Adventures in Cat-Napping

Chapter 18

"You know," Nora stated, adjusting her seatbelt at the traffic light so that only her waist was secured to her seat, "you haven't asked me where we're going," she highlighted, shooting a bemused look at her companion.

Based on his silence, she had assumed he had been panicked, but when Ali shrugged, shock crossed her features as she demanded further information. "Aren't you curious? I could be leading you to...I don't know, the haunted woods,"

"Well, saying 'I don't know' before revealing a location suggests that isn't the case at all," he stated, and she wrinkled her nose in annoyance. He'd caught her there, "And besides," he added, "I saw what you typed in on the SatNav, we're heading to The Lake District,"

Once more, Nora frowned as she returned her attention to the road. Clearly, her task at being a mysterious coordinator with a hidden agenda was failing, but she shook the thought from her mind as she hummed along to the radio. Ali had been silent for most of the journey, holding the sketchbook in his hand. She doubted he would be able to draw anything, but he had surprised her when he began to fill the page with sketches from the corner of her eye.

"So, what are you drawing?" She pried, "ooh, is it me!" He offered her a dumb look, and this time she resulted to sticking out her tongue in the act of defiance. Ali sure was prickly today.

"It's just random," he sighed, closing the book but leaving his pencil in place so that he wouldn't lose the page. "I have a work in mind that I haven't had the energy to start, and so I waste my time with these...sketches that are meaningless-"

"Don't call them meaningless," she interrupted, "it might not mean anything to you, but that doesn't mean they are meaningless..I've said 'mean' too many times," Nora thought aloud, clicking her tongue in disapproval when he blinked. "What I'm trying to say is that art takes time, and your sketches are building you to that point, don't ever criticise those foundational stages; you'll thank them for it one day..." her change in tone seemed to surprise Ali as much as it surprised herself, but she chose not to ponder on the topic as she opened a bag of crisps and lowered her window to for some fresh spring air.

It must have been her fourth, but she knew why her need for the excessive junk food was so apparent. Given the circumstances, today, she'd allow herself to drown in the food and the temporary happiness the salt ignited in her blood.

"Anyway," she cleared her throat, more than happy to change the subject, "we're going to Ambleside; it's a beautiful town in the Lake District. I thought we could stay there for the weekend,"

"And you've booked accommodation?"

"I have!" she grinned, "but that's all I'm telling you. It's beautiful, and maybe you'll have some luck with your art there,"

Ali only nodded in return, and she adjusted her hands on the wheel as she contemplated on what she had just revealed. Barbie going missing had sincerely thrown her this morning, and what she had said to Ali before was only an echo of the thoughts that had clouded her mind.

She hadn't lied when she had said that she was annoyed her life had turned out this way. Nora hadn't intended for it, truly, but it appeared as if the higher power, whether it was Fate or God, had decreed that even the simplest of tasks would be challenging. She couldn't be happy just living her life, and she couldn't have the determination to want to do more either. She was stuck, and Barbie going missing was a reminder of just how many things had gone wrong in the past two years and how much she yearned to be the old Nora again. The one who loved to cook, and have new experiences with Leo and contact her mum more often, and her dad. But that Nora had disappeared long ago, and she'd be damned to remember why she had allowed her life to turn so askew.