Chapter Nineteen

After Sarah spills all, Wayne is determined to find Florence and bring her back where she belongs.

Chapter Nineteen: Wayne

I grabbed Mum’s keys from the hall and pulled on my jacket before opening the door. ‘Wayne! You can’t just go!’ Mum charged after me, I slipped into her car and started up the engine. ‘Sarah! Hurry up!’

‘Sorry!’ Sarah hurried to the passenger seat, ‘Don’t worry Mrs Harley, we’ll call you as soon as we know everything alright?’

‘We will?’ I raised an eyebrow. Since when had my mother and Sarah become such good friends, oh right, five minutes ago. ‘Look, I need to find her Mum. I love her, and she’s carrying my baby!’

‘But Wayne, this is my car. You don’t have any insurance!’ Mum protested, hanging onto the car window with her hands.

‘I’ll drive carefully!’ I said, winding up the window so that Mum had to remove her hands.

‘Wayne!’ 

I couldn’t stand anymore. I drove out of the drive, down the street and out of the neighbourhood. I itched my chin and pushed my hand through my hair, trying not to feel guilty about abandoning my own mother. ‘Okay. Right, where are we going?’

‘M4. I don’t know where Steph is but I’m sure she’s not in London.’

‘Well that helps. We’re not trying to find Steph though…’ I glanced over at Sarah when I had to stop for the traffic lights. ‘We want to find Florence.’

‘I have a feeling Florence is near Steph. We find Steph, then we find Florence…’

‘What happens if we find Michael first and he murders us?’ I asked plainly, receiving a punch in the arm from Sarah.

‘Don’t joke. You don’t know what he’s like. He’d probably would murder us if he knew we we’re coming…’

‘Not before I murder him first…’ I murmured, trying to hide my absolute anger. I pressed hard on the pedal when the lights finally turned green.

‘Now Wayne, this is what I don’t want okay? I don’t want anyone else hurt. I’m angry too, but we need to be calm. We’ll let the police deal with him.’

‘I’m not sure I can wait that long. Right M4 yeah?’ I said, turning off to the motorway.

‘Yeah. I’ll phone Steph.’

‘She better answer otherwise well…we have no luck.’

‘So negative.’ Sarah said, tutting. ‘Keep your eyes on the road!’ 

‘Alright but put it on loud speaker. I won’t talk.’ 

Sarah rolled her eyes, grudgingly taking out her phone. ‘Right. I hope this works.’ 

I tried to keep one eye on the road and one eye on her. We were on the M4 now, but I had no idea where we were going, we’d have to turn off soon enough. ‘C’mon, Steph pick up!’  Sarah said desperately, ‘Hello? Steph?’ 

‘Mum? Oh my god! Mum?’ Sarah had pressed a button to put her phone on loudspeaker, now Stephenie’s voice boomed into the car. ‘Yeah it’s me. Are you okay?’ 

‘I’m fine! Well, I’m okay. Where are you? You need to come and get me, I want to go home!’

‘We’re on our way honey!’

‘We’re? Who’s ‘we?’’

‘I can’t explain everything right now honey, I promise I’ll tell you everything when we get there. Honey, where are you?’

‘I’m at the beach. Torquay I think it is.’

‘Torquay? Oh god that’s hours away!’ Sarah squealed.

‘Why? Where are you?’

‘We’ve just left London, we’re on the M4.’

‘How long will you be?’ Stephenie’s voice was somewhat anxious.

‘I don’t know honey. At least a few hours…’ She said, then turned to me. ‘Do you know how to get to Torquay?’ 

‘Nope.’ I said, popping the ‘p’

‘Great one.’ Sarah replied, then took her phone off the dashboard and spoke directly into the phone. ‘Honey, we’ll be there as soon as we can okay?’

‘Hurry up. I don’t trust dad anymore…’

‘Why honey? What’s he been up to?’

‘He keeps disappearing, and every time he does, he takes a van with him. I swear he’s up to something.’

‘Oh, he’s always up to something. I’ll tell you everything when we arrive. Be safe Steph.’

‘Love you Mum, bye!’ Steph said, then hung up.

Sarah pressed a couple of buttons and then replaced her phone to her bag again. She slumped down in her seat, her elbow on the window. ‘God, I hope she’s okay.’

‘She did sound a little….’ 

‘What?’ Sarah suddenly bounced up.

‘I don’t know but I think we should just try and hurry up.’ I said, not being able to admit what was going through my mind.

Half an hour passed and we were still on the same stretch of the M4. Loads of signs were plastered everywhere, but I didn’t know which ones we needed to be looking at.

‘Pull in to the services…’ 

‘It’ll take even longer then.’

‘Well I don’t know where we’re going, so we can either keep going or pull in and ask someone?’

