Not only was the flight to Trinidad booked, but a car had been hired to take me directly to the island’s coast, where a boat would be waiting to ferry me all the way to the delta. I was able to call Rowland and give him an estimated time of arrival. We’d already had a discussion about the lab facilities I’d need, in order that we could make a comprehensive list of materials for which we’d have to place orders, and he was now able to tell me that the equipment and supplies he’d ordered would be loaded on to the boat before I reached it. It all seemed slightly surreal, partly because of the pace at which it as all happening, and partly because all the discussion of timetables and equipment orders made it seem as if we were carefully avoiding the real subject of mutual interest—as, indeed, we were. The train journey from Lancaster to London seemed longer than it ever had before, and even the Heathrow shuttle seemed to take its time, although it was a comparatively short journey.
