Chapter 20; Escaping
He slept the night without waking, even when cool fingers traced over his face and played with his hair, he barely stirred. She smiled, glad that deep and reviving sleep had claimed him at last.
The next morning, Humbert felt weight on his chest, and looking sharply down, saw Haru standing on him, peering down.
"I'm awake, you can get off now," he said. When the cat had jumped down, he sat up and started to consider his day. It wasn't the weekend, it was Tuesday, and his boss had told him to take a holiday.
It took a while to find a caravan that he could hitch to his old auto, but eventually he found it, and bought it. The inside was a bit bare, but once he'd moved in – laid out a rug on the floor, installed some of his furniture and stocked the freezer – it was more homey. What finally did it though, was Haru dragging her blanket into a corner near the bed and making that spot hers.
She took up residency in the front passenger seat when Humbert did up his seatbelt and moved to start the car though.
"Alright, then you navigate," Humbert said, laying the map out and sliding it beneath the cat. This was a holiday, the carry box was staying at home, besides: Haru wasn't about to roam all over the car while he was driving. "Where are we going?" he asked, not quite out of his driveway.
Haru meowed and Humbert looked down at the map. The brown feline had a paw extended and hanging over a red spot. The word "Bristol" was written beside it. Bristol was located on the River Avon, just a bit further than Bath, and was a centre for aerial mechanics and shoes. They also did a good tea and had beautiful docks on the Severn Estuary.
"Sounds good, and we can go via the city of Bath, pamper ourselves a bit," Humbert said. Their destination decided, the twenty-two-year-old with the flaming orange hair eased his car out of the driveway, and then out of Camden and Greater London.
It was early spring. Some flowers were starting to bloom, but there was still some snow about in the higher regions, and a late frost wasn't unknown. The grass was starting to green up after being burnt by the cold of the snow, and all the animals looked just a little thin as man and cat motored past the pastures of cows, sheep, deer and once, alpacas.
Around about four that afternoon, Humbert pulled the car over to the side of the road and let himself into the caravan. It had been a long day on the road, and he was ready to lie down for a while, stretch, make the evening meal.
The next day, they reached Bath. Humbert had napped in the afternoon and driven half the night. When he pulled over again, he didn't wake until eight in the morning. Now it was nearly lunchtime.
"There's Bath Haru, what do you say to some pampering?" It took a while to find a place that pampered pets as well as their owners, but Humbert found it eventually, and by the end of the day, felt more relaxed than he had been since… Humbert couldn't remember the last time he felt this good, if he ever had.
Haru was purring beside him. Everything was perfect.
Until he tried to get back to his car. There was a crowd around it, and Humbert would have had a hard time getting through it if they had completely encircled his car. Thankfully, they were just packed ten-thick on the sidewalk, and by ducking onto the street a couple of cars away from his, Humbert was able to reach the driver-side door without having to squeeze through the crush of people.
Haru jumped in ahead of him and curled up on the passenger side.
Neither of them liked the crowd, so they pulled into the street and left Bath behind. Humbert sighed with relief when the city was behind him.
"Still want to go to Bristol?" he asked, slowing down and looking over at Haru. The cat shook her head. "Me neither. The open road is nice though, let's stick with that."
