Chapter 1 - Minor Delays
Chapter 2 - Telephone Tag
Chapter 3 - Alex's Plan
Chapter 4 - Unexpected Surprises
Chapter 5 - Presenting the Proposal
Chapter 6 - Setting the Plan in Motion
Chapter 7 - On Your Marks, Get Set...
Chapter 8 - Prepare For Takeoff
Chapter 9 - On the Right Track?
Chapter 10 - Clue #2 is Found!
Chapter 11 - Railroad Warriors are right on track
Chapter 12 - A Few Bumps Along the Way
Chapter 13 - The Bittersweet End

Chapter 3  

Alex's Plan
A few days had passed since Alex had spoken to Millie. He still could not believe that in the past three months, four co-workers had been diagnosed with cancer. Each one with a different form. Aside from work, Alex had several family members who either had battled or were still battling the disease. An uncle, a Grandmother and the one that hit him hardest, his mother.

Alex began to think. He wanted to do something not only for those he knew but those he didn’t know, who were dealing with cancer and its affects. While he knew he could freely donate to various charities, he wanted to do something bigger than that to help make a difference.

Alex sat at his desk gathering his thoughts. He was making a mental note of what he had to contribute to the fight against cancer. The truth was, he was merely a writer for a hotel chain and could not come up with any ideas of what he could do to help.

Alex worked on the new hotel campaign when an idea struck him. He had finally figured out what he could do! Sure, in the big picture, he was just a mere writer, but a writer with many contacts.

Immediately he began to write his thoughts down, not wanting to forget anything!

Once he had the idea well composed, he showed his boss. After the go-ahead from his boss, he approached the company’s CEO.

“So you see Mr. Leift, we can set up a website and choose contestants, collect pledges and put a Race Through Europe into play. I think it would be very successful and would greatly help the cause.”

Gregory Leift stood looking at Alex’s proposal.

“I want to make sure I fully understand” Leift began.

“You want to hold a race through Europe by choosing three teams. They will get a starting point and ending point and whichever team arrives first wins?”

“Yes, that’s the basic idea. There will be twists to be added later and a prize to be chosen, but I really think with the goal of raising money for cancer research at stake, it will be highly successful.” Alex answered.

Gregory looked over Alex’s concept. He glanced at Alex and began to speak.

“Well, it sounds like a great cause, however, before we can put the idea in motion, I’ll need to see an estimated cost of this project. Get that to me by Thursday and we’ll make a decision by week’s end.”

Alex couldn’t believe it, his idea had been accepted for further review. Now all he needed to do was pray the numbers looked good on paper and get the ball rolling.

He walked back to his desk passing his manager’s office en-route. He popped his head in momentarily and gave him a thumbs-up. His manager gave him a smile and Alex returned to his desk.

He was anxious to start financially estimating his idea. Before he started adding up the dollars and cents though, he made a list of all the contacts he had that may be able to assist.

Since Alex’s company was a hotel chain, they would not need to pay anything for the rooms in Europe. Alex remembered that his cousin worked for Get Your Rail, a major supplier of European rail passes and tickets, he would need to call her and see if she and her company could help with this project. Moving further down his list he got to airline tickets. This would be, probably, the most expensive part of the race. Alex wanted to have twelve contestants, three teams of four participants. As he was making his list, he got another brilliant idea.

Rather than just allow each team to get from Dublin to Zagreb by any means possible, there would be restrictions.

Alex knew that the three most popular modes of transportation among travelers in Europe were rail, air and of course, car. This was perfect Alex thought to himself. He would make the race more interesting. One team would only be permitted to travel by train, one team by air and the third by car. The only exception would be for transfers from airports and rail stations. Also, any of the three teams would be allowed to use ferry services. This idea would surely help keep the cost down as well as make the race more exciting.

Now Alex was getting excited, not only did he have a rail connection, but, his uncle worked for Atlanair and his best friend was a VP at Be Eurown Chauffeur Rentals. He was hopeful that he would be able to pitch the idea to each of these companies and gain their sponsorship. After two hours of list making and brainstorming, Alex felt he had a very good start to this project, but even more, he was optimistic that his plan would be approved. For now, Alex closed his books and locked his computer and got ready for lunch.

He was meeting Josh and Ruby for lunch today. He wanted to tell them all about his plan but Gregory asked him to keep it quiet until they had a better idea as to whether it was going to be possible. Alex understood and assured Gregory that he wouldn’t tell anyone. He gathered his lunch and headed for the cafeteria.

Alex ate his lunch quickly. He was eager to return to his desk and type up his budget. Of course, before he could do that, he would need to contact his cousin, uncle and best friend in regards to any assistance they could offer.

Putting his ideas in front of him, Alex called Lara, his cousin. With one ring of the phone, she answered.

“Get Your Rail Travel, this is Lara” she greeted.

Thankful he didn’t’ need to leave a message, Alex greeted his cousin back.

“Lara, how are you? Its Alex” he said.

“Oh my God, Alex! How are you?” she replied.

Alex and Lara caught up on typical family gossip and Alex then shifted gears. He told her about his co-workers and pitched her idea to her.

“Wow Alex, I can’t believe that, four people in one company, within three months? That’s beyond bizarre.”

“I know. They are all such good, kind, caring people. That’s why I want to do something for them. So what do you think? Can you help me out?” he asked.

Without delay, Lara responded.

“You know I will do everything I can. Can you send me anything in writing that I can show my superiors? Then I’d need about a day to see what we can do to assist. Alex, this really is a terrific idea.”

Alex thanked Lara for whatever she could do and agreed to send her a written proposal.

First call down, and it sounded promising!

He called his uncle next and his reaction was identical to his cousin’s. Alex was pleased, it seemed like he was going to have the support of both a well-know rail company as well as a popular air carrier. One call left to make, to his best friend. Alex kept his fingers crossed that Preston would be able to come through and help him.

The phone rang a few times and was eventually answered.

“Preston Drake, can I help you?” The voice on the other end said.

Alex hated the way Preston answered his phone. It made it sound like every time he answered the phone he was asking Preston Drake if he needed help, just another one of Alex’s pet peeves!

“Preston Drake, so good to hear your ever-chipper voice” Alex replied.

“Well I’ll be…Alex, is that you?” Preston asked.

The two men instantly reverted back to being six years old again. That’s when they met in their kindergarten class. They recalled childhood memories and brought each other up to speed on what was going on more recently.

“So Alex, why the out-of-the-blue call today?”

Alex explained the story about his co-workers and family and revealed his idea.

“and that’s where you come in hopefully, do you think your company would be a sponsor and provide us with a car to use for four contestants?” Alex said.

Preston told Alex whatever he could do to help, consider it done.

Alex was most enthused about the results of his afternoon calls.

He quickly checked his email before signing off for the day. There was a message in his inbox from a Barry Seedler. Alex had no idea who that was. He opened the email and was shocked at what it said.