Back in da hood!
The ghetto has shrunk.
This is a sure sign that I have been away for some time. I remember that on my return from boarding school my hometown always appeared smaller. When I came back from my trans-Africa trip it looked like a toy-town to me.
Not much has changed. However, the ‘Amersham Arms’ which in the past stood like a red beacon across the railway crossing is now a drab grey – positively depressing.
My mates (and this is the only place where I can use the plural) look a little older but then I look much older. Has it really been that long? Three years!
I sip at the antifreeze-wine (this stuff will get you pissed just by breathing it) and relax into the chair. Different pub, same crowd – small changes. The room reverberates with the music. Lights dance on the walls and hastily improvised dancefloor (created by shoving the tables closer together). I haven’t heard urban music played at propper volume in what seems like years and feel as if I am coming alive. The music sucks me in like a well of cool, fresh water. I feel that I can hear again after a long period where all sounds were muffled. We shout over the noise and the wine starts to pulsate through my veins – perfect.
I want this moment to last forever but all too soon it is time to stagger back to the tube. Not even the Northern Line is delayed, it is as if London is on its best behaviour. It needn’t be; I am already seduced. I never want to go back to the tourist trap where we live now, which is just as well because John might have landed a job in Reading. Within a month or so we could be back in civilisation!
Tags: Travels on my Doorstep, Tag Index
Denni