Thank you for reading my story, I hope that you enjoy it. Love Mica xx, Yorkshire England.
All comments good or bad welcomed. I will try and reply to each and every one but please note that all anonymous comments will be deleted immediately and will not be read.
John, again my thanks and love for the idea.
It had been a very long journey, five hours by train to Glasgow followed by an overnight stay, then an early train from Glasgow to Mallaig, another bottom numbing five hours. Fortunately, it was only a hours sail from Mallaig to Inverie, I was surprised that the ferry charged more for my suitcase than for me. The crossing was choppy and few of the other passengers were looking decidedly the worse for it. I had no problems, I have never suffered from motion sickness. The boat moored at the pier and we all disembarked, I think about twenty of us. Mostly walkers and hikers by the look. It was midday sailing, so unlikely to be day trippers.
The instructions for my B&B were to turn right from the pier and then they were on the left and if I got as far as the Forge I had gone to far. It was a reasonable walk, a few hundred yards perhaps, and there I was. I knocked on the door and after a moment it opened.
"Mica?" I was asked.
"Yes," I answered.
"Come in, come in, how was your journey?" Her accent was soft and easily followed, I hope that mine was easy to her.
"Long. Ten hours by train, and the seats were hard and uncomfortable, yeah, not good, I can only hope that my few days here are relaxing, I really want to unwind. Work has been brutal."
"Oh you will unwind here Mica. There are no cars, there is one van used to transfer goods from the ferry, and a slow mobile phone service that only works depending on the weather."
"Okay, yes, I expected that. I plan to be cut off from my old world for a few days. Are there places I can eat?"
"Yes, you can grab some food at the Old Forge, or, for a little extra, you can share our meals, but let me know in the mornings, so I can ensure I prepare enough. I hope that you bought cash, few places take credit cards here."
"Thank you, yes I am prepared for that." I had bought a thousand pounds in cash with me. I would have to go home if that ran out. I had already paid for my accommodation before I left, so the couple of hundred pounds a night, steep I thought, didn't need to come from my cash only meals and the like.
"Now, I am Sally or Sal, and my other half is Dave, he is up the road just now. Let me show you to your room"
I grabbed my suitcase and followed her upstairs.
"Now then, this is your room, and this is the bathroom. Dave and I have an ensuite so the bathroom is yours exclusively. The other room is currently unbooked, and so no one to share with, but that may change, we do get occasional people come on spec." She opened the bedroom door, and we went in.
A pretty nice and standard room. Large bed, dresser, wardrobe, bedside tables with a digital clock and side lamp. That was pretty much it.
"Downstairs is a sitting room that you are welcome to use. We have a tv in there with Sky, and you can use that whenever you like. Next to that is the kitchen, you can help yourself to as much tea and coffee as you like, you can drink the tap water too if you prefer. Breakfast will be served in the dining room, what sort of time would you like breakfast?"
"Oh, about eight I think If that is okay?"
"Yes that is fine. Will you be wanting a cooked breakfast?"
"Yes please."
"Right, I shall leave you to settle. You don't need to let us know when you come and go, your room key also has a front door key, so you can go and explore when you like. The WiFi password is next to your bed."
"Thank you Sally, I may just go for a little walk after I have unpacked and washed."
And that was that. I was now in what is classed as Britain's most remote village. You can't drive here, there are no connected roads. There is a pub and a shop, and a few hotels and that is about it. It is on the mainland, just on the edge of Lock Nevis, and there is a pretty regular small ferry service that brings goods and travellers.
My last contract had been difficult, the customer, a Government Agency, had poorly negotiated the original contract with their supplier, leaving many loopholes for the supplier to exploit, and it had been exceedingly difficult to manage. The supplier just treated the Agency as a cash cow but I was having none of it. I managed to cap a lot of the excesses, but it had been fraught. I needed a break where no one could get hold of me, and this seemed perfect. Internet, yes, but a roaming signal out of the guest house? No, not really.
I wandered back up the street and past the ferry pier. It was all quite busy, mostly tourists wandering around, although I didn't see a lot to look at, mostly B&Bs and guest houses, the odd hotel, a shop and that was pretty much it. I walked the other way and past the pub, The Old Forge, and then on further, more guest houses and signs to a camp ground.
Fine, I wanted secluded and it looks like I got secluded. I had read that most visitors come to camp and then go hiking, it seems you can legally pitch a tent pretty much anywhere, as long as you don't disturb any wildlife or livestock. Not my thing, camping. I headed back to the B&B and let myself in.
