He thanked the man and promptly opened the door and sat in the passenger seat.

The black man grinned at him.

‘Y’all better git used to drivin’ on the left, boy. Lessen’ you end up havin’ an accident.’

George got out of the car sheepishly and walked around to the driver’s side. He slipped a crisp five-dollar bill into the man’s hand.

George was elated. He had his car hire agreement tucked away safely in his pocket, he had a map of Orlando from the car hire company and a wad of dollars in his pocket. He felt like a millionaire.

He studied the map to find Edith’s address. It was on Apopka Vineland Road, Windermere, Orange County.

It was only a few miles from where he was!

He relaxed and started the car. As he drove carefully away, the little girl from the plane waved to him from her mother’s Dodge. George gave her a little wave back. She had won three pounds fifty off him eventually.

He pulled out on to Sandlake Road and started the journey to his sister’s, full of excitement.

The sights and sounds around him astounded his eyes and ears. Big billboards proclaimed the delights of ‘Wet’n’Wild’, ‘Disney World’, ‘Universal Studios’ and ‘Gatorland’, which he already knew about.

George drank it all in.

He drove past large shopping malls that put English shopping centres to shame. He saw tanned, healthy-looking people, milling around car parks, either getting in or out of cars. Someone on the plane had said that no one walked anywhere out here and George now understood why.

It was much too big.

He turned on his radio and caught the lunchtime news. He shook his head in wonder.

It was five o’clock in England now. The wonder of the aeroplane! In eight and a half hours he had travelled thousands of miles to another time zone.

He pulled into a large car park and studied his map. He was nearly there. Unlike in England, American roads had large signs going across them with the place names written in black lettering. It was almost impossible to get lost. No straining the eyes to find the road sign as you passed the corner of the road here. Oh, no. The name of the road was emblazoned across it!

He had only two more sets of traffic lights to go and then he was there.

He drove out of the car park and resumed his journey. Americans seeing the ‘Dollar’ sign on the car made allowances for him and waved good naturedly.

George beamed back at them, full of camaraderie. He liked Americans.

He drove into Apopka Vineland Road. It was clearly residential, but not what he’d imagined. The houses were large and beautiful. Edith lived at number 22620. George could not imagine a house number so big. He drove along the quiet road slowly, taking in his surroundings.