I am in the passenger seat of Tookie, also known as my friend Janet's Hyundai Tucson. Janet is driving, the windows are down and there is a perfect breeze, one of those kinds that makes you feel like a teenager again, like at any moment you are going to put your hand out there in the wind and let it ride the waves. Janet knows how to drive with a confidence that I always lacked; the smaller roads, the blind curves mixed with the rolling hills never so much as cause a flinch or one moment of hesitation. Of course Tookie is American, so I being in the passenger seat am the one that could be clipped by any small oncoming British car driving 100 mph around the bend. As I flinch at another "close call", I look at Janet who has a smile that is sunshine, her smile is the biggest of southern welcomes; and when I am in her presence I know that I am in the presence of a person with the most gentlest of spirits and this always puts me at ease.
Nuzzled up in the backseat directly behind Janet is Brandi. Brandi's hair shines in the late day sun, she closes her eyes when the breeze blows in her face, sweeping her long hair behind her shoulders. I hope that she is taking it all in; I hope she is getting it, I hope she is getting me.
"Babylon" comes on our adventure mix as Janet takes another bend. I can't help but think of Pretty Woman and the line, "corners like it's on rails." That's how Janet drives.
♫ Friday night I'm going nowhere, all the lights are changing green to red.
Around the bend we come to an expansive field of green, I want to say that it was almost like a cabbage patch; whether it was or not, I'm not sure. Almost as if on cue, Brandi enthusiastically says, "Pull over!" She slides across the backseat, opens her door, and crosses both lanes of what for a moment is an empty English motorway; and in a moment that I will never forget, she starts spinning around in this field, her arms open wide!
♫ Let go of your heart, Let go of your head... And feel it now
In my memory, I always see her twirling in that garden in slow motion. She gets it! As the song is winding down, my beautiful English sun is getting closer to setting, and our trip is one more bittersweet moment towards the end; Brandi crosses the street once more, slides back along the backseat, buckles her seatbelt. Janet puts the car in drive, checks her mirrors, turns on her blinker and gets back on the road.
And David Gray sings on.
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