Nine Lives

Velma

The car journey itself felt like an adventure.

We decided to cruise through town singing rock songs at the top of our lungs, windows down and volume sky high, receiving a few wolf whistles from teenagers on the street and disapproving tuts from couples walking hand in hand. Next, Blake took a sharp right and we went speeding down a hill, dodging parked cars and a stray cat in the middle of the road. It was the closest thing I could imagine to flying...my adrenaline hungry for more. After that, we took to the motorway, switching Blake's rock CD to the radio, a crackling hip hop accompanying our race down the middle lane. We picked a car, red like roses with silver wheel plates and a fancy bumper sticker that read 'Running Rogue'. That's what I imagined us to be doing right now...running rogue, away from home, into the unknown. We took position in the inside lane, readying ourselves for an opening behind a massive pick up truck. We waited and waited and waited, until ZOOM, we were off. Blake stepped on the peddle, dodging a black convertible and meeting the red rose side to side. The driver was a middle-aged man, greying beard and tired eyes giving away his long hours in the office. He eyed us deeply once he noticed the classics presence, zooming forward in a bid to ease the awkwardness. Little did he know, that was exactly what we wanted. For miles, we overtook one another, forming a subconscious race, undertaking lorries and overtaking minis, both desperate to have advantage over the other. All in all, the red rose was a class competitor, racing us for three junctions, until finally, we took a slip road and started heading in the right direction.

After an hour of messing about and firing ourselves up, the car turned onto familiar tarmacs, a singular orange glow and hairline of trees pressing against the silhouette of a dark night. It's lights were just as bright as the night before, although our advantage point in the car only showed small spotlights of the lego city in-between the wood.

I rested my head on the window, driving myself insane with anticipation to the point exhaustion started to kick in. I let my imagination run wild, the little girl in my minds eye, sleeping away the hushed night below the tree line, huddled with woodland animals and oak trees sheltering her. Her bed was made of moss and a pillow fluffed with sawdust, baby foxes and families of hedgehogs using the inside as home, while she laid peacefully amongst the leaves that covered her being, tree sap coating her thumb as she sucked it to slumber. I could pinpoint her tiny toes, poking out beneath the blanket of leaves and rubbing against the mattress of moss, a cold sweat keeping her cool while the moss kept her protected. The picture I painted put my worries at ease...just for a few, delicate moments.

I was really doing this. London was so close now, I could feel its power pulling me in...the unknown, for once in my life, being something I wanted.

Blake was humming softly to the jazzy radio station we had tuned, tapping his fingers on the wheel as I pulled my legs up to my chest and nuzzled into the cool leather. The heat in the car was so welcoming, warming my skin and sinking into my heart. I felt it in my bones, slowly making its way up to my neck and into my mind, fogging the adrenaline and replacing it with clouds. I would just close my eyes for a few blissful seconds...listen to the humming...and the tapping...and the warmth...the cool leather...lego city...

...

...lego city!

I sat up panicky, confused to where I was for a fraction of a second. I felt crisp air of the outdoors amidst shining lights of sky scrapers and a buzz of wheels to road, all around me, but without the sensation of moving. My cheek was warm, drool crusted on dry lips and rosy skin. I wiped off the embarrassment, hooding my eyes and feeling what felt like a door to a car...yes....a car, but it wasn't moving. Then where was that rumble of wheels coming from?

There was a fresh breeze on my other cheek, that side of my face exposed as I turned and saw the interior of a familiar car, slightly changed due to the drivers door hanging wide open. What...oh, oh my god, running rogue!