The young woman and her 4 and a half year old son stood patiently waiting for their luggage, slowly becoming mesmerized by the carousel of brightly coloured and oddly shaped bags, her mind drifts back to that day some five years earlier, when she decided she just couldn’t take it anymore and ran away.

5 years earlier

Alice – Fuck Fuck she said as she spilt her coffee all over her desk, she was on air but to be honest that had gone out of her head 30 minutes earlier when she started her ranting and raving like a possessed woman.

Suddenly Mimi holds a piece of paper at the window simply stating “enough is enough you’re fired”.  Alice stood up and walked out without even looking back and without saying a word. The airwaves of KCRW went eerily quiet.

She drove for miles that night, not really knowing where she was going, what she was doing or even caring for that matter.  Some hours later she found herself driving past The Planet, she could see the faces of her friends laughing and joking looking happy and smiling. She sat in her car and cried until there were no more tears to cry.  She knew she had done this to herself, become this overbearing crazy woman that her friends tried to help but she just pushed them further and further away and indulged in many nights of drugs, drink and sex with countless strangers male and female. She hated herself so why shouldn’t they she thought to herself.

The only person who still vaguely talked to her was Helena, she called her the following morning and accepted her invitation to as Helena put it “get away from it all darling” and later that day she was packed and on a flight bound for London.

Present Day

The young boy tugged at his mothers arm.

Mum what’s taking so long I’m bored. In his very cute little English accent

Alice – I don’t know Jake, it just takes this long honey ok  Ah there they are, hold on to the trolley honey and I’ll go get the bags

Jake – ok mum

They jumped into the hire car and slowly made their way through the traffic, heat and noise that was L.A