The car journey itself felt like an adventure.
We decided to cruise through town singing rock songs at the top of our lungs, windows down and volume sky high, receiving a few wolf whistles from teenagers on the street and disapproving tuts from couples walking hand in hand. Next, Blake took a sharp right and we went speeding down a hill, dodging parked cars and a stray cat in the middle of the road. It was the closest thing I could imagine to flying...my adrenaline hungry for more. After that, we took to the motorway, switching Blake's rock CD to the radio, a crackling hip hop accompanying our race down the middle lane. We picked a car, red like roses with silver wheel plates and a fancy bumper sticker that read 'Running Rogue'. That's what I imagined us to be doing right now...running rogue, away from home, into the unknown. We took position in the inside lane, readying ourselves for an opening behind a massive pick up truck. We waited and waited and waited, until ZOOM, we were off. Blake stepped on the peddle, dodging a black convertible and meeting the red rose side to side. The driver was a middle-aged man, greying beard and tired eyes giving away his long hours in the office. He eyed us deeply once he noticed the classics presence, zooming forward in a bid to ease the awkwardness. Little did he know, that was exactly what we wanted. For miles, we overtook one another, forming a subconscious race, undertaking lorries and overtaking minis, both desperate to have advantage over the other. All in all, the red rose was a class competitor, racing us for three junctions, until finally, we took a slip road and started heading in the right direction.
After an hour of messing about and firing ourselves up, the car turned onto familiar tarmacs, a singular orange glow and hairline of trees pressing against the silhouette of a dark night. It's lights were just as bright as the night before, although our advantage point in the car only showed small spotlights of the lego city in-between the wood.
I rested my head on the window, driving myself insane with anticipation to the point exhaustion started to kick in. I let my imagination run wild, the little girl in my minds eye, sleeping away the hushed night below the tree line, huddled with woodland animals and oak trees sheltering her. Her bed was made of moss and a pillow fluffed with sawdust, baby foxes and families of hedgehogs using the inside as home, while she laid peacefully amongst the leaves that covered her being, tree sap coating her thumb as she sucked it to slumber. I could pinpoint her tiny toes, poking out beneath the blanket of leaves and rubbing against the mattress of moss, a cold sweat keeping her cool while the moss kept her protected. The picture I painted put my worries at ease...just for a few, delicate moments.
I was really doing this. London was so close now, I could feel its power pulling me in...the unknown, for once in my life, being something I wanted.
Blake was humming softly to the jazzy radio station we had tuned, tapping his fingers on the wheel as I pulled my legs up to my chest and nuzzled into the cool leather. The heat in the car was so welcoming, warming my skin and sinking into my heart. I felt it in my bones, slowly making its way up to my neck and into my mind, fogging the adrenaline and replacing it with clouds. I would just close my eyes for a few blissful seconds...listen to the humming...and the tapping...and the warmth...the cool leather...lego city...
...
...lego city!
I sat up panicky, confused to where I was for a fraction of a second. I felt crisp air of the outdoors amidst shining lights of sky scrapers and a buzz of wheels to road, all around me, but without the sensation of moving. My cheek was warm, drool crusted on dry lips and rosy skin. I wiped off the embarrassment, hooding my eyes and feeling what felt like a door to a car...yes....a car, but it wasn't moving. Then where was that rumble of wheels coming from?
There was a fresh breeze on my other cheek, that side of my face exposed as I turned and saw the interior of a familiar car, slightly changed due to the drivers door hanging wide open. What...oh, oh my god, running rogue!
Everything came rushing back to me. The wolves whistle, the feeling of flying, the red rose...we were running rogue!
A smile spread across my face as the memories came flooding back, scrambling for the handle of my door and technically throwing myself out into the frozen air. All around me was lego pieces, the high skyscrapers, office buildings, shining lights and floors of flats...yet instead of seeing them from a distance, I was standing amongst them. I was one of them. Lights of blue were faded to the left, an ambulance rushing through the line of traffic that was piled on a slope about 50 yards away. White twinkles shone bright to my right, a cascade of cable cars milling in the sky, reaching for the moon as they climbed the imaginary staircase to space.
I looked up, eyes adjusting to the picture of painted stars and constellations, light pollution ceasing to exist for the moment in time I was standing, millions of atoms shining over me and wiping through the universe, witness to species extension, changing generations and multiple pandemics. This, right here, was the universe...and I was standing dead centre to it.
"Gorgeous, am I right?" I spun as I heard his voice, just steps away from me. Blake was sitting on the hood of the car, his hoodies drawstrings pulled to keep his face warm from the cold.
"It's amazing." Was the only two words I could master, spinning in a circle until I saw what Blake was staring at in the distance.
I walked towards him, leaning on the bumper in unison, and looking up in awe as I took in the shape of the white-washed dome that screamed success. The dome was covered in yellow ladders, reaching to the heavens, like a helipad waiting for the arrival of the universes angels. I'd never been to this part of London before, the outskirts where the 02 lived, doubling as a shopping centre, tourist attraction and an events centre.
I remember begging my mum to go to a Little Mix concert years ago, crying and pleading for hours and hours just because I wanted to see them perform one song (all because id learnt the dance like the back of my hand). We brought tickets, cheap ones, but that didn't matter - it was going to be my first concert and I was beyond buzzing. I never ended up going...I got the cancellation email a few days before the event was supposed to be going ahead, the pandemic was growing too fast and mass gatherings were being postponed across the globe. Oh well, although I was disappointed for weeks after, I held onto the hope that one day I would attend my first concert...one day, someday.
"I thought you hated landmarks" I chuckled, still unable to take my eyes off the dome id seen in pictures and from distances.
"Passing through" He said, crossing his arms to his chest. "Parking."
I looked up at him with confusion, the cold wearing off the warmth in my bones and replacing it with ice. "Parking?"
He grinned, turning his face to mine "Yes, this is a carpark."
I stood up and stopped looking at the skyline. He was right, we were parked in a space, parallel to hundreds of thousands more. However, we were definitely the only ones here. The streets were alive behind wired fences and brick walls, but the car park was vacant, Blake's car seeming invisible under the harsh spotlight of the cities life.
"What are we doing here?" I asked, tracing the straight line of the neighbouring space with my trainers.
"First stop on the adventure express." Blake riddled, standing and making his way towards the boot.
"An empty car park?" I questioned, following him to the rear of the car.
I should have known the empty car park wasn't the answer, he always had a surprise up his sleeve...which is something that would definitely take getting used to.
"Open it." He asked, standing back and shining his phones light onto the trunk, not that the city lights didn't highlight it enough.
I hesitated, wondering if this was the moment I found out we'd harboured a dead body into London and were fugitives who's faces were being broadcast over the billboards in Covent Garden. If anything, that certainly would be a surprise. God, please don't be a corpse.
"Okay." I said suspiciously, reaching forward and clicking the buckle, huffing as I lifted the boot and my cold breath formed a smoky haze in front of me and the bottle of booze that stared back at me.
Perfectly centre to a few rucksacks and bags of crisps was a full, sealed, expensive bottle of whisky, the bottle square shaped and labelled with what resembled a white unicorn, golden spike, tough hooves and glassy eyes. The bottle was still wet with condensation, leaking unicorn sweat and tears as Blake leaned over me and took the glass.
"Meet Velma." Blake sung, holding 'Velma' up to the sky. "Velma, meet Amelia."
Song Dedication - Life is a Highway, Rascall Flatts