Run Down

The Drive

He loved the road. The way twisting concrete would always lead somewhere, even if that somewhere wasn't the place he intended to go. It was a thrill, however small, that he could one day simply get in the car and leave, start a fresh, be where no one knew him. Many times he had contemplated the notion, and many times he had talked himself out of it because he wondered if normality was something you missed once it was gone.

Autumn chased away the last dregs of summer breezes and brought in brown, crunching leaves, and overcast skies which gave the impression a sepia filter had been placed over the town, like a photograph lost in time. Robin was driving, heading down a road that grew more beautiful each time the seasons changed. He wished he could witness it in fast forward as he drove - the way the colours of the leaves and the shade of the sky transformed - a year plastered out before him in a matter of miles.
But today would do. Today, with it's milky blue sky mottled with cloud, greenery that had started to tinge yellow at the edges, and The Beatles playing on the radio.

It wasn't long before he came to the crossroads. Usually he'd take the left path, which leads to the lake he liked to take Roland, his son, fishing in and where they'd often set up tents for camping. But today, on somewhat of a whim, he decided to take the right. An adventure, he told himself.

He looked across then as Roland pointed towards an ice cream shop nestled in the trees at the side of the road. "Papa look, ice cream!" Robin smiled, pulling over to buy him his favourite: chocolate.

Roland clambered back into his car seat, Robin holding his slowly melting treat for him until he was settled, tiny hands outstretched to reclaim the cone. "Careful not to get it all down yourself, my boy," Robin told him but it fell on deaf ears, Roland was already happily licking away, oblivious to his fathers words.