Stationary Traveller: Usa

This novella (a contemporary thriller with a sci-fi twist) is about Benny Goodman and Sebastian ‘Lucky’ Alderman, two friends who work in the administration department of a laboratory near Stratford-upon-Avon. Both are reliable and reasonably well-liked, though Benny is occasionally viewed as unambitious and Lucky as something of a diva. Due to an infectious strain causing one of the scientists to have a violent incident in the canteen the whole building is locked down. Lucky (whose instinct was to look out for number one), launches a doomed attempt to escape, while Benny takes a more responsible approach and tries to protect his colleagues.

As the two buddies become reluctant roommates as well as 'desk neighbours' whilst they live at the site (Benny partially enjoying the peace and quiet whilst estranged from his live-in partner but finding the single and rather mercurial Lucky even more aggravating) they embark on two different courses of action. Benny starts to look into whether he can act as security, making sure no-one else gets attacked, injured or infected, whilst Lucky, depressed at their planned holiday to America having to be put on hold, decides that there's no reason if the break can't be done in person it can at least be done virtually - using online amateur films of holidays, overhead projectors, narration and even traditional American food and drink (ordered online from the local supermarket).

The 'holiday' is held in the training room and turns out to be something of a success, improving Lucky's morale and lifting spirits generally among staff who feared they would not get any kind of dream break over the summer. However there is trouble in the air - one of the senior scientists who actually does hail from America, Bradley Kelley, initially gets involved with Lucky's 'Stationary Travellers' project out of a sense of homesickness, only to find the feelings unbearable when he too gets infected by the deadly strain. Can Benny and Lucky work together to prevent the desperate Bradley trying to do what Lucky had done earlier in looking to get out of the locked-down lab, and risk infecting the rest of the country?

'Stationary Travellers: Usa' is of course lockdown-influenced: we were all affected by the COVID restrictions, and our mental health took a hammering as well as our social lives and dreams of going abroad. There's a fair amount of humour in here as the odd sly comment about the risks of constant barriers cropping up in our lives in other ways - in the lab there's a sense of suspicion between the scientists and the administrators, which makes co-operation that bit harder. Both our heroes learn the benefits of bringing people together and working for common goals that will help everybody, even if their methods are wholly different. The building is based on one that I briefly worked at where, due to hybrid working, its sprawling nature meant that it was easy for people to feel isolated and out of touch with others, which is another underlying theme, as well as people having to curb their individualist tendencies (particularly the waspish Lucky) to avoid hurting those who want to help and be close to them.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you get great pleasure from this novella!