The corridor was dim as Audrey wandered down it, staring at the pictures on the walls. She stopped in front of one she had admired a thousand times before. It was of Victoria and Laura. Laura, the older sibling, with her stylish bob of electric orange hair, her arms around Victoria, a younger, darker version of Laura. Her hair trailed past her waist in long liquorice coloured waves, her lips painted red and round glasses propped on her button nose. Both of them wore such infectious, wide smiles. They both looked so alive. It was laughable, how now only echoes of that Laura remained within Audrey's frail mother. Audrey gnawed on her lower lip, excited to see Victoria, but dreading leaving her mother. Victoria would allow her the freedom she had always wanted to have, and yet Audrey would be leaving Laura within her husband's clutches. With a booming shout of her name, David snapped Audrey out of her inner turmoil and she raced the remainder of the way. The entrance-way of the house was impeccably tidy and Audrey felt out of place, as she always did, with her scruffy hair and scruffy clothes.
David's built framed loomed over Audrey as he passed her an envelope and her passport. Audrey dug her stubby nails into the thick paper and slit open the envelope, inside were plane tickets, which would take her to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport once she completed a layover in New York. Past the plane tickets was a scrawled note, labelled in her Father's neat handwriting, 'Victoria's Address, nearest stop, Aberdeen station'.
"Work it out, you were always sneaky enough to weasel your way into places, maybe now it may do some good," David said stiffly, opening the heavy oak front door. "I'm driving you to the airport, don't try and get out, I've put the child locks on," He warned, ushering her to his car.
The dark green behemoth that was David's 1986 Jaguar Sovereign sat in the gravel drive like a trophy, with its creamy leather interior and roaring V12 engine. David loved the car like a child, much more than he had ever loved Audrey. He slipped into the driver's seat and Audrey slid in the passenger's next to him, shoving her rucksack between her knees. She still held the envelope and passport in her hands, but stuffed them in the inside pocket of her jacket once she got comfortable. Even in the October chill, she was boiling due to all her extra layers.
"Roll down the window, I can't have you sweating in my car," David remarked as they pulled onto the motorway, and Audrey quickly obliged, sticking her sticky forehead out into the breeze. The rest of the trip was silent. No music, no radio, no talking.
London Heathrow was a concrete giant, so industrial. The loud rumble of planes rumbling overhead was already giving Audrey a headache rivalling the pulsing ache in her cheek. "Go to Departures, go through security, go to the board and look at your flight, it'll be the same one as on your ticket, that will tell you which gate to go to at which time, then simply go to the gate at the right time," David instructed as Audrey repeated it under her breath. "Departures, security, board, gate, time," She mumbled, getting out of the car as soon as she heard the locks click open. David looked at her, then back to the steering wheel. He didn't wave, didn't say goodbye, merely sped off with a grumble from the Jaguar's V12.
That was that. David and Audrey would never meet eyes again.
It was chillier outside the car and as Audrey adjusted her bag on her back, goosebumps rose on the bare skin of the nape of her neck. She wandered towards the automatic sliding doors and took a deep breath. Her wallet felt heavy in her coat, the envelope next to it like a weight. The rest of Audrey's life lay in her pocket.It was a feeling that set a swirl of nervous nausea swimming in her gut, nursing the aching pain that rose up whenever she took a step.
The illuminated signs directed her and she again repeated what David had told her as she walked toward security. An agent clad in all black waved her over and she tried to wear a confident smile. Taking out her passport and ticket, ruffling the envelope slightly, Audrey handed them to the agent when he asked for them. She put her bag on the steel table that separated them, grateful to have the weight off of her shoulders. The steel table fed into a large X-Ray machine which had a doorway X-Ray attached that Audrey guessed she would have to walk through. The agent flipped open her passport and looked at the picture, holding it up to check that it was in deed Audrey. He looked at her ticket, "And you're travelling to?" the agent questioned, and Audrey desperately tried to recall the airport on her ticket.
