I usually got the train back home to avoid getting a taxi through those god-awful, narrow country roads that are always a few minutes away from being totally engulfed by bramble and hedges. Last night, however, the train terminated early with no explanation and 'luckily' for me there was still a taxi hanging around.
What should have been an hour-and-a-bit train ride turned into a half hour train ride and an hour long taxi drive through roads I'd never gone down before and never will again. In all honesty I should have just gone to the closest B&B and called it a night.
Soon as we'd left the station the driver asked me when I'd last taken a road home and I was stupid enough to be honest and say six years. That's when he took the next turn and said I'd put it off for too long and tonight would be my night.
Like any sensible person I panicked and tried to open the child-locked doors, break the surprisingly strong windows and even attack the driver through the ridiculously tiny gap in the plastic divider. None of that worked of course and neither did my phone - damned thing had died somewhere along the way.
I didn't have any other choice - I was going down the lesser used roads whether I liked it or not and just when I thought he was turning down a familiar road he swerved into the woods, along a barely-there road that I'd never noticed before.
He must have gone ten, maybe twenty miles in before something crashed nearby and he stopped sharply, shutting the car down and blocking anything lit up until we were left in a silence so tense you could cut it with a butter knife. Unfortunately it didn't last long.
The rear of the car jolted like we'd just gone over a speed bump and the air was suddenly so cold it hurt to breath. We must have been there for a good fifteen minutes before it stopped shoving and rattling the car about. I felt like I'd been run over by a truck but that would have been far more preferable than when the driver turned on the headlights and showed me what I'd been missing all these years.
What had been living just off the roads.
What I'd been subconsciously trying to avoid all these years.
What had ripped train tracks apart to finally meet me.
I
What should have been an hour-and-a-bit train ride turned into a half hour train ride and an hour long taxi drive through roads I'd never gone down before and never will again. In all honesty I should have just gone to the closest B&B and called it a night.
Soon as we'd left the station the driver asked me when I'd last taken a road home and I was stupid enough to be honest and say six years. That's when he took the next turn and said I'd put it off for too long and tonight would be my night.
Like any sensible person I panicked and tried to open the child-locked doors, break the surprisingly strong windows and even attack the driver through the ridiculously tiny gap in the plastic divider. None of that worked of course and neither did my phone - damned thing had died somewhere along the way.
I didn't have any other choice - I was going down the lesser used roads whether I liked it or not and just when I thought he was turning down a familiar road he swerved into the woods, along a barely-there road that I'd never noticed before.
He must have gone ten, maybe twenty miles in before something crashed nearby and he stopped sharply, shutting the car down and blocking anything lit up until we were left in a silence so tense you could cut it with a butter knife. Unfortunately it didn't last long.
The rear of the car jolted like we'd just gone over a speed bump and the air was suddenly so cold it hurt to breath. We must have been there for a good fifteen minutes before it stopped shoving and rattling the car about. I felt like I'd been run over by a truck but that would have been far more preferable than when the driver turned on the headlights and showed me what I'd been missing all these years.
What had been living just off the roads.
What I'd been subconsciously trying to avoid all these years.
What had ripped train tracks apart to finally meet me.
I
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