AJ Episodes - 8 (ADVENTURE JOURNEY: The Extreme Vacationer's Handbook)

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AJ EPISODES
Episode 8: Brisbane, Australia, Summer 2006



	START FROM THE BEGINNING: Episode 1 Siberia, Winter 1992 Episode 2 Kauai, Hawaii, Winter 1984 Episode 3 Osaka, Japan, Summer 2005 Episode 4 Monte Verde, Costa Rica, Summer 1989 Episode 5 Aspen, Colorado, Winter 1983 Episode 6 Mali, Fall 2001 Episode 7 Sydney, Australia, Spring 1991 Episode 8 Brisbane, Australia, Summer 2006 Episode 9 Antarctica, 1999 Episode 10 Belen, Nicaragua, Spring 1990 Episode 11 On the Mediterranean, Spring 2000 Episode 12 Buenos Aires, Argentina, Summer 2003 Episode 13 LAX, Summer 2003 Episode 14 Lagos, Nigeria, Spring 2000

By 2 a.m. Giselle had retreated into a dark corner of a grubby internet cafe where about fifty pimply teenagers were huddling over consoles playing MMORPGs. The room looked like a sweat shop and smelled like a high school boys locker room, but Giselle stayed focused on her work.

"Kolya grabbed the back of his head with both hands and crushed his forearms over his ears in a desperate attempt to block out the screaming," she typed. "The next day Koly's partner, Ivan, would be found dead with his head between his bent knees and his hands tied to his ankles, a KGB torture position known as the konvertik (the envelope). But for now he was alive, and each time the mop handle struck with a sound like an old woman beating dust out of a carpet, he gave another cry followed by another pitiful sob."

Suddenly the Giselles IM program dinged and a message flashed in an orange box at the lower left of the monitor.

siberiaguide: awake so late?

giselle151: still working on the story

siberiaguide: my story?

giselle151: your story

siberiaguide: I let you go

siberiaguide: but first to tell I arrived Sydney hotel

giselle151: okay, thanks, I'll call in the morning

Giselle returned her attention to the open text document. She fumbled in her mind for the right words, then typed: "A few days later, drinking tea with his grandmother in the kitchen of their humble Moscow flat, he admitted, without so much as hinting at his harrowing ordeal, that studying English in London wouldn't be such a bad alternative, after all.' "

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