‘Alright. Calm down!’ I exclaimed, turning in to the services. I parked up and got out of the car. ‘Might as well get some petrol too.’

‘You get the petrol, I’ll go ask for directions…’ 

‘Yes mother…’ I chuckled.

Sarah skipped away before she punched me again. I shoved the petrol hose into the car and waited until it filled up to a reasonable amount. Then I thought, s**t! Do I even have any money on me? I searched my pockets and luckily found a twenty pound note, that would be just about enough for the petrol.

I finished up the petrol and then queued up in the shop. Sarah was at the front, holding everyone up it seemed. ‘Sarah!’ I called from the back of the queue. ‘What are you doing?’

She flapped her hand at me and turned back to the shop assistant, ‘Right, so we have to turn off for Bristol and go onto the M5?’

‘Yes. Now, will you please move so I can serve these customers!’ 

‘Sorry.’ Sarah huffed, moving out of the way. The queue suddenly pushed down to the front, and everyone was groaning and giving Sarah dirty looks.

‘God. Such happy people…’ Sarah flashed a fake smile, ‘Hurry up, we gotta get going!’

‘Excuse me, you took ages.’ I said, but Sarah had already ran back to the car. I finally paid for the petrol and made it out without getting looks shot at me. ‘Sorry for my friend…we’re just in a bit of a hurry, you see.’

‘Yeah, well next time maybe buy a map?’ The woman answered icily, I screwed up my face and forced a smile, ‘Right. Thanks, bye.’ I said, and then quickly rushed out and back to the car.

‘Dear me. That woman definitely isn’t happy with you!’

‘I didn’t do anything, I was just asking for directions! She’s the one that got all funny…’

I huffed, shaking my head. I had a feeling today was going to be a long day. ‘Okay, so Bristol did she say?’

‘Yeah, get off at Bristol then go onto the M5...’

‘Right, so how far away are we from the turn of to Bristol?’

‘She said about twenty minutes, so I’ll keep a look out.’ 

‘Alright.’ I said, driving out of the petrol station and back onto the M4. 

It was only ten minutes later when the traffic started to build up. ‘Why is there so much traffic!’ I slammed my hand down on the driving wheel, ‘It’s not a rush hour!’

‘What is the time anyway?’

‘Half two.’ Sarah stated, yawning.

‘Hey! No, you sit up!’ I ordered, pointing my finger at her, ‘You fall asleep and we’ll miss the exit!’

‘Why am I responsible for looking out for the exit! I’m tired, I have this medicine and it makes me so sleeeeeeeepy.’ Sarah yawned out the word.

‘Sarah. I need you to stay awake and help me, once we’re on the M5 you can sleep, okay?’

‘Sure…whatever…’ She trailed off, fidgeting in her seat to get comfy. I sighed as she closed her eyes, I was now fully responsible for getting us to our destination.

I was fine for a while; there hadn’t been any signs for Bristol. The traffic was slowing us down, it was already three o’clock, we’d be lucky to get there by early evening.

The sky was darkening too, but not as if it was going to rain. The sky looked puffy, as if one huge cloud was covering it, but it was swirling and puffing more and more. As the traffic slowly faded out, we reached a roundabout and passed a field full of trees, I looked up above the forest and saw the smoke rising up into the air. 

My eyes widened, and in an instant, shook Sarah till she sat up awake. ’Bloody hell.’ She said tiredly, after I’d pushed her to the window. ’Wonder what’s going on there…’

‘Should I call the police?’

‘Fire engine would be better.’ Sarah murmured.

‘That’s what I meant!’ I defended, ‘You do it, I’ve got to concentrate.’

‘Yes sir…’ Sarah rolled her eyes. I totally regretted waking her up. ‘Hello? Yeah, hi. I’m reporting a fire…it’s on the M4...’

‘Is this the turning?’ I asked, crouching my head to see the signs, ‘Sarah is this the turning?’ I panicked, snapping my head at her.

Sarah began to flap her hands at me, ‘Yes. Near the turn off for Bristol, okay thanks…’

‘Is that the turn off?’

‘Yes.’

‘Great! Just bloody missed it!’

‘Oh Wayne, you knew it was the turn off!’

‘I didn’t, you were on the phone, you could have mouthed the word yes!’ 

‘Oh shut up and turn round!’

‘I can’t turn round Sarah, we’re on a motorway. Do you even know how to drive?’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh, well maybe you should drive.’

‘I will on the way back.’ She said, ‘Pull in here and turn round.’ 

I pulled in and turned round, then finally we were on our way to Torquay.

‘Dear me, so much hassle. I shall never close my eyes again…’ Sarah huffed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note

Unedited. First draft! Excuse the crappiness :P