Chapter 3: Bicycle Race
It had been 24 hours since the visit to the Emerson's house and there was certainly a lot to be said about what happened in such a small amount of time. The walk back to the twin's house the previous day had been full of thought as Effie wondered if her observations were correct; Lottie certainly had her eye on Sam. Whether it was just a shallow attraction of looks, considering Effie herself could admit Sam was pretty cute, or a genuine feeling of warmth, Lottie took some form of interest in the colourful and quirky boy. Lottie had remained quite all the way back to the house and even when unpacking the left-over boxes from the house or digging holes for plants in the garden, Lottie seemed to be mulling something over in her delicate mind. Effie never pressed the situation as she sometimes liked to merely observe the behaviour and body language of those around her, it was a hobby.
Effie noticed how Lottie had seemed very contemplative the last 24 hours. No matter what Lottie was doing around the house she always seemed to do it with a quiet content, as if there were something better to look forward to. She sat out on the porch at night when all of the garden furniture was put out and simply admired the view of Santa Carla. She hummed to herself as she was in the living room knitting (her hobby) after breakfast the next morning, she didn't even fuss about washing the dishes. Effie checked up on Lottie every now and then to see if she had come out of her happy, little waking dream but no matter what time of day, Lottie was the same. However, Effie thought it was strange that Lottie had not spoken again about their visit to the Emerson's.
When Effie was outside on the porch reading as Lottie was playing clock patience with a pack of cards, she decided to take matters into her own hands as discreetly as she could and get what she could out of her sister about her feelings towards the visit.
"You know what I noticed yesterday," Effie said as Lottie didn't even look up from her game.
"what?" Lottie asked, distracted.
"Sam and Michael seem very close but estranged at the same time. It's weird to see." Effie said passingly.
"sometimes I think you just read into people too much, Eff." Lottie said, still not looking up from her game.
"Well, what do you think of them?" Effie asked trying to push for a juicy response.
"Can't say. Don't really know them yet, do we?" Lottie said glancing up briefly at her sister. Effie kept her eyes on Lottie.
"Ever the diplomatic, aren't we?" Effie said as she rolled her eyes at her sister's good-natured response, "anyway, I think Mike is definitely acting aloof for a reason, something doesn't seem right there. And I think Sam is just a simple guy really. Nice, seems to have a laugh, what do you think?"
Delving into the personalities of the brothers seemed to illicit more of a response from Lottie.
"I feel like Sam is a nice guy, too. The loyalty his dog had to him says a lot about his character," Lottie said smiling
"Should have known you would base your response around the dog," Effie smirked, "Sam seemed to like the fact that you were a dog person too. Maybe you should ask to walk the dog with him some time, he did hand you his house number.." Effie pressed slyly.
Lottie looked up directly at her sister now with squinted eyes.
"I know what this is." Lottie said as Effie's smile grew, not hiding the intention. "very clever Effie but your little tricks don't work on me. And fyi, Sam gave US his FAMILY phone number."
"How defensive of you," Effie remarked with a smile. "You know me, I can see things from a mile away when it comes to awkward situations and I could tell you thought Sam was cute. I think you made up your mind about him before he even opened his mouth."
Lottie blushed and put her cards down.
"I haven't made up my mind about anything. Like I said, we don't even know them. Yes, Sam is very cute, even you agreed to that but that doesn't mean I'm planning our wedding." Lottie said with a passion.
"I bet you did have a brief image in your mind of what it would be like to be with Sam, though. I can guarantee it. Look me in the eyes right now and tell me you haven't." Effie smiled, looking at Lottie. Try as Lottie might she couldn't maintain the gaze without blushing even more, she knew that there was no use in hiding even her private thoughts from her detective sister.
"So, I had a little ponder about him. So what? He probably has a girlfriend anyway." Lottie said going back to her card game.
"Classic response of a girl not wanting to get too attached to the idea of romance," Effie said jestingly.
"Mum's right, you watch too much TV." Lottie said going back to playing her game. Effie decided that was as much as she would get out of her twin for that day.
But that wasn't all Effie was questioning. She still wondered what it was their mom could have spoken about to Lucy with such private urgency. It was weird that after so many months of not speaking to each other, apparently, there would be so much to discuss. Tracey had been gone from the house most of the day saying she was going to walk into Santa Carla and see what it was like and she wanted the girls to stay put at the house before going off and exploring on their own, much to Effie's dismay as she saw herself as an adult at 17. As usual, her sister didn't question their mother too much and was wrapped up in a world of her own anyway.
As dusk was coming and the sun was setting over the sea in the horizon of the ocean with orange and pink tints, Effie was thinking about swimming in the beautiful sea. When a loud ruckus destroyed all tranquillity. At first the sound was a low humming which then approached fast, with growing vibrations. Lottie sat with her hands over her ears looking around for whatever it could be. Effie had a pretty good guess. Michael could be seen riding down the dirt track on his motorbike as he gave a nod of acknowledgement to the twins sat on their front porch.
"It's just Mike's bicycle," Effie said to Lottie with disdain for the ignorant noise of the contraption.
