For Your Eyes Only: HS

2. It's a Beautiful Sound, it's a Beautiful Noise

"And my grandson, he just turned 12. I just can't believe it - oh, they grow up so fast! You're so lovely to talk to, you remind my of my granddaughter, Lily. She's such a sweet girl - like you, Miller!" The elderly woman next to me will not stop talking. I swear, I know her entire life story. We're almost in Dubai, the seatbelt sign has been turned on. I don't want to be rude to this lady, but I really don't have the energy for this. I just want to sleep. I don't think I've slept a wink this entire flight.

"...but I don't think I would, would you?" The lady looks at me expectantly, but I have no idea what she just asked me.

"Sorry? What was that?" I ask politely.

"I said I wouldn't eat meat on Good Friday, what about you? Would you eat meat on Good Friday?"

"No, I usually have fish," I say. For christ's sake! How did she start talking about Good Friday? I've had enough of this.

"Sorry for the interruption, ladies and gentlemen, but we are currently descending into Dubai, so we should land in around 5 - 10 minutes. Thank you for flying with us, we hope you enjoyed it!" The pilot tells all of the passengers into the intercom. 

"Thank God," I hiss under my breath.

"What was that, dear?" The elderly lady asks me.

"Oh, I just said I like your top! It's lovely," I point to it with a kind smile.

"Why thank you, my husband bought it for me for our 50th wedding anniversary last year! Did I tell you the story of how he proposed to me? He was the most romantic man - and my God, he still is! We went to the park and he said..." I don't hear the rest of what she says, because I begin to daydream about England. I'm still so excited - if not, more than I was a few hours ago.

"...and he thought I would say no, but I didn't - I said yes!" The lady finishes her story, and her whole face is lit up. I can't help but smile. Elderly people really are quite sweet.

"How fantastic!" I say to her, and she laughs heartily in return. That's when the plane hits the ground, and it scares the absolute shit out of me. I notice that Cheryl has woken up peacefully beside me, and I swear, she is having the middle seat in our next flight, I cannot risk sitting next to somebody like this again.

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Once we get off the plane, we have a few hours to spare, so we get something to eat and do a bit of shopping. Before we know it, we're on our next flight, and it feels like a really quick trip because I sleep almost the whole time.

Cheryl is the one to wake me up, and she says, "we've landed!"

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier? I wanted to see us descending into London!" Cheryl knows I'm joking of course, but I guess it would have been good to see it. I don't know, maybe I'm just overreacting - as always.

"Sor-ryyyy," she says sarcastically, and then I look out the window. Wow. We're finally here. Dad had been promising that he'd take us for years, and I may be a bit old to be going on a family trip, but I'm not complaining.

"How long is the drive from London to Shropshire?" I ask Cheryl.

"I think it's like 3 hours or something. I think dad said we'd be getting to the house at about 12pm," she tells me. We're renting a little house in Shropshire and not staying with our relatives because there house isn't big enough to fit the four of us. I'd rather not stay with them, anyway. I mean, I don't even know them. Besides, I like my own privacy.

We exit the plane as slowly as possible. That's what I hate about flying. Everyone takes their time, and especially if you are closer to the back and there aren't any back exits, you have to wait for a solid 20 minutes. Anyway, I've got to start being more positive. Breathe, Miller, breathe.

"Miller! Yoohoo!" Cheryl is waking me up from my day dream. I just realised I was holding up the whole plane from exiting. How ironic.

As Cheryl and I were separated from dad and Sally, we met them outside the gate. Dad looks so excited, he must be ecstatic that he's back in his home country.

"How does it feel to be back, dad?" I ask him, giving him a warm hug. 

"I just can't wait for you to meet everyone! We're going to have a great time, I can feel it." He reciprocates my hug. "Now, Amelie - my cousin - said she is waiting in a car for us outside, so we better hurry up and get our bags, then!"

We race as fast as we can down the escalators to get our bags, and luckily enough, our bags come through right away. We walk outside into the freezing winter air, and dad waves to a nearby car. That must be Amelie. She gets out of the car, beaming.

"Lovely to see you all! Finally! Tony! Sally!" She kisses them each on the cheek and turns to look at Cheryl and I. "You two...my god, you've grown up! Last photos I saw of you, you were about this high!" She holds her hand up to about half the size of me.

"Great to meet you," I say, going in for a warm hug, and Cheryl does the same.

As the weather is so crisp, we decide to hop straight into the car and get to know each other on the way to Shropshire. After a bit of chatting, almost all of us fall asleep, but because I slept for about 7 hours, I decide to listen to music once again. 

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After 3 hours of solid driving and a large amount of sight seeing, we finally arrive in Church Stretton, a town in Shropshire. It's very quiet and very small, but so beautiful. The city will always be my favourite, but I also just adore the countryside. It's so green and lush, and strangely makes me feel healthier already. 

I take out my headphones. 

"We're here," Amelie sings cheerfully, as we approach a cute two story cottage.

Once the engine has stopped running, we grab our luggage from the boot and make our way inside. The house has such a homey feel, the fire is going in the lounge room, which means Amelie must have come over to set it all up for us. 

"I'll leave you all to it, then! I'll come and pick you up at around 1 so we can have lunch at my place? How does that sound?" We all enthusiastically oblige, and then Cheryl and I go to find our rooms. I'm so glad I have my own room, it's small, but nice and cosy, so I know I won't get too cold during the winter nights. It has a double bed that's nice and soft, with a bedside table on each side and a wardrobe on the other side of the room. There's also a great view of the grassy mountains from my window.

I hop onto my bouncy bed and take out my phone. I have some serious catching up to do - social media wise. I decide to post a photo of the greenery on my Instagram, and I also check Twitter. I don't really tweet much, but sometimes I'll repost or like some things. I've recently followed a few One Direction update accounts, so I notice that Harry Styles has been spotted by paparazzi. 

Oh my god. He's back in London! He'd been spending most of his hiatus in LA, but he's in London! I know it's a long shot, but what if I see him? Do people just see him on the regular, or what? I'm completely new at this, nobody ever comes to Melbourne.

I go into the bathroom next to my room and look at myself in the mirror. I almost gasp at the sight of me. I look beastly. I quickly take out my hair from my messy bun and comb it out with my fingers. That's a bit better. 

"Cheryl! Miller! Amelie's back, we've got to go, now!" Sally shouts from downstairs. Already? Has it seriously been an hour? Well, I guess that's what social media does to you.

I bolt down the stairs and out the door in my warm winter coat. Time to meet some more relatives...

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