Character Sketch- Sara-Louise
By: Emily Wright
"C-all!" a voice so far away awakes me from my dreaming. Loud and boisterous as usual, my best friend has come to early as ever to pick me up for our usual 'bout of crab-fishing. My bed squeals and moans in discomfort as tumble out of it. Clothes fly as I dress quickly, then, whilst grabbing my rugged fishing net, and head out into the arctic-cool, yet bright morning.
There she stands, a look of annoyance has crawled its way onto her slightly tanned and freckled face, they seem paler today, perhaps because we've entered the everlasting storm season which with-hold few sunny days compared to today. A frayed aurulent straw hat perches like an unbalanced bird atop her head, tipping precariously off, causing many shadows to flit back and forth across her head seeming to playfully chase each one another as she moves towards me. Angry sea-blue eyes dart up and down as they survey my tarnished appearance. She nods in approvement, too animatedly though for the action causes her hat to flail off her now un-shadowed face. She jumps down as though afraid she was about to be shot be a flying bullet, grabbing her hat as she does so. "Well, let's go," she grumbles as she whip's around hastily, embarrassed that her hat had fallen.
Dirt is kicked up as we run dash towards the docks, in our imagination we appear only as blurs to others as they marvel at our spectacular speed. In reality we come close to running into multiple people, while others shoot dirty looks at us for disturbing the oh-so-early morning. Huffing, puffing, and out of breath we finally reach our destination. A war-torn skiff that has definitely seen better days, which has been forever faithful to us. Dirty green water laps softly against the wooden boat, never pushing hard enough to actually enter it, for they have known each other since long ago and have become old friends. We tread through the sluggish water which tickles our bare ankles, as though to tease us. In the boat we go, dropping ourselves as silent and as light as down feathers as to not cause the ancient skiff to tip over.
She takes up her pole which she begins to weave in and out of the water, driving the skiff slowly to cater to my own needs as I clutch my worn net in earnest searching for fleshy crabs. A breeze begins to wind its way around us, causing her long rippled hair the colour of dark chestnuts, almost opposite of her twin's shimmering gold hair. Her twin. My friend was always in her twin's shadow, always ignored. Never noticed. No her twin was always there to outshine her other half. Yet my friend does not mind. Jealous, yes, but she holds a bizarre respect too for this angel in flesh.
As she continues to skilfully man the skiff, she cracks a few un-tasteful jokes to break the thick silence. Her strong voice flows cheerfully, never to falter. An ongoing chatterbox though I soon get lost in her silly yet captivating banter, almost forgetting what I was with her for.
"Hey, Call, pay attention!" she exclaims in earnest while pointing towards the soft outline of a crab. I quickly flip my net onto the crab which desperately tries to escape my skilled hands to no avail. The colourful being is placed in a bucket and we continue on, as I secretly wish to myself that these carefree days of our youth will never end.