Phoebe and her parents arrived at the Otonnos’ home within minutes, and Jack barely had time to turn off the ignition before Phoebe had jumped out of the Jeep and was running towards the front door. She bounded up the steps and on to the front porch, by which time an equally excited Demetrius had appeared out through the front door, leaving a bemused Esau to trail his packed to capacity suitcase out on to the porch.
Phoebe and Demetrius, sporting matching grins, greeted each other with a huge bear hug. “Can you believe it’s actually today, Dem?” gasped Phoebe. “Can you believe it’s really happening?”
“I know, Bird,” beamed Demetrius, “Who would ever have thought this could happen?”
“Good morning guys,” Jack called to Esau and Martha, who had joined her husband on the front porch, as he and Eva got out of their Jeep and walked towards their friends. “These are for you, Esau,” said Jack, reaching his friend the keys of the Wren’s depleted home. “And this is the spare key for the Jeep, I’ll leave it in car park D at the airport so it’s easy to find for you, okay? Big day, eh?”
“Yes,” said Martha, with more than just a hint of sadness in her voice. “A very big day for us all.”
“Aww, Aunt Martha,” soothed Demetrius, “Don’t be sad, I’ll be in touch all the time, I promise.”
“I know, Honey,” smiled Martha, as her eyes flooded with tears, and Esau came over and wrapped a comforting arm around his wife’s shoulders. Behind them, Bessie, Jacob and Grace had ventured out on to the porch. Jacob and Grace were too young to fully comprehend what was happening, and they toddled off to play ball, but seven year old Bessie was a sensitive child anyway, and the thought of losing her honorary ‘big brother’ was too much for her and she stood silently weeping behind her mother, whose skirt she was clutching tightly.
“Come here, Bessie,” coaxed Demetrius. “Come on, don’t be shy.”
A timid and tearful Bessie stepped out cautiously from behind her mother, and shuffled slowly over to Demetrius. He knelt down in front of the upset little girl, and hugged her tight. Jacob and Grace rushed over when they saw their sister with Demetrius, and he hugged them both too. Satisfied that they had gotten their share of the cuddles, Jacob and Grace ran off to play, and Demetrius turned again to Bessie.
“Here, Bessie, this is for you,” Demetrius said gently as he held out his hand to his little cousin. Bessie tentatively put out her small hand, and Demetrius set a tiny silver cross on a fine chain in her palm. Bessie’s pretty face lit up as if all her birthdays had come at once, and she threw her arms around Demetrius’s neck.
“You wear this, Bessie and every time you touch it you can think of me and know that I’ll be thinking of you. Deal?”
Bessie nodded slowly, and wiped her eyes. “Thank you, Dem,” she said in her sweet childish voice. “I’ll wear it all the time, it’s so pretty. Dem,” she hesitated. “I love you lots, and I’m gonna miss you.” Her eyes welled up with tears again, and Demetrius cuddled his little cousin a final time and whispered, “I love you too, Bessie,” in her ear.
When Demetrius stood back up to his feet, he realised that everyone had fallen silent, and five sets of teary eyes were fixed on him. Not wanting to break down in floods of tears himself, Demetrius smiled and deliberately brightened his tone.
“Well, this is it I guess,” he said, considerably more cheerily than he felt. “We had better be off, don’t want to miss that plane!”
Demetrius hugged his aunt and uncle once more, then collected up his suitcase, and handed it over to Jack, who plonked it in the trunk of the Jeep next to Phoebe’s.
“Thank you, all of you, for everything. I’ll call you when we arrive. And start planning when you’re gonna come visit, okay?” Demetrius swallowed hard. “I love you all.” And with that, he descended the steps off the front porch of the house that had been his home for ten years, and climbed into the Wrens’ Jeep, pulling the door closed behind him with a clunk that seemed to resonate with finality.
As Jack pulled away from the Otonnos’ house and on to the road that would bring them to Johannesburg International Airport, Demetrius looked back through the Jeep’s rear window, and waved madly with both hands at the family he was leaving behind. Uncle Esau, Aunt Martha and the kids all waved back until Demetrius could no longer see them, and he turned round to face the front, settled into his seat, and smiled reassuringly at an anxious looking Phoebe.
“I’m okay, Bird,” he said, and the contented smile on his face reiterated this sentiment. “It’s not really goodbye, just ‘so long’ for a while. I’m really excited about what lies ahead.”
“I’m so glad, Dem,” smiled Phoebe, “I just know that you’re gonna love Ireland. And Ella!”
The teenagers relaxed back into the journey; in a few short hours, they would be airborne and en route to Ireland. Phoebe couldn’t wait – but for some reason the gnawing angst in her belly just would not disappear.