murio. My son is dead. He died three weeks before I went to Scotland and met you."
"What?" Alex looked at her in disbelief.
"My son he didn't have work for a long time. It was making him depressed. I try to help him...but when his wife, she...she left him, he could not accept this. One morning he went to the train station he stepped into the train when it came. He died right away."
Alex felt a lump in her throat. "Oh god...I'm so sorry." How was it possible that she didn't know? That this woman who'd taken care of her and Liam for the last two years had never told her? Even worse, Alex had never bothered to find out. She remembered wondering once why Maria never called her son in Spain. Why the hell didn't you ask?
"Maria...why didn't you tell me? Why did you tell me you were sending him money?"
"I do send him money. I send it to the cemetery to keep his grave nice. With fresh flowers."
Now Alex felt the bitter sting of tears. "I'm so sorry...I had no idea."
"Oh Alejandra," this time the old woman embraced her with a hug. "Please do not be sad. When my son died I was thinking maybe I should die too...that I have no reason to be here anymore. My husband is gone, my only child is dead...I feel so bad that I could not help my son. I knew then...that I have to leave Spain I could not be there any more. Every thing there reminds me of my son. When I was young, I always dream about Scotland, about the beautiful green hills and the blue lakes. So I went. But I didn't have much money, so I have to work, to do something but my English was not very good. I saw the place looking for nannies and I wanted to be with children. Because to me...children they are still happy."
Feeling the woman's arms around her suddenly made Alex realize the depth of the old woman's love for her. It made her regret that she hadn't let her show it before.
"So there I meet you and you reminded me so much of my son. You were sad and alone and you did not know how to help yourself. You were not ready to take care of a baby because you don't know how to take care of yourself. I will tell you now, the first day I saw you I wanted to tell you that I cannot work for you. That you remind me too much of my son! I could not help my son, Alejandra, so I was scared that I will make the same mistakes again."
"But you stayed..."
"I stayed for Liam. For this beautiful, happy little boy who makes me smile every day."
"I'm sorry..." Alex said softly. All this time she'd been so focused on getting back on her feet again she'd never even given a moment's thought to how her situation might have affected Maria.
"Stop it," Maria chided her. "You have no reason to be sorry. In the beginning, you remind me of my son, but I was wrong. You are different. Everything you did, even if you didn't know, you did for your son...you know you cannot take care of him so you hire me." She smiled. "Maybe you were loca but you always make very smart decisions."
Alex smiled. "Yeah...that was one of my better ones."
"My son, he never accepts that he had a problem. He never ask for help. It is a hard thing to do...but you did this, Alejandra. You ask for help, you took the medication to get out of it, you choose to keep fighting."
"I feel like I wore blinders for two years," she said quietly.
"Que?"
"I feel like I didn't see what was going on around me," she explained. "I should have. I should have been there for you too. Not just the other way around."
"You were sick," Maria corrected her. "You work hard to get better. That is all that matters. It makes me very happy."
"For two years all I did was take..."
Maria laughed. "Ay carramba...por favor stop it. You gave me more than you can imagine. You gave me a family. You gave me a reason to be here again. You have no idea how much you help me. You and Liam."
The thought that maybe their relationship wasn't as one-sided as Alex used to think it was made her happy.
"So you'll stay?"
"Did you listen to anything I said?" Maria sighed. "For a smart woman you can be so dumb sometimes."
Alex laughed. "Thank you. You have no idea how much it means to me."
"You are welcome."
"What was his name?"
"Quien?"
"Your son."
Maria smiled. "Alejandro."
Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, USA
David Hayward had icing on his face and all over his hands when he heard the doorbell ring.
"One more..." Leah told him, moving her hand toward the bowl full of chocolate icing.
"Oh no..." David deftly moved her hand aside and placed the bowl onto a higher counter that she couldn't reach even when standing on a chair. "If we eat any more, we won't have any left for the brownies."
"Pleeeeeeeeease?"
Her icing-covered face was irresistible.
He put the bowl back down. Anna always chided him for giving in to her far too easily.
"If you keep it up we are going to raise a spoiled brat. I won't have that. She has to learn that no means no. From both of us."
David grinned when he saw his daughter's lips widen into a smile.
How can I resist the most adorable three-year old on the planet? What father could?
Besides, Anna wasn't here.
The doorbell rang again.
"Coming!"
He wiped his hands on his apron and dashed to the door.
"Can I help..." He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. His cousin Maggie leapt up to give him a hug.
He returned her embrace. "Maggie?"
"David...it's so nice to see you. You have no idea how long I've been on the road."
"Aren't you at college?" He eyed the giant back-pack she carried, nearly dwarfing her small frame.
She avoided his eyes. "Well...I was but. It's a long story...do you mind if I come in?"
Leah had left the kitchen and squealed when she saw Maggie. "Maggie! Come, I am making brownies!"
Maggie bent down to kiss Leah, while David took her bag.
He put his arms around her and led her into the living room. "Can I get you anything?"
She took off her jacket. "Yeah...a place to stay for a few days?"
David raised his eyebrows. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah...yeah, it's okay." She smiled a lop-sided smile. "It's okay except that I need a place to stay for a little while."
"You're staying here?" Leah reacted as if the news was an early Christmas present.
David used his hand to wipe away some of the icing from his daughter's chin. "As you can see...you're always welcome here."
"Is Anna at work?" Maggie asked.
"Anna's on the way to Africa," he told her. "To visit Robin."
Maggie smiled. "Well...that is perfect then. I need a place to stay, and you clearly need a babysitter."
David chuckled. Anna was right. He was completely incapable of saying no to any of the women in his life.
He decided he would get the whole story from his cousin after his afternoon baking session with Leah.
And when he watched Maggie scoop Leah up in her arms, he suddenly realized that maybe this was an unexpected opportunity.
He had the rest of the week off, and now, thanks to his cousin, he might be able to use one of those days to take a short trip of his own.