I hadn’t heard from Otto, even though I sent him pictures of the ship launch when we sailed out of Sydney Harbour. This morning, he finally texted me saying they were about to leave on their overland trek. They had finished their last engagement in Sydney and received enthusiastic invitations to return.
I don’t think he received my pictures because he didn’t mention them, and he started by hoping I was okay and that I would contact him.
‘There’s still no magic carpet service available,’ said Otto. ‘A new service called “Book a Basin” has started. They’re very popular, but we decided to make the trip an adventure and will set off to Adelaide on the motorbike tomorrow.’
Here, he includes a photo of the Book a Basin service in the city.
‘We did a run up to Broken Bay in one of their self-drives, and it is pretty cute,’ he texts.
‘But Sandy loves biking as much as I do, so we decided to go overland. And by the way, Sasha, my Uncle Nelson is on board the Cataloupe 3. You might run into him. He contacted me after the race in Sydney, and I only caught up with him after you left. He took a helicopter out to the Cataloupe 3. Give Nelson my regards if you run into him. He can be secretive, but he’s a great cat when you get to know him.’
I call Otto my nephew, but he is really my second cousin once removed, and I have never met his uncle. I have no idea what he looks like.
Otto continues. ‘I know it’s your birthday tomorrow, but we’ll be on the road, and the reception might not be good, so I’m sending birthday greetings today. Let me know how you are going. We might be in Adelaide before you.’
And that was that. I tried to reply to let him know our plans had changed, but my text didn’t send.
A note: these are all fantasy images, not real scenes, and they were created with AI.
