THE JOURNEY

By Tessa Harvey

    Despite her precarious situation and wobbling on a damaged bicycle, her worries seemed to drift away like the hairpins loosened from her dark curly hair. She shook her hair free in the wind of their passing and laughed aloud for the first time in many months! John-Paul half-turned and smiled. "Sure and it's a lovely day altogether, so it is!" His Irish lilt made Alice laugh again.
    
    "Hand yer wist!" he exclaimed, this time in a Scottish brogue. "Canny now, ye ken."
    Alice realised he was asking her to be quiet. She abruptly sobered. The word would soon be out and she was in peril. The man pedalling the tandem felt sad, but they were not free. Not at all. He paused suddenly, certain he had heard vehicles.
    Only Germans travelled freely in motor cars and or motorbikes.
    "Stop," he whispered, harshly. "We need to hide." They wheeled the tandem off the road and hid behind a ruined home. Several motorbikes soon sped past, travelling fast.

 

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