Six – The Girl with the Fading Lamp
Castle Cove always attracted many holiday makers to the area around the summer season. Although its teenage inhabitants found the small village boring and empty of any real excitement, it was the perfect getaway for those who were slowly crumbling under the constant pressure of 21st century city life. Families came there to make their children look through the windows of their own simple lives, the once before the era of TV violence and media sexualisation. It was a vain attempt to keep their children sheltered.
With silk sands, blue sky, smiling faces and the Prussian blue sea, there was no better place to extend the short childhood of modern day offspring. Collecting shells by the beach, having barbeques, taking long walks and picnics in the lusciuos countryside, with no pollution or anger that the city children had come to expect. Eventually as the years went passed, the young grew tired of Castle Cove and exchanged the simple days there with travelling across Europe with their own group of friends; but the memories of their time there remained with them and just like a first love, they were forever loyal to the Cove even through their angst filled teenage years.
Gypsy Brookes had been one of these children that had run through the Eden plains of Castle Cove only to replace it with the glimmering lights of Paris. She was first taken there by her parents when she was five and her sister Jersey three and it soon became a yearly event with her parents even purchasing one of the beach houses there; and it was this beach house that Gypsy had given her friend Nudge.
Gypsy and Nudge had become friends when both reached for the last TLC album one rainy weekend morning. Rather than fight over it, the two girls had struck up a conversation where they discovered they had far more things in common than a 90's girl band. They both adored shopping, musicals and cookies and they hated the colour black, spelling and anybody who was arrogant. MySpace, the Jonas Brothers and Zac Efron were "officially the most addictive things ever" and they believed that rats were the unwanted pets of the Devil – what else could explain their existence? They thought that Chandler Bing was the funniest person in the history of civilization (even if he was fictional) and that Cosmo was the cure to all problems. They were one of the same, and it was because of this friendship that Gypsy (and ultimately her parents) had permitted Nudge to use their Castle Cove beach house, despite the secrecy of Nudge's home life. Just for a week mind but that was all Nudge needed to charm and heal Iggy.
And so Nudge stood in the centre of the beach house, taking in the various rooms and silently thanking God for this small blessing.
It was a medium size house with four bedrooms and a balcony that ran the entire length of the second floor. The living room led on into the kitchen and everything had been painted white, so the colours of the furniture were all the more striking. There was a small television in the living room with an assortment of sofas and armchairs placed around it. The kitchen table stood just in front of the stairs with a mismatch of chairs – some high, some low, some blue, some purple – around its wooded surface; the same surface that someone had taken keys to, to scratch in 'Gypsy 4 Leon' and 'Jersey Smells.' It had all the household appliances one would expect for a humble holiday home, but it was made all the more charming by the slightly bohemian atmosphere of the décor. Everything about it screamed spontaneity. The bedrooms, all on the second floor, were reasonably sized and faced one another down a narrow corridor, the one and only bathroom standing at the right hand side of the stairs. Seeing as it was Nudge's idea, she was given the first pick of the bedrooms; she chose Gypsy's. Angel wanted Gypsy's younger sister's room which had been painted pink and had various Disney stickers around the window frame. Fang chose the spare room for the view of the sea, and Max was left with the master bedroom which Nudge expected would house Angel in the course of the week. Both Iggy and Gazzy had opted to bring a tent with them so that they could sleep either in the living room or out on the beach.
The beach. Now that was the house's selling point. The sea lay just footprints away from the backdoor and the sand was so close to the house that it even began to tiptoe across the faded carpet.
Yes it was the near proximity of the beach that had made Angel squeal with excitement as soon as she saw the house and for Gazzy to punch his fist in the air. A ghost of a smile even had crept to Fang's face and she, Nudge, was now being hailed as a hero.
She liked that. The hero Nudge. The lady with the lamp, lighting up the lives of all those falling into darkness. Hadn't some nurse been dubbed that? Oh well, now there was a new challenger to that title. Nudge, the girl with the lamp.
I know it's a ridiculously short chapter but I had to split it in two with the next one (which will be posted soon). What do you think about it. Personally I thought it was a bit rushed. Please tell me what you think.
xxx
