Round 25.

25.

There’s a box at the side of this motorway.

The box was designed by the architect, Pierre Peters; it’s made of glass and sits atop a number of other identical boxes in a field that hopes to be an industrial estate one day.

The box has no curtains and no blinds and is lit from the inside as offices often are.

Anyone hurtling past on the motorway at dusk can see inside the boxes as if they were giant televisions.

George is hurtling past and turns his head to look at the distant figure of Jason, who is standing by his desk in one of the boxes thinking it must be time to go home, even though he knows it isn’t.

Jason is looking at the papers he still has to do something with – file, sign or pass on to someone else, elsewhere in one of the other boxes.

Jason is listening to the sounds of the empty office.

George is listening to a new CD that he ordered from Amazon and has been saving for a moment like this; nightfall, motorway and a chance to hurtle.

The CD is a rare recording of Bruce Springsteen on stage in Stockholm in the 1980’s.

Bruce Springsteen is 62 now.

George is the same age as Bruce; Jason is thirty years younger.

Bruce has children.

George has children.

Jason doesn’t.

Jason’s girlfriend, Jenny, works in one of the boxes but she has already left for the night.

She is standing in a gym wearing her leotard, about to Zumba.

George has never heard the word Zumba.

George’s daughter does Pilates.

George knows more about Pilates than he wants to, but he thinks it helps his back.

His back doesn’t like the number of times each week that he hurtles along this motorway.

George is travelling Westward on the motorway; on the other side of the motorway, travelling Eastward, Melanie is a passenger in a white taxi.

The taxi driver’s name is Graham, but Melanie doesn’t know this.

Melanie is looking at the back of his head, but she is thinking about the airport and the plane she has to catch.

She is a little late, packing her bag was more complicated than she had imagined.

She is not coming back.

She is holding a small box in her hands; it contains a ring.

She has decided that she doesn’t want to see it ever again.

She hesitates.

Then she opens the window in the back, just a little.

Graham notices and looks at her in the mirror. He is an experienced taxi driver, he has seen the look in her eyes before and says nothing.

Melanie takes the box and it’s ring and lets it drop through the half open window.

The rush of the slipstream takes it tumbling to the grass verge.

The grass verge is at the side of the hard shoulder.

The hard shoulder is at the side of the motorway.

There’s a box at the side of this motorway.

   (ALL ABOUT ROUNDS)

this is late!
a bit - yes