Peace Hotel by Alan Marquis.
Category: Fiction
Paperback: 215 pages
Language: English
ISBN: 1906459134

" Next morning Germ strolled into work an hour late, which didn’t upset his boss who rather holed the little shit wouldn’t turn up at all, but the man’s day brightened considerably when he heard a demand. The boy had the bloody gall to give one week’s notice yet still expected a full month’s pay, and he got it too, in cash, although only on condition that he left at once and promised never to come back.

Returning to the farmhouse Germ was surprised to find Gran sitting in her kitchen behind a huge stack of colourful holiday brochures.

‘Hi Gran, going somewhere?’

‘Too damned right,’ she snarled, ‘I’m going bloody everywhere I’ve never been, and there’s a whole lot of living out there waiting for me to catch up.’ Although he felt mildly amused he couldn’t find anything wrong with an urge to travel, it’s just that he’d never suspected it in a lady of advanced years who rarely went further than their local supermarket.

‘You’ll need money for that Gran and you’ll have to be organised if you don’t want to be stranded somewhere miles from home.’ He did notice a flash of something or other passing through her eyes, but like most folk he dismissed it and failed to recognise body language sending signals of serious danger.

‘You think I’m thick don’t you young Jeremy?’

He winced because he hated being called by his real name.

‘No Gran, I don’t think that, I just wonder if you know what you’re doing, since travel arrangements are complicated and you’ve never done it before, so maybe I could help you?’

‘Listen boy, and tell me how this grabs you.’ Her voice seemed different in tone, somehow menacing. ‘I’ve been watching holiday programmes on telly for thirty bloody years, I’ve done my homeworks and I’ve got my passport six months ago when that old sod upstairs first looked likely to bugger off. I’ve had the jabs and I’ve got the visas, so for the first time in his life that old sod upstairs is going to do me some good. I’ve got him insured up to the evil eye balls and I sent off the claim this morning.’ "