There's One for All

Prologue;

Struggling for several months to find proof the pictures that broke her heart were a lie, and needing the distraction, Robert jumped at the opportunity when offered the trip to China. He welcomed the attention to detail required to get the job done on time; as his mind would be full with their planned, unrealistic, work schedule, instead of the constant reminders of the pain he felt from losing the woman that had held his heart since they were teenagers.

But being surprised by the sudden change of plans, and disappearance of John, his workmate, was not how he wanted to be distracted. If anything, it just piled more anxiety onto the heavy load he already carried.

******

Chapter 1: Where’s John?

Robert looked down at his feet and begged the world to stop spinning as he fought back the mouth watering nausea rising in his throat. He needed to get out of this heat soon, or whatever was left in his stomach would be left on the sidewalk. He could still taste the several shots of the strong Chinese alcohol he’d downed the night before, and swore, “I’ll never drink that stuff again,” as his hangover kicked in with a vengeance.

With his stomach mounting a revolt and sweat rolling down his back, he rubbed his eyes, fighting the pounding in his head, as he shuffled shoulder to shoulder and face to back towards the door; his anger and concern for John growing with each step.

Remembering clearly what John said before calling it a night, he thought, “This makes no sense. He wouldn’t do this. Why would he leave the hotel without me and not even let me know he was leaving?”

As his understanding of Chinese was basically non-existent, the loud voices surrounding him, all speaking at the same time, filled his head with what felt like radio static.

Not seeing much beyond the people in front of him but sensing he was close to the door, he stood on his toes, trying to see how many people were on board, and quickly regretted it. The combination of the hot morning sun and his over indulgence brought him to the edge of fainting, as he stumbled forward trying not to fall.

The two young Chinese girls behind him talking softly and giggling made him acutely aware that the back of his shirt was soaked in sweat. Feeling a little embarrassed and out of place, he stumbled up the steps towards the driver, pulling at his shirt trying to stop it from sticking to his back.

“I should have worn a tee-shirt,” he thought, while he fumbled with his Chinese money to pay the fare.

He looked around conscious of the many eyes watching him with curiosity as the driver helped him with the correct payment before making his way to the back of the bus, where he could see a few empty seats, thinking “Thank God.”

Looking for his workmate, Robert scanned the faces of the people around him, before taking a seat close to the rear exit and pulling his cell phone angrily from his pocket. He tried John's number one more time, with no response, while looking out the window, worried and thinking, "What the hell, John, why would you leave without me?"

John was always first down from the hotel rooms for breakfast, and would order coffee and juice for them while he sat watching the Pearl River and reading the English paper.

But this morning he wasn’t there when Robert came down.

Considering the festivities of the previous evening, he thought maybe John was running a little late, but soon discovered he’d left the hotel about twenty minutes earlier, which confused and worried him as John had never done anything like this before.

They’d been working 10 to 12 hours a day for the last five days, starting up new machinery at the factory in Guangzhou. The equipment arrived a month earlier from the company they worked for in Canada, and after being installed and wired by a local contractor Robert and John flew to Guangzhou, to do the commissioning and start-up.

John, twenty years older than Robert and born and raised in Toronto, was accustomed to being in crowded situations in foreign countries. Working as a control tech on machinery start-up, for most of his life, he had vast international travel experience, and could hold a basic conversation in several languages, but told Robert his Chinese was limited to just a few words. This was his first trip to China, or anywhere in Asia, as all of his travel had been in the Americas and Europe, and like Robert, had been looking forward to this job for months.

Robert travelled with John on several occasions over the last two years and had grown to appreciate his expertise and calm demeanour, but thought that he could be over diligent, maybe even a little anal at times. He always insisted that they have a detailed plan for any machinery install, which they couldn’t deviate from unless it was absolutely necessary.

They planned to meet this morning for breakfast and then go site seeing, so Robert was surprised and confused that John left the hotel without him, knowing this was entirely out of character for him.

He knew John would never change any plan without discussing it with him, and asking Robert’s opinion.

Before this trip, Robert had never travelled outside the U.S. and Canada, and the only language he could truly hold a conversation in was English. He could understand and speak a few words in Spanish and Chinese, which he’d, picked up from friends and workmates and were mostly swear words. The only other experiences he had with another language were the French classes he took in grade school in Newfoundland and did poorly in.

Feeling excited and worried about the trip, Robert kept himself busy with all the things he had to do before leaving. He needed to acquire a passport and visa to enter China, and see his doctor for whatever shots needed to travel to that part of the world. He picked up some books on visiting China to prepare for the cultural differences and to learn some basic Chinese to get by. The books assured him that studying the content would prepare him for his stay on the Chinese mainland.

They were wrong!

Nothing could have prepared him for the excruciatingly long flight. A good friend at work had told him, “Don’t worry so much about being in china, you’ll be fine there. It’ll be a great experience for you.”

Robert’s friend had been to China several times and said, “Being there is not the problem. Getting there is the hard part. It’s a long and tiring trip that feels like it’s never going to end.”

Robert never liked the flying part of the install jobs and always couldn’t wait to get off the plane, even on the shortest flights. Recently, he’d had two bad experiences within weeks of each other on flights out of Oklahoma and Chicago.

The first was on a flight from Oklahoma City to Chicago that had to be diverted because a passenger had a heart attack and died on the plane.

The second happened on the flight from Chicago to Toronto. Nobody died on the flight but the experience rattled him to this day. Everything seemed normal and was going fine until they reached cruising altitude and the cabin crew started serving drinks. The female crew member was serving the people a couple of seats in front of him when all hell broke loose. There was a loud bang and the plane jumped and dropped quickly, almost as if it had hit a large speed bump in the sky. The plane dropped maybe 1000 feet before leveling off again, but in those few seconds, drinks were thrown everywhere and people that were not wearing their belts were thrown from their seats. Robert was wearing his belt and wasn’t hurt but the lady serving the drinks was thrown into the air and came down, smashing her ribs on the drink cart.

Luckily there was a doctor on the flight who looked after her until they landed in Toronto.

He thought about those experiences before asking, “So how should I prepare for that flight? God, I get nervous on a two hour flight. How the hell will I get thru the one that’s thirteen hours?”

His friend laughed, “There’s no way to prepare for the long portion of the trip, flying over the Pacific to Hong Kong is a killer. I try to stay awake the night before, hoping I can sleep on the plane, but that seldom works.”

He continued jokingly, “Maybe you can try sitting in a small chair, with about six inches between your knees and a wall and a belt wrapped tightly around your forehead for 13 hours.”

Robert laughed and thanked him sarcastically for his wonderful advice, not knowing that his friend’s description was not far from the truth.

Up to that point, his longest travelling time had been about 5 or 6 hours. This time he would fly from Toronto to Vancouver then to Hong Kong and then to Guangzhou China, a 29 hour trip from home to the hotel. By the time Robert landed in Guangzhou, he’d decided he would never do this again.

It took a couple of days to get over the jet lag, feeling exhausted and sick because of the twelve-hour time difference. It wasn't until the third day that he started to feel human again and appreciate his surroundings.

They were extremely busy over the first week, as there were several problems caused by the install of the machinery and Robert forgot about his personnel problems for large parts of each day. He arrived back at the hotel exhausted each night and slept soundly, without dreaming about the past, which he was thankful for.

**

Thinking about the night before and worried about John’s whereabouts, as he rode the bus to the subway, Maryanne slipped to the back of his mind and let his heart mend a little.

Chapter 2 of this story is linked here.