I waited two hours until I could hear the gentle snores and occasional words arising from Paiges room. I stuffed my feet back into my red converse and lifted this weighted bag onto my back. I walked out of my room making sure I had my house key and car key. They were both in my pocket. I crept towards our door and shoved my key into the lock and turned it with effort to try and not make any noise.
Of course this was impossible but it opened rather quietly, now it was time to pull open this heavy door, which was done unsuccessfully and I ended up hitting my elbow on the cold, hard metal doorframe but I snuck out and hadn’t woken Paige. I call this a success. Shutting heavy doors quietly was hard work, even more so to not injure myself; I closed it and locked it, moving towards a long progression of stairs to take. Stupid elevator for not working; I finally reached ground floor and strode towards the exit, yanked it open and I was free. Now I had to take the tube into London and find my mini.
I scurried towards an opening down to the tube, I hated being down here at night in such a quiet station; the yellow lighting, walls covered in graffiti tags and urine stains didn’t help to add to feeling uncomfortable whilst down here. After a five minute wait, one train turned up and I clambered on wary of any passengers. 6 stops down the line and I was near HMV so I hopped off, heading towards my precious mini hoping nothing had happened to her. I had a vague idea of where she was parked so I began to wander tiny side streets when I finally spotted her, parked and untouched. I had no idea how happy this sight would make me.
I pressed a button on my car remote and she flashed her lights, a sign of greeting me; I Climbed in, placing my rucksack on empty backseats, put my key in the ignition and listened to her tiny engine come to life. I attached my phone to the speaker and began to play gentle acoustic music to accompany me on this journey. Her dashboard clock read 12:41am as I pulled away from this dark, empty street and into empty roads. Heading out of London, no intention of where I was headed.
I hit the motorway and that was it I switched off longing to find somewhere quiet and secluded, away from the constant hustle of London; when it hit me. Subconsciously I had driven to a very special place, holding many memories. I kept going suddenly weary of tears streaming down my face as the sun began to appear over rolling hills and I knew I had found somewhere small and secluded, a tiny beach included in this idyllic scenery.
I turned off this never ending motorway to read a sign heading into a tiny town called Cayton Bay, it was quiet, secluded and full of strangers who didn’t know me; just perfect. I drove into the tiny town centre and found a letting shop. I wandered in aware of how I looked, tear stained cheeks, eyes puffy with reminants of mascara below my eyes. My clothes crumpled from where I had driven in them all night and slightly shaking from lack of energy. A young woman was sat behind a glass desk dressed in formal clothing and a gold name tag that read Brenda, greeted me with raised eyebrows yet a warm smile, thoughts running around the lady I was about to do business with mind that she may have a possible deal, another source of income made her happy.
“Hi, I was wondering if anyone left any keys under the name of Mrs Faire?”
“Let me just go look through the papers miss….”
She stopped short unaware of my name.
“Oh, it’s Beki Dakine.”
“Miss Dakine, I do have some keys however you’ll have to sign some paperwork to be allowed access to them”.
She pushed a wad of paper across to me which I began to skim, and sign on various lines. Once I finished I pushed them back towards the lady and she graciously smiled.
“Let me just get those keys…”
Brenda stood from her chair, crossing the industrial carpet, her heels making muted clicks reached a silver filing cabinet, pulling open the top drawer; reached in and produced a small bunch of keys on a key chain, waddling back across in a grey pencil skirt which was too tight and slapping it down in front of me. I reached across and tentatively picking up the small bunch and got up from the table. I thanked her and wandered into the town centre whilst walking to my mini, this town was filled with happiness and was closely knitted community. People said hello and local businesses were thriving from the community, this town was filled with activity.
Exhaustion began to take its toll so I hurried quickly to Wanda desperate to get to my new temporary home and have a few hours sleep before chaos began knowing what Paige was going to be like was just giving me a headache thinking about it. Whilst driving there my mind wandered through the possibilities of what might happen; Paige could call the police which wasn’t too bad as I was a fully grown adult and could say it was all a misunderstanding or she could look for me herself; although this would be significantly difficult because she doesn’t drive for a start plus she wouldn’t know where to look. But the worst thing she could do would be to tell Ed, just thinking that he might look for me or send out a search squad caused me to have to pull over and stick my head between my knees before I had a full blown panic attack. That idea I couldn’t deal with.
20 minutes of driving and I was here at this tiny cottage and it was beautiful, completely away from the town and hidden in a small alcove, perfect and secluded, although I didn’t really care at this point because all I wanted was sleep, to sleep this whole Ed dilemma away or wake up and realise it was all a dream, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. I had to face the cold, hard truth, Ed was back and this time he wasn’t letting me go.
I parked Wanda and walked towards the front door, as I looked down at the keys there was a photograph; I looked as tears began to well up in my eyes before shoving the key into the door with force, unlocking the door and walking in, clicking the door behind me and heading towards a bedroom. I knew this cottage like the back of my hand.
