Little girls and...
One week had past since the beginning of the summer holidays, and the mood in the little house on the Santa Monica pier was happy and relaxed. Most of the days Jacqueline and Shelby weren't at home, which meant they were out with friends, shopping, swimming and so on and Mrs. Farewell was with Rose.
But most of the evenings the two cousins were at home and as the sun went under, they would go to the beach like every evening, sitting there and looking at the sunset, talking about everything and nothing. When it was dark, they would lie on their backs, foots in the surf, looking up at the breathtaking night sky. Like every evening Shelby would go back after some time and like every evening Jacqueline would stay, getting lost in the stars as her artist thoughts would wander across the world.
But today, Sunday, neither Jacqueline nor Shelby were out. It was around noon and it was hot. The sun was shining bright and hard on the beach, which was, on the public places, so crowded with people from all over the world that from far it looked like one huge clump.
The air was flickering and the betony on the streets fried your feet. The inhabitants who didn't want to do them self the torment of going to the beach and being stuck between sweaty, noisy people, had fled them self in the cool and still shadows of their houses. Just as the Calvert-Dawsons.
Rose sat on the table, wearing a short-sleeved dress, and was looking at one of her many albums, quietly summing in her ´ I'm old but happy ` kind of nature. Mrs. Farewell was sitting at the kitchen counter, her cheeks even redder than usually, reading a magazine before her and fanning wind to herself with another one.
Shelby laid on her back on the couch, the thin pink t-shirt knotted up, listening to music on her iPod with one ear, eyes closed.
And Jacqueline sat on the veranda table with crossed legs, in just hell blue short jeans and a white bikini top with little mussel shells attached to it, the hair tied up in a lose bunch. She had her portfolio on her lap and was sketching with a peace of charcoal a little boy and his sister in the neighbour garden who were chasing each other with the garden hose, laughing wildly as they whipped the water out of their eyes. They all were too drowsy to start a conversation, and so the room was filled with a comfortable silence, only interrupted with the occasional rustling of a turning page and the faint, gentle scratching of charcoal on paper.
Jacqueline looked up again with narrowed eyes against the sunlight and watched how the soft blonde locks of the little girl flew behind her as she ran squealing through the backyard, tiny water pearls glittering on her face and hair. She smiled and stroked the black piece carefully over the paper, loving the smell of charcoal in her nose. It were moments like these, in which she again realized how precious life was.
´To make each day count`, the motto of her life, of the life of her family, the motto her grandmother had lived her whole life about.
With fast strokes Jacqueline sketched the shadows of the little siblings and added tiny flowers to the grass. The two children and their mother had moved here only two weeks ago and more than a short handshake and a hello hadn't happened until now. Jacqueline remembered that the mother had made quiet a bit money in some medical laboratory and so they could move in this beautiful quarter.
Jacqueline added the last few strokes and put the charcoal to the side. She blew on the sketch to get the most of the black dust off and looked at it. The little girl ran laughing and with raised arms away from her brother who jumped behind her, his tiny hands holding the hose as he tried to get his sister wet. Jacqueline liked how she got the expressions on their faces and how the sunlight was reflecting in the water that came out of the hose, creating a faint rainbow.
" Have you drawn something?"
She looked up from the picture. The little girl stood now on the white wire netting gate that separated the two backyards and looked through the wide mashes up to Jacqueline. Jacqueline smiled and glided from the table. She took the drawing out off the portfolio and walked across the grass to the girl who grinned, happy to have the attention of 'such a big girl'.
" Uh huh, I drew you and your brother. I hope that's okay with you.", Jacqueline said as she leaned against the gate, smiling down at her.
The little girl took a step back to have a better sight on the older girl. As she heard what Jacqueline had sketched her eyes brightened even more.
"Can I see?" she asked exited.
"Sure. Here" Jacqueline leaned forward and gave the girl the picture. Her eyes got bigger with every second she looked at it.
" You have made that?! It looks like… well, awesome." She looked up again at Jacqueline with admiration " It's very, very pretty".
" Thank you very much, madam. I feel very honoured.", Jacqueline said in a fake proper voice, like her little neighbour was some well known art critic. The little girl giggled.
" I'm Jacqueline Dawson, but you can call me Jackie." Jacqueline said smiling, now in normal tone again.
" I'm Emily Circle, and I'm five years old" the girl said, shaking Jacqueline's hand with her hole arm.
"Really, so old already?". Emily nodded proudly
" Yes, and someday I'm going to be six years old!". Jacqueline laughed and Emily looked at the sketch again, then gave it back to Jacqueline.
" Here.", she said with a wistful look in her eyes. Jacqueline took it, looked at it and said: "You know what? You can keep it."
" Really?!" Emily called excited, clapping her tiny hands together.
" Really. Just let me sign it, okay ?" Jacqueline said and turned around. She headed back to the veranda table and took the piece of charcoal again. She wrote the datum down in the left corner and signed the picture with a swift movement: JD.
As she looked up, she looked directly in the gaze of her grandmother, watching her with 'this special expression', how Shelby had often called it. Fondness and Sadness and Love all mixed up.
With the years, Jacqueline had grown accustomed to it. It didn't bother her anymore as it once had. It was a look she received often and after a few years she had given up trying to figure it out. It wouldn't do her any good, anyway. It was just another of her grandmother's countless secrets.
Rose smiled softly at her and then turned back to her photo album, once again delving down into her precious memories. Jackie chuckled softly. Her grandmother, the great mystery.
She walked back over to the little girl who still stood at the wire netting, looking at her expectantly.
"Here you go." Jacqueline handed her the paper. The girl took it with a big grin.
"Thank you!"
"Emily! What are you doing there? Come in, your all wet, we have to get you in something dry." It was the mother, Mrs. Circle, who stood on the porch of her house, waving her little daughter inside.
"I'm coming, mama! Look what the girl gave me! Her name's Jackie and she can draw soooo good and do you know that…." Jacqueline laughed as Emily run over the lawn to her mother, stumbled, caught herself and jumped at her mother, all the while babbling non-stop.
Mrs. Circle rolled her eyes at Jacqueline in good-natural way and ushered her little daughter inside.
It was early evening when the door bell rang. Shelby opened, coming face to face with Mrs. Circle.
"Hey, I'm Anne. You're Shelby, right?"
"Ah, yes, the new neighbour. Hi."
Mrs. Circle smiled a bit awkwardly and tugged a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked tired and exhausted, a shy smile playing on her lips.
"Yes. My daughter, Emily, met your sister this afternoon." She laughed. "She didn't stop talking about it for ages. Jackie, I think. She has a wonderful talent for sketching."
"You mean Jacqueline. She's my cousin, not my sister."
Mrs. Circle blushed. She seemed to be a exceptionally shy women.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
Shelby smiled slightly. People were not dumb. When two cousins lived together with their grandmother, then it was not difficult to guess where parents were.
"Nah, it's okay. Can I help you in any way?"
Mrs. Circle blinked and looked at her confused, then she seemed to remember the actual reason why she had come over here. She blushed even stronger. Shy and forgettable.
"Oh, well, yes, I wanted to ask if you and your family might want to come over for dinner tomorrow evening. You know, to get to know each other."
Shelby looked at her surprised. That had been Rose's idea. She had wanted to invite them, too.
"Sure, I will ask my grandma if it's alright and let you know. Are you at home over the day?"
"I am. That's great. Soo… bye, I guess."
Shelby smiled.
"Yeah, bye."
