so OS in love

‘Is it possible to increase the size please? 

‘ I can!  Let’s try A1 and see how that comes out, then go from there!  Will that be OK?

I nod a yes and watch as the  Ordnance Survey map slides into view.

Scale: 1: 2500 or 25: 344 inches to the mile it read.  

My journey was ten thousand miles and more to be here, and now, she was only inches away from my grasp.

Cartesian coordinates, vectors, grid references, isopleths, x this, y that and other mysterious symbols that were completely meaningless to me dot the map.

The Parish Valuation Roll follows, my heart jumps, I feel faint as her name and house number is revealed in grainy black italics.   

I needed nothing to help me read the geography of  her street, her house, number twenty-nine, she would be at the front door waiting for me, smiling, laughing, images all stamped indelibly on my mind.

‘I can print you off a Topographic map of the area for you?  Do want me to print A2 or A0?

‘A0, please! 

In vivid colour the hills and valleys emerged, unlocking memories of walking mile after mile along remote paths, in and out of our secret gardens, the smell of pine and wild flowers.

Skinny dipping in the freezing rivers, picnics and weak beer, endless rain, drying out beside log fires talking of our plans for the future, everything flashed through my mind like it was only yesterday.

‘It’s a shame it’s all gone now!  A whole street demolished, they used the hardcore to make the ring road! Did you know any of the families that lived there?

‘No’ I lie. ‘I’m from somewhere else, passing through that’s all!  

I didn’t want to admit that I had driven along the road and pulled in to look over the valley.

Number twenty-nine lay buried under a black ribbon of tarmac and concrete.

Only the distant hills were alive with bird call and the smell of pine and wild flowers hung in the air.