The walk to the boardwalk wasn't an unpleasant one. They didn't pass many houses for the first twenty five minutes, they just had sea views, a dusty road, the distant sound of crashing waves and Sam's complaints to keep them company. Sam didn't really fully realize that their new house was on a cliff and when he understood that they would have to walk up a slight incline to get back home, he was fairly put out.
"I didn't realize!" Sam defended once again, "we were in a car, Mike. A car. I didn't know how far up this hill we had gone, jeez. It's a slow hill, right? Like, it's not a steep mountain or whatever. It's a slow build, so you don't realize that it's actually kind of high and sure now we're OK but this walk back is gonna be a killer and-"
"-Sammy, oh my God! It's fine! We get it - you didn't realize" Elizabeth interjected, half laughing and half exasperated. All he had done was talk about how their house was on a cliff, "but let's, you know. Let's just hold our judgement and complaints until we've done the walk home?"
"Well yeah but Mike-"
"-won't say anything else, right Mike?" there was a hardness to her voice, an insistence that he take her hint and also shut up about it.
Mike scoffed, "how does somebody not realize we live on up on a hill?"
She rolled her eyes.
"We were in a car, Mike! C-A-R! And this hill is a slow building hill. You were on a bike, you didn't have our experi-"
Elizabeth groaned and picked up her pace, walking ahead of her bickering brothers. Those two were thick as thieves which meant they had their fair share of good natured and long lasting fights. They could argue a pointless topic for hours without faltering, without losing their quick wit. It was sweet but insufferable, too.
"Oh, look!" Elizabeth said, stopping both her brothers, mid-sentence. The boardwalk had come in to full view, the bright lights flashing invitingly down in the distance. The quiet town lay before it, overshadowed entirely. It looked huge and already seemed like the center of a hive of activity. Now she could clearly see the huge roller coaster and a rope-way, as well as hundreds of booths and buildings and rides of various sizes. It looked wonderful. The beach was nothing more than a black mass, the lights of the boardwalk only reflecting off the lightly rolling waves.
Michael and Sam came to a stop beside her, also taking in the view.
"Guess there could be worse places to live" Michael said, smiling down at the sight, "Come on, let's get down there"
"Huh. From this perspective, I guess we are kind of high up here…" Elizabeth mused aloud, much to the delight of Sam.
It took them only twenty minutes to reach the entrance to the boardwalk. The fairground music and muffled voices became louder with every step they took and they quickened their pace unknowingly. The trio had passed through a few streets with shops, a big library, some sit down restaurants and guest houses. The area before that had looked a little run down and they had started to realize it was the boardwalk that was the life blood of the town.
The crowds were already thick but not uncomfortably so. They stepped onto the boardwalk and immediately their eyes were drawn to different attractions.
"A haunted house!" Elizabeth gleefully pointed out, while Sammy gave a disgruntled, "but why have a haunted house? Horror is so overrated.."
As Elizabeth and Sam discussed the pros and cons of buying some bulk tickets at the booth directly in front of them, the neon lights flashing and advertising a discount for an advance purchase, Michael was quietly peering into the distance. He was watching a carousel in the not so far distance. It looked like there was a problem, maybe a fight. He couldn't see much, there were too many people and the ride was still turning...but it looked like some kind of a scuffle..maybe.
A group of laughing friends passed by him, blocking his view, just as he could vaguely make out a security guard stepping up on to the still rotating ride. He shook his head. He didn't need drama, none of them did.
He decided to steer his younger siblings away, brushing his hand over Elizabeth's elbow and nudging his head in the opposite direction. She followed his silent instruction and turned away from the ticket booth, Sam doing the same.
"Hey Mike, wanna go on a ride?" Sam asked as they followed him, abandoning the idea of buying a bunch of tickets right off the bat and just following what the other two were doing.
"A ride that fits three?" Mike asked in reply, "who wants to ride solo on a roller coaster, Sammy?"
Sam and Elizabeth nodded; that was a fair comment. Someone knocked into Elizabeth's shoulder while a toddler was screaming for a light blue bag of cotton candy.
"Yeah, fair enough.."
Navigating the crowd together, they each pointed out an interesting ride or game, cracking jokes and laughing. The smell of fried foods and sugary sweets perfumed the air while different types of music blasted out, muffling the voices and shouts of punters.
"Let's do the water balloon thing!" Elizabeth excitedly suggested, stopping and making a beeline for a water balloon stall. The booth was pretty quiet, with two grubby looking kids readying their pistols. Stuffed toys were hanging from the roof with lots of little dolls and prizes scattered around. Inside the booth was a row of clowns with wide, open mouths containing a black and white bulls eye. Their eyeballs were dull, red light bulbs and there were deflated balloons in place of hair.
"Hit the bulls eye with your water gun, burst the balloon and win a prize!" the attendant's voice boomed, "don't be fooled, these clowns'll have you beat!" he challenged with a wide smile, eerily reflective of the clowns' behind him.
"How much?" Sam asked.
"It'll be a dollar fifty each, but for the three of you, we'll make it an even four"
"Great!" Sam positioned himself at a water gun, Elizabeth following while Mike laughed lightly at them. Those two were such anomalies at times but their eager happiness was infections and sure enough, Mike handed over the four dollars.
