All Again

A Discovery

Packing only a carry on bag was one of the best decisions Jamie could've made. It was so easy to leave the airport after she landed—she simply pulled on her backpack and waited her turn to get off the plane.

And then she got the hell out of that airport.

It's around 8:40pm when Jamie steps out of the airport. It is obvious the sun started to set hours ago because it's pretty dark outside already. Jamie doesn't know when Dani will walk, but she wants to get there before she starts.

Grasping onto one strap of her backpack, she waits impatiently on the curb for a taxi. Usually they just sit out here and wait, but it must be a rush hour (seems unlikely). It's been a while since Jamie was back in London—approximately four years—but it smells the same. Jamie nearly gags just standing here, but she pulls her jacket a little tighter around herself. With the breeze picking up, it's becomes cold out here without sunlight. There is bustling movement around her everywhere.

When a taxi finally pulls up to the curb, ushering Jamie with a hand to get in the back, it feels as if it's been ages standing out there. Truly it's only been two minutes, but Jamie is already panicking about having to check in at her hostel before heading to Bly.

She opens the door and sits down. With her backpack next to her and her seat buckle on, she tells the man driving to take her to the hostel she's staying at. He agrees, of course, and they take off down the road.

Jamie tried to book a hostel that was relatively close to Bly, but it'll still be nearly an hours drive out.

"I just need to stop by the hostel to check in, a flower shop, and then I need to be taken some where else." Jamie tells the man, leaning forward in her seat slightly so he can hear her better. "Could you wait for me in the parking lot?"

The guy side eyes her in the rearview mirror before shrugging. "Yeah, sure. I'm not going to turn off the minute counter, though. It'll be a couple extra pounds."

"I don't give a fuck." Jamie slumps back down against the car. The front of her head is beginning to throb from lack of sleep. She groans upward.

Digging through her backpack, she grabs out the water bottle the nice lady on the plane gave her. She finishes whatever was left, and then sighs all her air out until she's flatten to the seat. Out the window her eyes dart from light to light, and a small ache of longing for the city flickers in her chest.

Of course Jamie misses London; this was her home her entire life, outside of Bly Manor where she spent all of her waking hours, until she moved to America with Dani for thirteen years together. Now it's been four years since then and she's back.

She just wishes it was for a simpler reason.

"Does it matter which flower shop?" The driver asks her, slowing down as if to turn into this upcoming parking lot. Jamie glances through the front window and sees a shop with its lights still on. "Because here is one on the way."

"Doesn't matter to me." Jamie tells him and they pull into the parking lot.

Slinging her backpack over her shoulders, Jamie rushes inside the shop. It looks as if it might close any second and Jamie can't risk that so she runs a little faster. A little bell dings when she enters.

It's bright inside, the gleam from the overhead lights reflecting off the huge shop windows. Jamie would've just brought Dani flowers from her own garden, but it's likely she wouldn't have been able to bring them on the plane and they'd be wilted by now without water. And that feels like a sour gesture. So she sticks with greeting the tall woman at the counter.

She walks along the wall of decorated flower bouquets and frowns with her finger on her chin. A couple of the tall sunflower stocks catch her eye—she could buy one for Dani and leave it for her by the lake. And she almost does until her eyes stick upon a bundle of pansies. Purple, white, and yellow, with their large leaves all sticking out like a lion's mane, all wrapped in a white ribbon.