Apprentice Lost in Parallel. Kevin Colbran

time arrived I had repacked the trusty Morrie for the short trip, calmed Neil yet again and set out for the meeting place.

      If the program ran its course as laid out by Senior, I would be doing the return myself in another six months or so. The thought that then I would have to cruise for nearly 30 years before facing my business challenge was somewhat daunting.

      Senior’s car came down the road with 457 and the new Android to stand in for Neil. Greetings exchanged and the occupants swapped into the respective cars. Having warned Neil about the sensation he would experience, we arrived back at Senior’s complex.

      As we arrived at Senior’s office, he said to Neil, “Now there are several rules that you need to follow, don’t tell anyone how you arrived here, and don’t ask too many questions, if you do want to know something either ask me or look it up in our library. Otherwise, follow my advice and have fun.”

      “I handle the fun bit and if I need to know something I will ask one of you guys.” Neil paraphrased.

      “Now if you take him through and settle down in your rooms, we can work out a program tomorrow that should keep you both entertained. Show him around the service world this afternoon would be a good start.” Senior said.

      I took Neil into the transfer room and entered the accommodation. Showing him his room which already had been set up with clothes and all that he would need; after which we walked out to the fields in front, assigning Neil a bike I mounted mine. How like my first experience of Senior’s world.

      Being the easiest course, I followed the route that I had been taken almost four months ago. By now Bill the Diprotodon was familiar with me and trotted over to receive the obligatory morsel, this amazed Neil as not only had a huge, strange animal come up to us but seemed friendly and happy to see me.

      Putting Neil alongside Bill, I took their photo saying, "Well there's an interesting picture. Pity you don't still have ‘show and tell' it would certainly make a great story. If they get too curious, you just say it was a model at the museum."

      “Yes I can see your point; it is hard enough for me to accept it and I am here alongside Bill.” responded Neil, “What do we see next.”

      “The gateway system and then we take a tour through the town,” I answered. In this respect Neil and I are at opposite characteristics, he being a typical extrovert Gemini and myself an introvert Taurus. He was ready to rush in and experience `now’; with me being usually content to observe and let life unfold.

      I took to the gateway system and explained how it worked, well as far I understood anyway. Then we pedalled onto the town describing that the layout was for the workers in the service world.

      After which we went to the power station which looked like a building with cooling towers but no chimneys. There was not much to see inside as everything was ducted from an alternate Sun to here and from there back to an alternate Mars. There was no smoke or noxious smells just a hum from the generators.

      Returning to the house to settle down for the night, the plan for tomorrow was the grand tour of Senior’s factory then the trip via the gateway to Withcott then back the long way through Toowoomba.

      Being in a strange city should be enough to satisfy Neil’s enthusiasm at least for a while, and of course, the factory is more than a day’s entertainment for anyone.

      The next morning we made our way into Senior’s office and then proceeded down to the garage to pick up my ‘new’ car to start the tour of Toowoomba. The factory is about 6 miles west of the city along the Warrego highway entering the town boundary before going past the airport; where the Warrego becomes Bridge Street, so called because they intended to build a bridge over the rail lines. After passing under one rail line via a small tunnel drove over a level crossing, together these two are a loop to allow the trains to change direction to the east. The street then intersects Ruthven Street, part of the New England Highway; turning into this street, you enter the central business district, roughly the same age and style as the buildings in Rockdale or Kogarah in Sydney where we live.

      The CBD itself has bypass roads to discourage through traffic from the north-south and east-west. This feature is confusing to highway travellers as this disrupts the intersection of the two highways but necessary as there is considerable traffic between Brisbane and the Darling Downs which would not be accepted through the shopping centre.

      Of course, the east-west traffic has been lessened by removal of trucks via the portal bypass, and when the north-south bypass allows further reduction of heavy traffic, congestion around the inner city should be alleviated to local only.

      Later when I had a few quiet moments I was thinking about the situation I was in, then I twigged that I was somewhat like Arthur Dent the central figure of ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’. He had been caught up in an adventure and was just being swept along by preposterous circumstances of which he had no control and confused by even worse puns.

      Despite this, at times he joined in what was to him an unfolding theatre production and occasionally adlibbed; thereby causing all sorts of dramas to happen.