One thing I omitted from yesterday's email (for reasons only related to exhaustion) was the absolute hell of a drive it was getting back home.
And I'm really not exaggerating.
What should have taken us five hours took almost double that, and any parent with infants will tell you how much fun that is.
Oh, fun it was… NOT.
No sooner after hitting the motorway, Master Nathan decided to throw an absolute paddy or, in simple speak, an ear-splitting cry that couldn't be quelled.
No amount of singing, rattling his favourite toy, or producing the dreaded phone screen could stop him either.
But it gets worse…
There was no service station for another 26 miles.
So what were we to do?
We couldn't unbuckle him or else risk him catapulting through the screen if I suddenly braked. We couldn't pull in on the hard shoulder as that, too, comes with its own risks.
In the end, I had to break the 70mph limit when it was safe to do so and hope there isn't a fine coming my way later this week.
Alas, we reached the service station and managed to settle the lad down.
Crisis averted…
OR SO WE THOUGHT.
No more than 15-20 minutes into rejoining the hundreds of lorries hogging the motorway, the traffic came to a screeching and sudden halt.
We couldn't believe it.
As we tuned in to the local radio station, ambulances and police cars bombed it down the hard shoulder to get to wherever it was they were needed.
Sure enough, there was a collision.
And of course, it had to happen when we still had a whopping 4+ hours left on the journey!
Thankfully, it wasn't fatal, and we were able to resume a slow crawl an hour or so later. However, going by the mangled lorries and cars involved, I'm shocked nobody was killed.
Only once my temper simmered, and we passed the sea of sirens, did it occur to me that maybe — just maybe — there was some divine intervention at play?
I mean, if Nathan hadn't kicked off yesterday, we would've continued eating the tarmac, and who knows…
Maybe we might have got caught up in the accident?
Sure, some might call me an arrogant bastard for thinking only God tried to save us, but I suspect I wasn't the only motorist wondering the same thing as we passed the mangled chassis.
Whether the Big Man upstairs had a hand in it or not, it sure took the edge off yesterday.
So yeah, perhaps I wasn't the Chosen One.
Perhaps I was.
I guess we'll never know.
But do you know who is the Chosen One, selected by his god to fulfil a destiny only he can?
Darius Rarkez.
As for "what" he is chosen for, well…
You can read the book blurb here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/Exiled
DJJW