A Little Drive - Chapter 7 and some thoughts.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5, Part 1
Chapter 5, Part 2
Chapter 6

Chapter 7 - Ciudad De Los Angeles.

As Charles left Monterey he debated visiting Judy at the coffee shop to say goodbye and decided against it. He thought that if he had meant anything to her, she would have said something to him that morning. He had hoped for a moment, the night before, that she might have even come along with him; but, that seemed silly now. Just because you have make love to someone doesn't mean they will love you and just because you spend a moment with someone doesn't mean they will drop everything and go on a trip with you. Charles thought about these things and past few days as he drove towards Los Angeles down the glittery Pacific Coast Highway. He drove through the beautiful hills and passed the serene beaches and thought about these things and missed all that was around him. He did become of aware of the scenery hours later, as he drove through Santa Barbara. He became aware of it just in time to come to a screeching halt at a red light.

At first he couldn't figure out how he got where he was. He thought perhaps while daydreaming he had meandered down an off ramp; but, then decided that there was in fact a streetlight in the freeway. The light changed and he continued down the road. A little while later he decided to get some gas and pulled off in a town called Thousand Oaks. 

After filling his car with gas he asked the attendant how far it was to Los Angeles. The attendant responded that it was just over a couple of hills.

"Great," thought Charles. "Los Angeles, Hollywood and Disneyland. Now this trip should get exciting."

He drove his car further and further, past the hills and then he was in Los Angeles County. He drove along looking at all the lights thinking how pretty the city was, like a million stars. Not far down the road he pulled off and into a hotel in Van Nuys which was not too expensive.

When he checked in with the clerk he asked where the downtown area was and the clerk told him that it was about 25 miles away down the Ventura Freeway. Charles was a little surprised as he had not expected the city to be so spread out and big.

Because of the lateness of the hour, Charles decided to get dinner and turn in early so that he could explore Los Angeles all the next day. He had a hamburger at McDonalds and picked up some beer, returning to his hotel. At the hotel the television was not working well so he just had the beers and smoked some cigarettes.

Sitting alone in the hotel room alone he thought about what Aunt Terri had said to him when left Monterey and he asked himself what things he was discarding. He thought about Judy and decided that it was he who left her and not she who had left him. He thought about the job and apaertment he had left just for a chance to see other apartments and people doing the same jobs that did in Sacramento. Then he began to think about his brother and sister in law and remembered the book that Dee Dee had given him. He went to his luggage and took it out.

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PIMPERNEL COMMENT:

That my friends is all I have. It is about one third of this particular story. After writing the rest of this story, I wrote a second about a girl and in the end I put the two characters together. My concept was two different stories, one about Charlie and one about a female peer, how their illusions about what is possible (he believing everything is possible and she believing nothing is possible) end up together. Charlie's experience is one of naïve hope continually dashed by reality.

As I typed this for you my dear readers, I was pained by my writing style 35 years ago. I do hope my writing is better now. I don't believe I am particularly suited to writing novels. I feel my plots are okay; but, I think my writing lacks emotional indicators for others.

Somewhere I have the other couple hundred pages that I wrote. I just don't know where. I have an old floppy disk that I put the stories on; but, I don't know if I can find it, if I have it or if it still works if I could find a computer with a floppy to read it. I gave you what I had and while I may be embarrassed by it, I hope you found it of interest. Take care.