‘God you look as if you slept in the car all night’
‘We have’ smiled Peter,
‘Bloody awful it was an all’ added Lily as she pushed her way past him to get in,
‘well go into the washrooms get freshened up, and we’ll get you some breakfast, see you in the bar’ and he smiled at them and headed to the kitchen’
‘Four of them this time’ he told Trish who was just making the hot drinks’ Trish just rolled her eyes and her face looked concerned, Craig just shrugged his shoulders, the four people who had slept in the car went into the bathroom’s to freshen up thinking what a nice man he was, and perhaps this place wasn’t so bad after all.
‘Yes a nice cooked breakfast and they would soon be on their way’ thought Peter,
As Craig prepared the breakfast, he really wished that morning he hadn’t woken up at all.
‘This foods good’ said Lily chomping on a piece of bacon, she ate fast as if it was her last meal, relishing every mouthful, she couldn’t remember a breakfast tasting so good, Craig the landlord had served them one of the biggest breakfast they could eat, as well as a full English, there was cereals, fruit, juices, tea and coffee, and for that moment everything seemed to be okay and they all thought that Underwood and its people were all ok.
‘Wouldn’t want to live here though’ said lily when Craig was not in earshot, and they all more or less nodded in agreement, they didn’t think there would be many 5 bed detached houses in Underwood like they had at home in Sheffield, as Nathan ate all he could think about was home, wishing he was there now, with his friends, he didn’t like this place, he wanted to get out, the woods creeped him out a little, he could see the trees in the distance from the window in the bar, ‘you could easily get lost in there’ he told himself. ‘Get lost and never find your way out’ the thought chilled him a bit.
‘Everything okay’ said Craig as he brought some more coffee over’
‘Fine it’s a beautiful breakfast’ said Eileen, she licked her lips in appreciation, Lily nodded her mouth was to full to speak, Nathan was picking at a sausage, he said nothing.
‘How do we get on the M4 from here’ Peter asked ‘we lost our way in the storm last night’ he added, he bit a sausage and chewed enthusiastically as he waited for an answer,
‘You kids want anything else’ said Craig, completely ignoring the question and went to walk away, Peter grabbed his arm,
‘The M4, how do we get on it?’
Craig just stared at Peter, and as their eyes met Peter noticed they seemed dark and deep, and the comfort he was feeling just a moment ago was no longer there, Peter let go of his arm, he could feel the discomfort in Craig too, as the previous friendly attitude was no longer prevalent, Craig wasn’t a big man by any means, but something told Peter not to challenge him any further, it was the look Craig had given him, that troubled kind of look.
‘Let me know if you need anything else’ Craig said as he headed quickly towards the kitchen, Peter thought it looked as if he couldn’t get away quick enough, but all it was is that Craig didn’t want to hear any questions he couldn’t answer, he just wanted to cook breakfast and be a good host, that’s all he could do, that’s all he was told to do, he slammed the empty coffee pot down on the kitchen side and put his both hands out on the worktop to support him, Trish came over and put her arm on his shoulder, she could see the upset look on his face,
‘You okay’ she asked him, Craig let out a big sigh, he wasn’t okay, not at all was he,
‘She’s probably 16’ was all he said, Trish stood there still with her arm around Craig, and she could feel a tear falling down her cheek.
Peter sat there a bit unnerved, why hadn’t he answered such a simple question, what made him change the way he did, he glanced around the bar they were sat in, there was photos of Rugby club captains over the years, and on the wall was a list of their names and the dates they were captain, as Peter looked down the list he noticed the names ended 46 years ago, ‘This is Wales’ he thought, ‘where’s the team been for the last 46 years’ there was no fruit machines, or jukebox and he couldn’t see a television anywhere, there was however a pool table which looked well past it’s sell by date and a dartboard that looked as if another dart was thrown at it, it would drop of the wall, he guessed that everyone who used this place were locals, as no one would surely come out of their way to visit here, clean and tidy it may be, but the place left a lot to be desired, The others hadn’t really taken in their surroundings and Peter certainly wasn’t going to tell them what he was thinking.
We’ll finish this, walk to the car and head off’ he told everyone, they all nodded in agreement, ‘I’ll find the fucking road myself’ he thought,
He went to the bar and shouted for the barman, Trish came around she was a tall plump girl in her thirties and Peter thought ‘she’s been eating all the profit’s’ then he chastised himself for thinking it,
‘I would like to pay ‘he told her, holding his wallet out in front of him as if to say ‘look I got money’
Trish’s face broke out into a big smile that made her face glow and showed a prettiness that Peter didn’t see before,
‘There’s no charge’ she told Peter, He went to object but Trish had already gone back into the kitchen, Eileen and Peter gave each other a ‘that’s odd’ kind of look, Lily and Nathan thought it was cool but Peter didn’t like it ‘’who on earth gives away free breakfasts’ He asked himself.
Five minutes later they were stood outside the Underwood Social, in the car park, the no. 64 mini bus drove by, with the same driver who had no name, there was no one on the bus, the driver stared at them as he passed, he did not acknowledge them but Eileen was sure she saw him smiling, but assumed it was more in hope than reality, they started walking to where they had left the car, no one really saying anything, Peter wanting more than anything to get out of Underwood, the list of captains, or lack of them had unnerved him and he wasn’t sure why, it just didn’t seem natural, there was something about Underwood he didn’t understand, but he didn’t want to wait to find out what it was, Lily was thinking ‘how cool it would be if everything was free’. She played with her phone and cursed it when there was no response, Nathan held onto his dad’s arm just wanting to get back in the car and go home.
They Passed by Terraced concrete houses as they walked, the day had warmed up considerably as the sun beat down on them and the streets drying, though large puddles still remained in places, all the houses looked the same, picket fences all around, grass on every home, some with flowers or garden ornaments, all very mundane, in all but two of the houses they were sure they saw the curtains move, but they never saw a living soul, it was like they didn’t like strangers around here, and that was fine with them, they just wanted to get out, Eileen had thought that the Underwood people were a strange lot and certainly would not be sorry to leave this place behind, they seemed to be walking a long time, the earlier bus journey had taken less than a minute, but they were sure they were going the right way, surely it couldn’t be this far.
‘What the hell’ gasped Peter, Eileen just put her hand to her open mouth,
‘Dad I’m scared ‘ said Lily and Eileen cuddled her, as did Peter hug Nathan as he burst into tears, it wasn’t the fact that their car was no longer there, although that was scary enough, yes the car was gone, they stood on the waste ground where they had parked it that morning, the derelict huts with the water tower in the distance still loomed, it was exactly the same place they caught the bus, the same place where a fox had run out and gave them the stare before running into the woods, the same place when the strange man in the waistcoat told them they couldn’t drive, there was no mistaking that, but now there was no road with the battered kerb stones and potholes, there was no lane that was inches thick with mud that they drove up on that morning, they all looked around in horror, and no one really believed it, because where that road was, all they could see was trees, thousands and thousands of them.