"It sounded more like he was riding his mom's hair dryer, Jesus Christ!" Lottie said with annoyance. Effie started singing Bicycle Race by Queen, (look it up). Both girls laughed profusely.
Then their mom pulled up into the drive way.
"Hey mum," Lottie said happily, "what was it like?" Tracey walked up to the porch.
"Definitely interesting but I decided to come back once the sun was setting, it was like all the weird folk started emerging at that time of night." Tracey said
"Mike did just go past on his bike so that explains it," Effie said smirking "What did you end up doing all afternoon then? Does this mean we can ring Sam and actually make plans to go down the boardwalk?" Effie asked, desperate to escape the house.
"I don't know, girls. It's really different out here. Plus, all the flyers of missing children does not really put my mind at ease if you two were to go down there on your own," Tracey said thoughtfully, Effie's brow furrowed.
"That's why we would be going with Sam. He gave us his number, so we wouldn't be going it alone. He said he goes to the boardwalk most nights so he would know about everything. The boardwalk is probably where Michael is heading right now probably!" Effie argued her point, reeling to get away from the seclusion.
"I guess if Michael were to go with you as well it would make me feel a little better. He can babysit you." Tracey said. Effie snorted.
"babysit? He's like 19 that's only two years older than us!" Effie snapped
"If it makes mum feel better then we should take that option, Eff. Like she said, we don't know this area and Mike is an older, stronger guy than Sam so if anything were to happen he could look out for us." Lottie said with reason.
"Yeah, I guess Sam isn't such a threat with his Hawaiian shirts. He could blind the enemy?" Effie said making Lottie laugh.
"If you all go as a group then you can do what you like but until we get settled in and know what's going on around here then you're going nowhere on your own. Got it?" Tracey said over protective as she walked into the house in an attempt to get away from Effie worming her way around things, as would usually be the case.
"Just be happy we have a mom who cares," Lottie said to Effie, Effie sighed and nodded knowing full well how much she did truly appreciate their mom.
"I know that, dude. The real question of the night is…Who is going to ring Sam? I vote you." Effie said smirking. Lottie's face heated up with embarrassment, she really wasn't too good at hiding her emotions well.
"We will both ring him." Lottie said with reluctance.
The girls headed inside to dial the number. Lottie held the phone and was tapping her foot, obviously nervous.
"Hello?" a boyish yet curious voice said on the other end of the phone.
"umm.." Lottie said with reluctance
"Hello who's there?" The voice said with less patience
"It's the twins!" Effie said down the phone to save her sister's embarrassment.
"Oh, hey guys! Sam here. Mike went out a while ago" Sam said with more spring in his voice
"Yeah, we heard him. Sounded like he was in a rush," Lottie said getting her voice back
Sam laughed casually, "he will be going to hang out with his friends. I don't see him as much as I used to." Sam said with a hint of annoyance in his voice "but it's cool because I have my own pals now. I'm heading down to the boardwalk to see them tonight if you want to join?"
"Well that's why we called," Lottie said "Our mom said that she would feel more comfortable with the four of us going as a group. She's a bit nervous about us being on our own at the minute, just until we settle in, if that's okay with you?" Lottie said thoughtfully, not wanting to push any unwanted responsibilities on Sam. Effie rolled her eyes at her Sister's saintly nature.
Sam paused for a moment.
"Uhh, I think that should be cool. It's just, like I said, I don't hang around with Mike as much as I used to since we got here so it might be tough to convince him to stay with us all night. My friends don't really dig him, y'know?"
"How come?" Effie said down the phone with curiosity, Lottie looked at her sister with annoyance at her forward nature.
"Mike has his own stuff going on at the minute and they aren't too crazy about the people he's been hanging around with since we moved her. It's not really Mike, I think it's his friends." Sam said nervously
"And are these friends the reason Michael acts so cool guy?" Effie said smirking
"Exactly," Sam said passionately, "he's unavailable lately."
"Well you don't have to…" Lottie started, but then Effie pushed her sister out the way, grabbing the phone off her as she did.
"Well you better tell that untouchable celebrity brother of yours to take us down to that boardwalk before I pop holes in his tyres!" Effie said with half sarcasm, half seriousness. Her sister retaliated and brushed her out the way whilst grabbing the phone back. Sam laughed.
"Don't mind her, she's crazy." Lottie said to Sam as she glared at her twin, Effie gave her the middle finger. "do whatever you can and just let us know?" Effie said kindly and softly to Sam
"Why are you putting on that voice?" Effie asked her sister
"Shut the fuck up!" Lottie said as she held her hand over the phone receiver so Sam wouldn't hear.
"Yeah, sure. I will give you guys a call tomorrow. Um, do you mind giving me your number?" Lottie told Sam the number and hung up the phone, then elbowed her sister in the ribs.
"You're fucking unbelievable sometimes" Lottie said walking off up the stairs. Effie laughed at her sister's tantrum. As nice as Lottie could be she could also be just as stroppy.
The next morning rolled around and as the girls just finished eating their breakfast and Tracey disappeared down into the town again, the phone rang. Effie ran for it with Lottie following close behind.
"Hello?" Effie said with hope in her voice.
"The boardwalk is on for tonight."
End of chapter 3