No Easy Road

It had been a hard week for Peter being away from Jean, as it had been on so many other occasions. Being a paint rep, meant he was away travelling a lot. The journey up from Cornwall had taken a lot longer than usual, due to the build up of bank holiday traffic. Pete was fed up with the nose to tail eight hour trip, even the radio wasn't enough to deflect from his boredom. Eight hours of deep concentration started to take its toll, as his eyes started to close. “That's it!” he said to himself, “the next slip road and I'm getting off this damn main road, even if it takes me the rest of tomorrow to get home, I'll find a phone box and let Jean know what's going on.”

Of course this was 1974 and even though main roads weren't as bad as they are today, a bank
holiday weekend could make all the difference to your journey, of which was normally five hours.
There it was his freedom lay a mile down the road. As he turned off the main road, he thought
about maybe finding a bed and breakfast, or a hotel...but that would be money badly spent, when
he had a perfectly warm car to sleep in and it was August, so he decided to find a place to park up
and sleep, if only for a few hours.

First he decided he would find a place to eat, “Ah!” he said to himself, “Fish and Chips, just what
the doctor ordered.” Deciding he didn't really fancy sitting in a restaurant on his own, a take away
was just the job.

After buying his Fish and Chips, he found a nice place to eat, close to a river, there was a Pub,
people were sat having a drink in the pub garden, he thought he would have a couple of pints, before finding a place to park the car up and get some sleep.

The pub was cosy and friendly and the garden was a nice place to sit and just watch the river.
Thoughts started to run through his mind about moving from where they lived, he really fancied
moving out into the country, but Jean wouldn't hear of it, she was too happy where she was, with
the neighbours she knew and got on with. “Why move?” she would say, “better the devil you know,
don't want to go jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.” No there was nothing for it, they would
remain where they were till their dying day.

It was getting on for about 10 pm, Pete watched as the red sky started to set, it was starting to
cool off, so he made his way back to the car, switching on the heater he drove off down the road.
Eventually he came to a lay by, it seemed a good a place as anywhere to settle down for the night.

He put the radio on and listened to some classical music, which he loved. It wasn't long before he
was nodding off to the sounds of Bach, the melodic music sent him off to another time, another
place.

It was while he was sleeping that the night progressed and became darker and darker. No one else
was parked in the lay by, but him. Laying there snoring, he suddenly awoke and noticed that he
felt a lot clearer and was able to carry on driving, so he continued on his way.

Although there was a lot of traffic, it seemed to be running quite smoothly, he didn't recognize the
road he was travelling on, but he kept driving and hoping he would find a land mark. Looking in
his rear view mirror the traffic kept over taking him, but he stayed at a steady pace. After many
hours of driving, he felt tired again, but could not find anywhere to rest, so kept driving, the traffic
still continuing to race past him.

His eye lids became very heavy, he kept nodding forward, then aware, his head lifting and eyes
opening, only to be drifting off once again. The wheel of the car now no more in control, started
drifting across the road, cars avoiding the stray vehicle, but still cars were moving past him.

Then all of a sudden Peter awoke, jumping forward for the wheel, he looked out of the window,
then realised he had been dreaming, for he was still in the lay by, with vehicles travelling a long
the road beside where he was parked up. He was very shook up when he realised what could have
happened and from that time on, he never spent a night in the car again, it would be lodgings from
now on.