Lizzie
Lizzie nodded her thanks to the night clerk and knocked gently on Ben’s door, now unlocked by the manager and swinging open.
‘Wakey-wakey, Ben,’ she said.
Her words, like a cattle prod, jolted Ben to life, his body springing upwards as his eyes shot open. ‘Huh?’
‘And he’s awake,’ Lizzie said into the handheld camera, as she stepped further into the room. The light from the hallway behind her illuminated Ben’s single-occupancy room, which seemed substantially larger than their four-person room further down the corridor, and the walls were white rather than lime-green.
Ben stared at Lizzie before flopping back onto his mattress and fumbling his hand on the floor until he found his glasses.
‘Good morning,’ Lizzie said with a wide grin. ‘Welcome to day six. I’m here in Ben’s room at the Cosy Backpackers Youth Hostel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Ben doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to be dragged out of bed to spend four hours travelling further north to Siem Reap and to the Buddhist temple of Angkor Wat.’
Lizzie stared at her reflection in the screen of the camera. Her skin and hair shone from the shower she’d had ten minutes earlier. She looked healthier than she had in months. She felt it too, Lizzie thought, with a zing of excitement for her unscheduled trip across Cambodia.
‘What time is it?’ Ben said in a croaky voice, reaching for a bottle of water. ‘My body clock is screwed. It feels like four in the morning.’
Lizzie fiddled with the camera in her hands so that the lens focused on Ben. ‘Just before three,’ she replied, enjoying the anguish scrunching on Ben’s face.
‘Three. You’ve got to be kidding.’ Ben sat up, swinging his long legs out of the bed and pulling the bed sheet along with him, keeping the lower half of his torso and groin covered.
‘Poor cameraman Ben, getting a taste of his own medicine this morning.’ Lizzie grinned, trying not to stare at the sprinkling of dark hair across his broad chest. ‘How does it feel to be woken up with a camera in your face? Here’s a little known fact about Ben. He hates cameras.’
‘I’m a cameraman,’ Ben said, rubbing the palms of his hands across his face. ‘Of course I don’t hate cameras.’
‘Being behind them maybe, but in front of them, you’re worse than Samantha at dodging the lens during my video diaries.’
Ben shrugged, took another swig of water from the bottle, and as if proving a point, lifted his hand in a wave. ‘Hello, viewers,’ he said with a sideways smirk. He turned his gaze on Lizzie and frowned. ‘What’s this about a road trip?’
‘As per your instructions, I’m letting you know my whereabouts. I’m leaving in five minutes to travel to Siem Reap to watch the sun rise over the Angkor Wat temple.’
‘I thought it was sunsets you were interested in,’ he said.
‘Both. Anyway, the night manager’s brother has agreed to take me for twenty dollars. Come if you want to, or sleep in and meet me back here later today. We’re catching the bus to Mondulkiri at ten this evening.’
‘Wouldn’t it make more sense to travel up at a more reasonable time of day and watch the sun rise tomorrow morning?’
She nodded. ‘Probably, but we’re already booked on a bus up to the Mondulkiri Project. It’s a flying visit. We have to be back in Phnom Penh by the evening to catch the bus by ten pm.’
‘The Mondu-what?’
‘The Mondulkiri Project. It’s an elephant sanctuary in the Cambodian jungle. We’re booked in for a week-long retreat before heading on to Vietnam.’
‘But you haven’t even seen Phnom Penh yet. When did you decide all this?’
‘About two hours ago.’ She laughed. ‘We all agreed that we’ve had enough of sightseeing temples and historical places. The only caveat was the sunrise over Angkor Wat, so here I am, or here we are, if you’re coming?’
Ben pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. ‘I’m coming,’ he said with another groan.
‘Good, because I promised Jaddi and Samantha I wouldn’t go by myself.’
‘How do Jaddi and Samantha feel about you leaving them?’
‘It took some convincing.’ Lizzie pulled a face. She loved her friends, and couldn’t imagine the next few months without them by her side, but since her seizure, Jaddi and Samantha hadn’t let her out of their sights, and she was starting to feel suffocated. Besides, Angkor Wat was somewhere she needed to see on her own. Just her, the sunrise, a cameraman, and seventeen million people watching. Lizzie shook the thought away. She couldn’t dwell on the popularity of the documentary. She’d almost lost it in the bar thinking of the millions of people switching on their TVs to watch her. If it hadn’t been for Jaddi grabbing her hand under the table, she probably would have done.
