The Journey - Hypnotic.

 22nd January 2024.

I headed off across the road, propelled by the wind and battered by the rain, towards the old land Rover parked up in the road junction. I couldn't see who was in the vehicle as all the windows were steamed up so I tapped on the side window, half of which quickly slide forward and then slid back again equally as quickly but I had enough time to see that it was my grandfather seated behind the wheel so as promised I gave the bus driver a wave and a thumbs up. I watched as he set off down the road meanwhile grandfather climbed from the cab of the Land Rover. He didn't speak but grabbed at my backpack which he then took around the back and threw in without a thought for anything that might have been breakable stored within it. I continued past him and just as I reached for the door handle I was pulled back by the hood of my jacket. This really annoyed me and was about to give him a mouthful when he reached past me and opened the door for me. I immediately calmed down thinking he was being a gentleman and just wanted to open the door for me - I'm such an idiot sometimes. I settled myself into the seat and watched him get in beside me. I was expecting some kind of greeting at this point but all I got was a lecture. He said that I needed to pay attention to what I was doing if I intended staying in these parts. If this wind had got behind that door you could have had your face caved in, or worse still the door could have been ripped from its hinges. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. For one thing I wasn't choosing to go and stay in those parts and secondly how was having the door blown from its hinges worse than me getting my face caved in, and thirdly, what made him think that I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I didn't get to ask him any of these things because he had now moved on to vigorously rattling the gear lever from side to side. He then turned on the key situated on the dash board before reaching down and pushing a button on the forward bulkhead. The result for all that work was a pathetic sounding click, click, click! My instinct was to burst out laughing as there was something about it that amused me. Thankfully I managed to contain my humour as I'm sure it wouldn't gone down very well with grandfather. I can't imagine he ever laughed at a joke let alone told one or seen the funny side of anything. Grandfather is a short, fat barrel shaped man with a bald head, moustache and spectacles. He has a pompous and argumentative attitude about him that I find loathsome most of the time. I'm not saying this in any sort of disrespectful way or anything, it's just the way I would honestly describe him so as to give an idea of the sort of person I'm talking about.

Having failed to start the vehicle once he then went through all the same actions again which I thought was strange considering he'd already confirmed the thing was out of gear and turned on. Anyway the result was just the same as the first attempt. He then went through the first two motions again but this time instead of pushing the starter button he let off the hand brake. The result at first seemed little different to the clicking business and the Land Rover just sat there for a second or two. I don't know if it was the wind or something but after a few seconds it did start to slowly creep forward and eventually reached quite a speed as we headed down the side road. Suddenly grandfather pulled back on the gear lever, which let out a truly awful crunching sound, it didn't sound good at all. Next thing I know I'm heading for the windscreen until suddenly the engine burst into life and I was flung back in my seat once again. This was short lived however because no sooner had we got going and we were stopping again in the same violent manner. Grandfather had another fit of gear rattling before yanking on the hand brake and leaping from the vehicle leaving me sitting there wondering what was happening. I turned round in my seat to see if I could see what he was doing and saw a gate being closed across the lane. As I waited I looked up to my left and could see there was a house, I couldn't help but wonder who lived in a place like that. Grandfather was back now and we set off down the hillside into the valley grim. The road had now become a deeply rutted track, steep and running with water. The rain was driving into the windscreen so grandfather reached forward and turned his windscreen wiper before reaching across and turning on mine. For some reason they operated independently of each other. When I say operated I don't mean they actually worked at clearing the screen. The best that I can say about them is that the one on grandfathers side smeared water across the whole of his windscreen whereas the one on my side just spread it across half the screen. It started at the bottom right corner and slowly crept it's way to a vertical position before stopping there for several seconds and then literally dropping down back to the starting position before repeating the process time and time again. I couldn't take my eyes off it, mainly because there was little else I could see with any clarity, it became hypnotic for sure.

I was going to say that we drove down to the floor of the valley but in reality it felt more like jumping than driving. It seemed like we were bouncing from one rock to the next. I even got the courage up to recommend to grandfather that the drive needs some work doing on it. I should have known better as his reply was predictable in that he said it was fine the way it was. I wasn't going to let it slide this time because I knew I was right and I told him so. He said that it's best that way because if it was a good road everybody would be down here with campervans and goodness knows what. Well I couldn't argue with that because no one in their right mind would venture down there as it was.

On reaching the floor of the valley grim, or glen, as they're called in these parts we came to a fast flowing river so we had to make a sharp right turn to follow the track along the valley floor. When on top of the hill the bottom of the valley looked flat but up at close quarters it was anything but flat. It's quite undulating. Sometimes the very rough track was close alongside the river and other times it moved quite away from it. Once we turn to follow the valley my side of the Land Rover took the full force of the storm. It seemed at times that the rain was being blown with such strength as to force it though the window but on inspection it seems the seal on the top of the door wasn't working properly and so the water was finding its way through. So every so often I would end up getting a shower down my left side.

It was at this point that I felt the cold setting in. My jeans had got soaked walking from the bus to the Land Rover. Also the hood proved to be useless in the wind so my hair was also wet. I asked grandfather if there was any chance of some heat. He shouted above the noise that it was on, pointing at a round biscuit tin sized object near to my right leg. Well if it was on I couldn't feel the effects of it. I can't really recall speaking after this, there seemed little point and besides which I was having to clench my teeth to stop them from chattering. I looked across at him from time to time. It looked like he was having trouble seeing because he was bent forward with the steering wheel pressed against his chest. I wasn't surprised what with the wiper doing such a great job and the fact that it was just about dark. It was hard to see what difference sitting in that position would make though...