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as they turned onto the road and then they were gone. David was to be in
Europe before his family got home. The rest of his story goes like this.

It had been a long nine days since David had left on that misty February morning; his journey's taken him through France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Sweden and into the north of Finland, the end of his journey. David could have easily avoided 3 days of driving and sleeping in cheap motels or the back of the Landy by taking a ferry into Finland

instead of driving all the way up through Sweden, he certainly had the money and the means to have done so. Somehow he didn't wish to do that, he instead opted to be alone for much of the time, apart from the ever faithful companionship of Miikka, who very much enjoyed the scenery as it rushed past him, especially at night as silhouettes of the power lines, stop signs and dark pines flashed by them. He put much enthusiasm into barking at a lone reindeer that David had stopped to marvel at. David however hadn't enjoyed the journey as much as Miikka, the rigours of driving for 14 hours or more a day had taken their toll on him; he was always tired, and couldn't sit in the same position for more than 30 minutes without becoming uncomfortable and having to move. This was bad enough if he hadn't been left alone with his thoughts for much of the journey, the thoughts of his family, his girlfriend and what he'd done to them. Worst of all was the pain of what had driven him to leave. For much of the time he maintained his calm but twice during the drive through Sweden
did he breakdown into tears over it. Despite what was often an overwhelming desire to end his pain for good he couldn't bear to leave Miikka alone in this beautiful yet harsh place. So he would put the gun carefully back into the brown leather case and labour on, drawing ever closer to his secret hidden deep in Lapland. At about 11:00 on the morning of the ninth day, David with Miikka by his side pulled over into a layby at the bottom of a valley they got out of the landy and looked in awe at the frozen river that ran along side the road, and at the snow covered mountains that towered above them, David reached into his pocket and took out a creased photograph and compared it with what was before his eyes. The photo showed a glistening bright blue lake, mountains covered to about 1/3 of their height with green pine trees and grass, the rest the mountains were rocky and angular until at their very top his eyes came to snow

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