#67
We left London the following week. And now here we are. I’m writing this from the beach, the sun is beating down on me, but a little wind blowing in from the west is cooling things down. It could be a cold night ahead, cold for Los Angeles anyway. The waves crash against the sand, people are starting to pack up their belongings, but there is still a steady stream of skateboarders, rollerbladers and walkers along the path in front of the house. People going past with smoothies. The neighbors are out with their dog on their patio drinking beer and eating guacamole. Very California of them.
London left us with no real choices in the end. In a city that seems endless with advancement, choices and opportunities, we only really felt like we had one. We couldn’t go back to France, not yet, not now anyway. My boss was still there, she knew him, and wanted to avoid him. She had been living off his good will for awhile in London, or at least utilizing his house between classes. Sometimes sleeping there. I never really found out if he knew. Melanie knew for sure, but never talked. A woman’s secret shared between them.
With no hesitation we left. We packed up what small amount of things we had and mailed them all back to France. They would await us. Together it needed to be spread and shared. From London, a direct flight to L.A. When we arrived, we found a place to rent immediately on the beach. For me it had to be close to the water because what’s the point otherwise.
The sun. We needed the sun. The time in London with so little bit of sun really affected me it seems. I never thought of it until we landed, and the bright bright striking light of the coast hit me in the face. I needed to buy sunglasses.
We left behind the rain, the buses, the tube, the anger, the fast walking, the pain and the long days and short nights, long nights and short days. We left behind nothing of ourselves, we took all of us with us, not a speck of our life was left in London, a place of movement and change – a place of chance. A chance encounter that brought us here.