Ithaka
The Journey Home
Geoff is a field journalist on assignment in Khartoum when Hurricane Ivan destroys his home in Grand Cayman. Christine, his love interest, who resides in Cayman, is in peril. Desperate to reach the island, he embarks on a journey home, fraught with difficulty and insight.
Along the way, his dear friend, Mac, accompanies him in spirit. Mac’s identity and whereabouts remain ambiguous throughout the story. In the beginning he is presumed dead, only to make a sudden appearance. To some he is the returned Christ, to others, a threat, to Geoff, a wise man.
The route takes him from Khartoum to his home of origin in London, where he is haunted by his past, and thus makes a quick departure for Cayman Brac where he hires a boat and then onto Grand Cayman.
He finally reaches his destination only to find the island completely devastated by the hurricane and the sobering realization that his troubles have just begun. Not unlike Homer’s Odyssey, when in his quest to reach Ithaka, Odysseus comes to realize it is about the journey not the destination.