On the Road

Zlatka Larsen
The Junction
Published in
2 min readOct 8, 2017

8:15 — Journey time:15 min

“Are we stopping at the Oxford services?” She asked smiling innocently.

“Why?”

“I am hungry.”

“We left just 15 minutes ago.”

“You said we will stop for breakfast when we are hungry. I am hungry.” She said and he sighted.

“OK.” He sighed again.

9:30, coffee and wrap later. Journey time: 30 min

“Ehm, can we stop?”

“Again?” He grabbed the steering wheel a bit tighter.

“I need to stop for a toilet. I promise, that’s the last stop before Liverpool.”

“Whatever.” He sounded a bit annoyed but not completely surprised by the development of the situation.

10:00 — Journey time: 1h

“Do you know the way?” She was trying to find a new station they could listen to.

“Yes. All the way on the motorway right to Liverpool. Then, turn left to the hotel. Plus, I have a satnav.”

“Should I set it up?”

“If you want to…”

“Seriously, you should have told me. I would have programmed it when we were at the services.”

He sighed. Again.

“I thought you could just use the map.”

“Oh.” Right, the map. She completely forgot they have a map. She brightened up.

10:15 — Journey time: 1h15

“You are in the wrong lane.” She pointed out the obvious. “You should be in the right one.”

“You are saying it now?”

“Well, I thought it was kind of obvious. The sign M42 East was a big giveaway.”

“You are the satnav. You should tell me.” He sounded a bit annoyed as always when he got caught out.

“Just change the lane.”

10:16 — Journey time:1h16

“Why haven’t you changed the lanes yet?”

“There is no space.”

“This is UK. Just indicate and turn in. They will let you in.”

10:45 — Journey time: 1h46

“Now would have been good time to stop.” He pointed out as they were sitting in a traffic.

“I know, but I am not hungry.”

“Is there anything interesting soon to stop?”

“I will have a look. But it’s Birmingham.”

13:00, lunch and National Trust property later. Journey time 2h15,

“That was a nice place, you don’t expect really great manor house near Birmingham.”

“It was all right. Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“When will be there?”

“I don’t know, you have the map…”

“I think in that case you are going the wrong way.”

“What?”

“Well, turn there, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“You wanted to visit the castle so we got lost. If you went on, it would be fine…”

Gruntled silence in the car…

15:00 — Journey time: It feels like eternity. Finally at the room in Liverpool, no words exchanged for the past two hours.

“Honey?”

“What now?” He was still brooding.

“I love you.”

“OK.”

“What about going to Scotland next holidays?”

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