Mobex mobile home

The Mobex mobile home changes hands at a turning point: first an ambitious travel plan undone by illness and political upheaval, then a cramped but practical refuge that helps Creasy move through Italy without being seen. Its Bedford chassis, small interior, paperwork, and ability to carry hidden passengers all matter to the events around it. The vehicle does not resolve the danger facing its occupants, but it gives Wally Wightman and Paddy Collins a way to help Creasy while also preserving their own route toward Australia.

The vehicle and its owners

In late summer, the Mobex mobile home is the only trailer or mobile home for sale on the side street near the Australian Embassy in Rome. It is built on a Bedford chassis. Wally and Paddy have owned it only after pooling their savings following a good winter and early summer. They had bought it to travel east, intending to drive at least as far as Bombay, ship the vehicle to Perth, and then cross Australia to Northern Queensland.

The plan joined travel with a future livelihood. The Australian government was offering land and grants to people willing to develop remote areas and grow trees. Wally reasoned that trees took a long time to mature, so the couple could live in the Mobex while developing the land, perhaps raise children there, and contribute to Australia’s balance of payments. The vehicle was therefore not simply transport: it was the practical basis for an imagined shared life and work.

That future narrowed when changes in Iran made the eastward drive impossible. Paddy then became ill with jaundice, and the hospital bills accumulated until the couple had no choice but to sell the vehicle and find the cheapest way home. The Mobex had been in use for two years and had travelled less than ten thousand miles, but its good condition could not undo the financial pressure that brought it to market.

Sale in Rome

Wally and Paddy wait beside the Mobex for a customer. After three days, their only inquiry has come from a man without money proposing an ingenious scheme to smuggle Pakistani immigrants into Britain. They are hardly hopeful when Creasy, a large, scar-faced man, approaches and circles the vehicle. Paddy takes the lead in showing its advantages and negotiating; Wally remains quiet, sipping beer and admiring her determination.

They settle on a price of ten million lire. The transaction is formal rather than casual: Creasy asks for the transfer papers, and Paddy explains that they must be registered and stamped by the police. On the buyer’s section, the name is Patrice Duvalier and the nationality is French. That document detail accompanies Creasy’s guarded manner; when he says softly that he is not trusting, Wally’s sudden confusion briefly unsettles the conversation before Paddy asks where he will take delivery.

Creasy does not plan to collect the Mobex in the city. He points to an inked mark on a street map, locating the Monte Antenne campsite just outside Rome, and arranges to pick it up there in the early afternoon. Paddy and Wally, meanwhile, expect to leave their bags at the railway station. The map and the agreed meeting place turn a straightforward sale into the beginning of a more private association between the buyers and sellers.

A concealed route through Italy

At the campsite, Creasy arrives on foot carrying two very large leather suitcases and a canvas bag. Wally helps load them through the Mobex’s narrow door and later remarks on how much Creasy is carrying. Creasy speaks little, using the map to indicate a place outside Avezzano where they should camp. They stay there for two nights in a nearly deserted, wooded valley; he says he is tired and in no hurry. The vehicle gives him a place to continue travelling while keeping his movements restrained and discreet.

The arrangement becomes more consequential after Creasy’s danger grows acute. Wally and Paddy offer to help, but Creasy initially tells them to take the train to Brindisi and leave because the danger is not their affair. They argue for an hour. The practical advantage is clear: if Wally and Paddy drive, Creasy can hide in the back, whereas driving the Mobex himself would make him easier to spot. He finally agrees, needing only to reach Reggio and not for three days; after that, he says, they can keep the vehicle because he will no longer need it.

Paddy tries to return the money, but Creasy insists that they use it to ship the Mobex to Greece and then onward to Australia. His condition makes the vehicle part of a reciprocal arrangement: he accepts their help in getting through Italy, while the sale money and eventual possession of the Mobex are meant to help Wally and Paddy resume their interrupted journey.

The Mobex as shelter and transport

Near Bari, the three stay for two days at a secluded campsite. Creasy does not leave the Mobex except at night, when he goes out to exercise while Wally and Paddy keep watch. He has not yet told them how he will cross into Sicily, only that he has a plan and will explain it in Reggio. The vehicle’s enclosed interior offers concealment, but the arrangement depends on the couple’s active vigilance; it is not an autonomous hiding place.

Later, Wally reports that he has followed Creasy’s instructions. The group squeezes into the Mobex around its small table, where Creasy reaches for the map and points out a small airfield. For the drive there, which takes twenty minutes, he lies across the back seat out of sight. Wally asks how Creasy will get out after reaching Villa Colacci, distinguishing the immediate question of reaching the airfield from the greater danger of the operation ahead. The Mobex thus carries Creasy toward the next stage without making his eventual escape from the Villa any more certain.

Across these scenes, the vehicle moves from a failed plan for a life in Australia to a temporary instrument of concealment and cooperation. Its cramped interior is repeatedly made useful: luggage passes through its narrow door, its table gathers the group around a map, and its back seat hides a passenger. The evidence does not say what ultimately happens to the Mobex. Its last established role is the twenty-minute concealed drive to the airfield, carrying Creasy onward while Wally and Paddy remain part of his effort to reach Reggio.