Lizzie flipped the screen back towards her. ‘This is going to be one spectacular sunrise,’ she said, before flicking the off switch. ‘See you out front in a few minutes,’ she called over her shoulder to Ben.
Lizzie clicked the straps of her backpack in place and stepped out of the hostel. She could hear the sound of traffic from somewhere else in the capital, but here the streets were still, and pitch-black.
After the muggy heat inside the hostel, the night air felt cold against her face. Lizzie was glad she’d thought to throw on her hoody for the journey. She stared out into the silent street and wondered briefly if her night trip to Siem Reap would be worth it. If they hit traffic or got dumped on the side of the road again, then she’d miss the sunrise and the trip would be wasted.
Just then, Ben trudged out of the hostel doors, looking half asleep and dishevelled with his backpack slung over one shoulder and his camera bag over the other. ‘Where’s the ride then?’ he said in a voice still husky from sleep.
Right on cue, a white pickup truck with an open flatbed turned into the road and pulled up alongside them. ‘Here.’ She grinned. The smiled dropped from her face as she saw the open compartment at the back. No roof, no shelter. They were in for a long, cold and uncomfortable journey.
‘Please tell me we’re riding in the front,’ Ben said.
‘Er … no. He’s taking his wife and child with him. I didn’t quite understand all of the night manager’s English, but I think they have family up there and are using the trip for a visit.’
‘You realise we’ll freeze?’ He raised his eyebrows and stared at her.
‘He got out of bed in the middle of the night and agreed to take us all the way to the temple so we shouldn’t really complain.’
‘No, you’re right, you shouldn’t complain. This was your crazy-arse plan. But I might complain some more anyway.’ He sighed, making Lizzie laugh.
A stocky figure appeared from the cabin of the truck. ‘Come.’ He motioned to Ben and Lizzie. The man unlatched the metal flap on the flatbed and nodded at them before walking back to the driver’s door. Lizzie hoisted her backpack onto the truck and without thinking she rested her hand on Ben’s forearm, using his body for leverage as she climbed onto the hard metal.
‘Thanks.’ She smiled, shifting away from the edge so that Ben could climb on.
‘At least there’s cushions,’ Lizzie said, scurrying towards the front and resting her back against the glass window of the driver’s cabin. The base underneath her clanged and bowed slightly as Ben moved across the truck.
‘And a blanket,’ Ben said in mock cheer, sitting beside Lizzie and holding up a wiry sack which had been cut along the seam and sown in large looping stitches to another sack.
‘This is just like when I was little and my mum used to wake me up at four in the morning for the annual sunrise service at our local church. I used to be half asleep until the sun started coming in through the stained-glass windows, and then suddenly I was wide awake. We’d go home afterwards and my dad would have a fry-up waiting for us: eggs, sausages, bacon, toast – the whole works.’
Lizzie smiled at the memory and shook her head. Why had she told him that?
Ben shrugged. ‘This will be my first sunrise.’
‘You what? How can you have never seen a sunrise? How old are you?’
‘Thirty-three.’ He turned to look at her; the whites of his eyes were bright against the darkness of the night.
‘And you’ve never watched a sunrise?’ Lizzie shook her head again. ‘How is that even possible?’
‘I don’t know, I just haven’t.’
‘But what about after a night out? When we were at university, we’d have these crazy nights, which always ended in the early hours of the morning with a portion of chips covered in chip spice, and me, Jaddi and Samantha, sitting on a park bench talking about our evening until the sun came up.’
‘What’s chip spice?’
‘What’s chip spice?’ Lizzie laughed. ‘Are you even human, Ben?’
‘I didn’t go to university. I did a college course in filming and a few apprenticeships. I guess I was more of a beers-on-the-sofa kind of guy.’
‘Was?’
Ben smiled. ‘Good point. I am a beers-on-the-sofa kind of guy.’
‘Well, you’re in for a treat this morning.’
‘I bloody hope so, after the journey we’re about to go through.’
Lizzie laughed again, suddenly glad for the company, even if it came in the form of a grumpy cameraman. She sat up as the engine roared into life. ‘I’ve just realised I know next to nothing about you.’
