Chapter 1 - Pete hits hard times

Pete's life was not going how he had planned. He had fallen out with the rest of his family because they had not liked his choice of wife. They said she would be no good for him. His mother knew her from school. She said she had always been in trouble. She had a temper on her. She would lie to get out of tough spots. She was renowned for it.
Pete ignored the warnings. He was in love. She was beautiful, she was kind and gentle, they never argued. He had never even heard her raise her voice.
The day he married her, the rest of his family disowned him.
Pete did not care. He was with the woman he wanted to be with forever!
Then they returned from their honeymoon. They were moving house. Pete first noticed her temper when he heard her arguing with the estate agent over some minor detail. He was jolly glad he was not on the receiving end of her tongue, because she was vicious with it! ...but then again, it did the trick, she got what she wanted!
But then, after moving house, Kate wanted everything her own way. Pete was happy for her to choose colour schemes and furniture, but she was not going to dictate to him what he wore for work! The ensuing argument when on for days! She withdrew his bedroom priveledges, she did not speak to him at all. Eventually he gave in and she got her way.
Little disagreements were built up out of proportion. After a year of marriage, he faced a barrage of verbal abuse every day.
He'd had enough. He packed a bag one day when she was out and left.

The divorce was as tumultuous as the marriage had been. The settlement left him with only just enough money to get by.
Pete lived in a tiny one bedroom flat on the sixth floor in the middle of the city.
Then he was made redundant.
He could not claim benefits because of his redundancy payment. As soon as Kate heard about it, she got onto her solicitors claiming a large slice of it.
At first, Pete tried to get another job, but then he could not see the point. Kate would bleed him dry as long as he still had breath in his body. She had him tied up in legal knots.
He was sinking into a deep dark depression. He spent days alone in his flat, speaking to no one but the telephone cold callers asking if he had heard of the newest government scheme that would assist him to get solar panels installed.
He went to the doctors. The tablets did not help his low moods and apathy.

The only way Pete could see a way out of his situation was to disappear. At one stage, he contemplated suicide. He really felt like he had nothing left to live for.
Then he thought that if he could move away, if he could go somewhere where Kate could not reach him. If he could change his identity...
He moved to aberystworth in wales. Kate would never expect him to move there!
For several weeks Pete felt free. He changed his bank account. He said his name was Dave. He got a job as an ice cream salesman.
But Kate's solicitors had their spies out and soon caught up with him.
Pete realised, he was going to have to be a lot more cunning to escape Kate's reach.
He contemplated emigrating to Australia or New Zealand, but he would still leave a paper trail. He had to go off grid completely!

Then he saw an advert in the paper. It was just a small ad, asking for volunteers for a new project. All volunteers would go and live on a remote Scottish island for a year. They would have no contact with the outside world. They would have to learn how to survive on the land. There would be no modern technology, only a few animals and his fellow islanders. The whole experience would be filmed and their lives would be studied by a whole host of psychologists and sociologists.
Pete did not need long to think about it. He rang up straight away.
He received a long application form in the post and filled it out.
He knew there might be a lot of other applicants. His chances of actually getting to the island were slim. He had no special skills. He had never fished, he'd never owned a pet. He was not particularly fit. He was no chef either.
He was simply an unhappy divorcee with limited options for future happiness.