The Vagabond Mother by Tracey Scott-Townsend - Book Tour
Blurb
Not
every Vagabond is a Castaway...
Maya
Galen’s oldest son, Jamie, left home eight years ago after a massive row with
his parents and now Joe, her youngest child and apple of her eye, has cut off
all contact with them too.
Called
to Australia to identify the body of a young man, Maya is given her son’s
journal. After a sleepless night she decides that the only thing she can do is
follow in Joe’s footsteps and try to discover her most basic human self. Eschewing a monetary lifestyle, from now on
she must rely on her physical and emotional strength to survive.
Following
Joe’s hand-drawn maps and journal entries, she travels from Australia to
Denmark and beyond, meeting many other travellers along the way and learning
valuable lessons.
Eventually
a crisis forces her to return home and confront the end of her marriage, but also
a new understanding of what family, in the widest sense, really means.
Exploring the big
questions at the heart of human existence, The
Vagabond Mother shares territory with books and films such as Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, The Way, starring Martin Sheen, Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by
Cheryl Strayed and Eat, Pray, Love by
Elizabeth Gilbert.
Buy Link
Excerpt
She squinted at the
top bunk. It wavered above her. Stretching her arms, she managed to pull down
the rolled quilt and the white cotton bedding and drop them on the floor.
Moving away so as not to disturb Jodie she struggled to fit the quilt inside
the cover. Despite a lifetime of such chores she messed up the task, at first
inserting it wide-side in so that it bunched up in the middle of the cover. A
woman, not young but not as old as Maya herself, sitting cross-legged on a
lower bunk across the room gave her a wry smile before returning her attention
to her book. I wanted to be on my own, thought Maya, and so I am.
No Con to rescue her now. An eclectic mix of emotions rushed forward like a
tide and retreated, leaving her empty. At least she had a focus. She folded the
now made-up quilt and left it on the floor before tackling the pillow, which
gave her less trouble. When that was done she unstrapped her sandals and placed
them neatly under the bed, at the foot end. Jodie seemed completely engrossed
in something on her phone now and Maya was glad the girl didn’t appear to be
watching while she tackled the ladder in a most ungainly manner. If only she’d
agreed to join the other women from the surgery at their weekly Zumba sessions. If I’m this out of breath from climbing
onto a bunk-bed what’ll I be like after my first proper day of walking?!
Maya set about tucking the sheet around the edges of the mattress, lifting her
knees and elbows alternately so she could pull it smooth. Then she had her
first practise descent of the ladder to collect the pillow from the floor,
swinging it up onto the bunk followed by her cotton tote bag which she pulled
out of the rucksack.
She ought to visit
the bathroom before getting herself settled. She wrinkled her nose at the splashes
of urine on the toilet seat, wiping them off carefully with a sheet of toilet
paper – trying not to gag. Now she knew how the cleaner at her home must have
felt when she’d had to clean the growing boys’ bathroom. Picking her way
carefully back over the tiled floor between a pair of boots and someone’s
dropped clothes she bundled the quilt determinedly under her arm and tackled
the ladder again. The quilt wrestled against her one-armed embrace and spilled
out behind her. Reaching the top, she dragged the rest of it up. She heard a
chuckle from across the room but chose to ignore it. She lay for a while on her
stomach, elbows digging into the thin mattress, her chin propped in her hands
as she gazed out of the window. Soon, though, her eyelids persisted in drooping
– however hard she tried to keep them open – so she gave up and lay back on the
pillow. She’d earned a rest. Waves of fatigue washed over her and she drifted
on the tide, her eyes half-open.
From the window
behind the bunk she’d seen the view of rooftops and eucalyptus trees and a
public garden opposite. She could hear the sound of traffic from the main road
two streets away. An unexpected shaft of joy entered her heart. This might be
the first time in her life that she’d experienced any kind of freedom. Now
nobody was there to call to her, asking where’s this? Or, what time
is that at? Or, have you seen my shoes? Nobody was expecting their
dinner. She understood for the first time what Joe had been aiming for most of
his life. It started when he began drawing complicated maps as a small child
and insisted that those were the places he would travel to. She and Con had
done their best to persuade him to go university – you’re a bright boy…
waste of talent… complete your studies first, decide on a career – then take a
year off… but none of it had persuaded (or forced) him off his chosen path.
A tingle of anticipation started in her fingertips and she tapped them softly
on her chest as she lay on the bed. She’d always wondered where Joe’s
adventurousness came from, but now she wondered whether it had lain dormant in
herself all along.
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