‘What do you want to know?’
‘Well, we’ve got five hours to kill. Maybe you could tell me where you live for starters.’
The truck turned sharply in the road, performing a U-turn and sending Lizzie flying into Ben’s body. ‘Sorry.’ She smiled, shuffling over and repositioning herself against the window of the cabin.
They sat in silence for a moment as the clattering engine jutted and vibrated beneath them. The noise and the motion reverberated in her ears.
‘I live in Balham in South London,’ Ben said, raising his voice to be heard over the engine.
‘Oh.’ She nodded. ‘With flatmates?’
He shook his head. ‘Just me.’
‘That sounds very grown up. I can’t imagine living by myself.’
‘I had a girlfriend and a cat living with me for a while –’ he shrugged ‘– but she didn’t like the length of times I was away for. This job is an all-or-nothing kind of thing.’
‘Couldn’t you have done studio filming?’
Ben raised his eyebrows as if she’d said something stupid.
She smirked. ‘I just thought that a studio might suit you better because of your … er … people skills.’
‘Hey, what’s wrong with my people skills?’
Lizzie smiled. ‘“I’m not your friend or your travel buddy,”’ she, said mimicking his voice.
‘Ah.’ Ben laughed. It was deep and loud even with the motor roaring around them. ‘Sorry about that. I guess I was kind of rude.’ Ben rubbed his hand over the short stubble of his hair. ‘It was partly because I’m not a good flyer. Actually, I’m not good with heights full stop, so I’d be grateful if we can avoid climbing ancient crumbling steps a hundred metres above sea level today.’
‘Don’t worry, I want to watch the sunrise over the spires of Angkor Wat, so we won’t be doing any climbing, today at least.’
They sat in silence again. After a few miles, the city streets gave way to a scattering of shacks, then fields and forests, she guessed, as she stared out into the dark. Occasional flashes of light from the headlights of passing vehicles gave the only opportunity to view anything more than half a metre in front of her face.
The cushions they’d been grateful for had quickly become useless against the harsh oscillating metal beneath them.
‘What was the other part?’ she said, resting her head against the glass and feeling the vibrations against her skull.
‘Oh, I guess I’m always pretty grouchy on the first few days of filming. I wanted to film wildlife, not people. Big cats especially.’
‘So why don’t you?’
He shrugged. ‘It’s a hard business to catch a break in. I’d filmed a few music videos for free, to get some experience. The musician liked me and put my name forward for the documentary about her. I was grateful for the work at the time, but now I can’t get any wildlife jobs.’
‘You must be good at it though, to keep getting the work.’
He smirked. ‘No need to sound so surprised. It’s the entourage bullshit. A lot of people who work as part of a film crew for celebrities get sucked into the life. They forget they’re not working for the celebrity. They let them do retakes and set ups. It’s how these reality soaps were created. All that stuff doesn’t interest me. I just want to film the truth. It’s how I got the nickname Sherlock.’
‘So, Sherlock, aren’t you going to collect any footage?’ she said.
Ben glanced around them before shaking his head. ‘The noise and the motion would make anything I collect useless. Anyway, I’m already filming more than I can process.’
‘I thought you sent everything back to London for editing.’
‘Almost everything.’ He smiled, lifting his shoulders. ‘The editing suite in London will try and make the footage seem more exciting or dramatic than it really is. There’s nothing I can do about that, but I’m the one that’s here with you, getting to know you all. So I try not to give them too much ammo of any one thing, like Jaddi’s flirtatious side, or Samantha’s scathing remarks about herself. If you take them out of the context of their friendship with you, their protectiveness over you, and how funny they are, then it paints a very different picture.’
‘So what part of me do you cut?’ Lizzie asked. ‘Oh no, hang on. Let me guess – my sarcasm. Caroline mentioned it once or twice.’
He laughed. ‘Got it in one. Caroline’s not all bad. She’s an incredibly dedicated producer.’
‘I’m sure.’ Lizzie smiled. ‘But I’m glad she’s not here,’ she said, thinking of Caroline’s constant feedback. Lizzie moved onto her side, resting her head against the window again. Her bottom had started to numb against the cold metal of the flatbed.
She closed her eyes and felt herself drift into a light sleep.