BY
PetBabyAmy
C 1998
PROLOGUE
A 15 year old boy stood inside an empty bedroom, that had space themed wallpaper all over the walls with several patch marks where posters of his favourite football team had been, but mostly his favourite Heavy Metal rock band, used to be displayed. The boy seemed to be stood there as though staring out into space or something, when a woman’s voice suddenly called out. “Darren, get a move on will you, we don’t want to be late, and we have a long journey ahead of us.”
The boy was snapped out of whatever daydream that he was having. He was not happy; the big sulk on his face was evident of that fact. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes. His mother was the same, she was 35 years old, his father was one year older, with the same colour of hair, but had hazel brown eyes instead. The mother was of slim build with short brown hair, but that was the way that she preferred it that way. His Dad also had short hair.
Darren himself, had long hair that came half way down his back, being a fan of Heavy Metal, his parents did not seem to mind or care that much that he had long hair. Though his mother half wished she had a little girl instead. Darren’s father was of plump build, due to a lot of beer drinking, though he was not overly a heavy drinker, his portly frame most came from eating way too many cheese burgers. Darren was of average height and build for his age.
“I’m coming mum.” Shouted Darren, as he turned, ran out of the bedroom and down the stairs. His father had seen him, even heard him run like an idiot and shook his head by the time Darren reached the bottom of the stairs. “What have I told you about running down those stairs?”
“Sorry dad, I was in a rush.”
“That is no excuse, you could have easily broken your neck, and then we would be late, all because of you being careless.”
“He said that he was sorry Tom. Can’t you leave it at that?” Remarked Sarah, who was not too happy with either Tom’s reaction or with Darren, for being so foolish. Tom sighed. “Okay, just get in the car Darren and let us not waste any more time.” Darren did not reply, he simply got into the back of the car, sat on the back seat, with his hand held electronic game of Space Invaders in his hand. He switched it on and began playing the first level. Both of his parents gave a heavy sigh, half wishing they had never gotten him that game in the first place.
Times were hard, both Sarah and Tom stood to lose their jobs and their home. By chance, since Tom liked watching the news and it was of some interest to Sarah too. A story had been featured on the news that Jobs were going in China that were looking for workers that are willing to work in China. Both Tom and Sarah looked into the matter, they got lucky and found a place where they could both work together in the same place, their work place even provided them with a list of affordable properties that were available in China, they found one which was close by near to the work place that they would be working at.
Tom and Sarah could not have hoped for a more prefect place. But moving to China meant, leaving all they knew and loved, far behind them. Tom and Sarah did not have many friends and both of them had no relatives on either side. Whereas Darren had made friends, he had lots of them, he had gone to the best school that he could have ever asked for. Hence why he was not so very happy when they had told him that they would be moving from the UK, To China.
Darren did not want to go, but he had no other place he could go and stay at. The removal company that Tom had chosen, had arrived very early to pick up and collect all of the furniture and everything. The company did International removals, and Tom was able to get a good discount with the company, saving him a shear fortune and a fraction of the cost of what it would have cost him, if he had gone to another company for the same services.
They took a Ferry with having a car, they felt travelling by sea to be safer than going by a special aeroplane that carries cars as well as passengers. They booked a Ferry that was not a family cruise one, with no side stop tours etc. Tom managed to find a Ferry Service that was for taking passengers and cars only, one direct destination, no stops. The Ferry carried enough supplies etc., to make the one trip there and back. It was not long before the Ferry finally arrived at China.
Darren was glad of getting back onto dry land, travelling by sea definitely did not agree with him so very well and he had been sick a few times during the journey. Tom and Sarah will be glad when they finally reach their new home. They needed to arrive ahead of the Removal Company, as they had only been sent the one set of keys and Tom had not had a chance to get any spare sets cut. With the keys being slightly different, it was likely that he was not going to be able to get copies made from a British Key Cutter Firm.
So having copies of the keys had to wait until he got to China and found a Chinese Key Cutter Firm instead. The New Home was in a far out place long away from the main city of China itself, but to get there, meant having to drive through the main city itself, then getting onto the Highway, until they can get access to open country roads to get to the location of their new home. Which seemed quite exciting to both Tom and Sarah, but not to Darren, who really looked miserable, as they began to make their way through the city of China.
It was slow going with traffic, backed up by miles. “How long is this going to take? It seems to be taking ages for us to get onto the Highway.” Complained Darren, who was despite getting very far with his game, he was slowly however, starting to get bored. “Hey... it will take as long as it takes, now quit your whining... You are starting to sound like a baby.” Remarked Tom in annoyance with his son. Sarah was annoyed too.
Darren decided to be quiet for a while and get back to his game. In fact, he was doing very well. He was on one of the more difficult levels in the Space Invaders game and getting the best high score ever. Tom had finally had managed to get off the city streets and onto the Highway, but still, even travelling down that seemed like to Darren was still taking way too long and he was beginning to wonder if this new home was somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Little did he know, or his parents for that matter, that they were destined to take a journey beyond their imagination....