"Aha, you must be Mica, I am Dave," a red headed hirsute man greeted me. If you want tea with us, it's not too late, let me know and Sal will make extra."
"Oh, hi Dave, er, yes please, that'll be nice. I am not sure whether I am going to sit in the lounge or lay on my bed, I'll just go up now and then decide."
"Okay, tea will be at six."
"Thank you."
Well now, he was a ginger and so was Sally. I wondered if that was the norm, I had assumed it was an unreal stereotype, I hadn't noticed hair colours as I walked around, and anyway, most of the people I saw seemed to be tourists.
Up in my room I took off my dress and lay on the bed, using all the pillows to prop myself up. I could see out of the bedroom window across the Loch. It seemed to have started to rain, I came back just in time. Pretty soon the wind was beating against the window, and I was doubly glad I wasn't in a tent. The noise was quite loud, and I put my earphones in to try and blank some of it out. Even though they were noise cancelling, I could still hear the wind and rain as it beat against the windows.
I closed my eyes thinking that if I couldn't see it beating against the window, the sound would seem less. I must have dozed of as there was a knock on my door, "tea" Sally called.
"Okay, down in a minute," I called back.
I put my dress back on, put my seemingly ineffective headphones on my side stand and went down to the dining room, Sally and Dave were already there.
"Hello Mica," Sally said, did you catch forty winks?"
"Yes, I think I did, I didn't mean to, but the storm was so loud."
"Oh goodness," Dave said, "that was but a squall, the real storm is due tomorrow, there won't be many people around tomorrow."
"Oh crumbs," I said, "So it gets worse?"
"Ach yes lass, but you'll be fine in here, this house is weatherproof. So I guess you'll not be out and about much tomorrow. You may have to sit and binge watch some TV."
"Yes, well that is okay, I came here to do nothing and that will be fine."
Tea was mince, boiled potato and mashed swede. Neeps and Tatties I supposed. It was actually really nice and went down well, and the pot of tea accompanied it well. After tea I went and sat in the lounge and turned the TV on and watched some really odd programme about selecting Dallas Cheerleaders. What surprised me was that even if selected for one season, they had to pass the auditions again for the following season. It was soon after nine and I decided to retire. I turned the TV and the lights off and headed upstairs.
On my way I grabbed a towel from the bathroom, and in my room I stripped and went through to the bathroom, shut the door and had a lovely hot shower. Wrapped in my towel, rather than run naked across their landing, I made my way back to my room, shutting the door behind me. I didn't bother closing the curtains, no one could see in, and I just lay on the towel on the bed for a while.
I heard Sally and Dave come upstairs and then their door clicked shut. About twenty minutes later I heard some familiar noises, the walls and doors were not quite as soundproof as you might imagine, the unmistakable sounds of sex drifted from across the landing. It sounded as if they were both enjoying their time and were in no way inhibited by having a guest in the house. Perhaps the thought that I might hear them was a turn on for them? Who knew? I put my headphones in and left them to it. I wasn't in the mood to let my fingers do some walking, and just lay there listening to an audio book about witches.
I awoke in the night as another squall hit and battered the window, to be honest I found it a little unnerving. I got up and looked out of the window, there was little to see. The few lights along the street gave poor light and the storm drove so much rain against the window it would have been difficult to see in the height of day. I picked the towel up off the bed and hung it on the back of the door and got into the bed, pulling the covers up tight to my face, my eyes screwed tight, wishing I could turn off my ears.
The storm raged through the night giving me little sleep, I tried putting my noise cancelling headphones on, but the sound still came through, just a little quieter and I couldn't sleep wearing headphones anyway. When light finally broke the storm was battering the house, and I swear I felt the house move. I was covered in a sheen of sweat and it wasn't from heat, it had been a torrid night mentally, I was a bit of a wreck. I needed a shower.
I left the quilt rolled back to let the bed air, wrapped the towel around and headed across the landing to the bathroom. Oh, for an ensuite. I turned the shower on, let it run for a few moments to stabilise and got under the stream of warm water. Even with the shower running I could still hear the storm and my nerves were all of a dither. I soaped and lathered myself, ensuring I reached all of my nooks and crannies, too many crannies for my liking, and then rinsed everywhere, all suds sent packing down the plug hole.
As I got out of the shower a particularly large gust hit the house, startling me and scaring me half to death, I screamed, just a little, but it just came out. I was standing there shivering, and not from cold.
"For God's sake woman," I chided myself, "get a grip."