"You're going down, kids!" Michael jeered playfully at his two siblings.
"Not a chance!" Elizabeth replied, quick as a shot.
"Ready? OK! On your marks….raise your guns….GO!" a loud bell chimed and suddenly the water pressure increased. Elizabeth aimed her gun, focusing hard. From the corner of her eye, she saw her brothers doing the same.
Concentration, all around.
"Ahhh!" she squealed in frustration, she was missing her target terribly as Sam laughed cockily beside her. His balloon was already inflating steadily.
"Come on, Liz! Got to work harder than that!" he laughed at his sister's poor effort. Her balloon was the saddest of the three.
"Stop! Shhh" she replied distractedly, squinting seriously, her tongue poking out of her tensed lips.
There was a little scuffle and a cry of 'you little cheat!' from Michael and she knew that Sammy had probably tried to kick his feet out from under him, maybe he'd tried to jab him in the back of the knees. She didn't turn to look, she was getting somewhere with her balloon.
She could see the attendant watching them, leaning on a prize shelf just beyond the row of clowns. The cheerful air about him had lessened now there were no new customers approaching and he looked bored.
There was a loud pop, a buzzing sound and a joyful, victorious shout.
One of the two children down the end had burst their balloon.
Grunting embarrassingly, Elizabeth jerked to the right, throwing her gun off balance and killing her water jet. "You cheater!" she shot at her brother, who had stealthily jabbed her in the side was and was laughing while he concentrated once more on his target. She laughed alongside him, not believing how competitive he was. She quickly brought her gun back to her clown, "I swear, you're such a dirty cheater Sa-"
BANG!
Both she and Sam jumped. Michael had burst his balloon, ending their game. He grinned at them both and advised in a faux-patronizing tone that, "you've got to focus on the game, not each other..."
Without much fanfare, he was handed an inflatable pineapple, which he accepted with a slightly confused expression, much to the amusement of the two losers beside him. When they were out of sight of the booth, he deftly opened the plastic seal and squeezed down. They all silently acknowledged that walking around with a giant pineapple wasn't how they wanted to be seen.
The boardwalk was much more crowded now and it felt like they couldn't move more than a couple of steps before bumping into someone or being bumped in to.
They did one lap of the boardwalk, pausing for Elizabeth to stuff the deflated and rumpled pineapple into her bag. Sam had insisted on checking out a comic book shop they saw but it had been closed for the night, a scrawled sign on a ripped piece of newspaper confirming it would be open 'as usual' tomorrow. Sam had been a little annoyed and asked what as usual was supposed to mean, because there wasn't any other signage. He had been excited to see what they had on offer and hoped he could find some rare titles to add to his collection. Disappointment aside, he had conceded that it was good to know it was there.
They had been enticed with cotton candy, corn dogs and someone was even trying to sell fried butter which they hadn't been brave enough to try. Children ran among them, parents shouted.
The hustle and bustle made the boardwalk feel alive, pulsating with activity.
"Nothing like this in Arizona!" Elizabeth reminded, raising her voice over some eerie carnival jingle.
They had wandered aimlessly again, passing time and talking comfortably, before finding themselves at the end of the boardwalk. They had discovered a quieter and less used entry way. The crowds were less here and the attractions slightly duller, it looked like kid's rides and food.
Elizabeth had pointed out a fast food van with a few empty benches outside, right at the wall of the pier. It overlooked the beach perfectly.
"I think if we take this way out we can get home, right?" Michael had said with a thoughtful frown. None of them particularly wanted to battle the crowd again. They were starting to feel tired, the stress of the day creeping down on them.
"Yeah. Didn't the road break left? We went straight but if we had gone left, we would have ended up here instead of the main entrance.." Sam agreed, thinking. He had a terrible sense of direction though, he it was clear he wasn't sure if his words were correct
"We're kind of facing the house, so it makes sense," Elizabeth said through a stifled yawn, "but let's grab something to eat first?"
Michael ordered three double cheese burgers, an extra-large fries to share and three milkshakes. Forgetting the promise they had made to Lucy just hours earlier, the three sat down in companionable silence, waiting for their order to be called. They weren't disappointed. The food was cheap but certainly cheerful. The burgers were thick and juicy and the fries came with cheese sauce, so there were no complaints to be had.
Mike had placed the fries in the center of the graffiti covered wooden table and started work on the milkshakes while Sam distributed the burgers.
They sat comfortably, taking big bites of burger and listening to the waves and happy voices shouting along the beach. Somewhere in the distance, a bonfire shone.
A group of teenagers in bleached denim cut-offs and tie dye shirts with spiked collars and leather wrist bands passed them. Michael had grinned lightly as he bit into his burger, knowing that here, in this town, Sam's fashion sense was going to make him the oddball.
"It's nice here" Elizabeth said just as a couple - a lagging pair from the group that had just passed - stumbled towards the exit. They were giggling, the man nibbling the woman's neck and grabbing at her body while she held a stack of comics tightly to her breast.
"Yeah, the boardwalk's cool. I had a nice night" Michael agreed, "I think we're gonna be OK, guys".
"Hey, do you feel like we're being watched or something?" Sam asked, lowering his burger with a frown, "I feel like-"
He stopped talking at his sister's squeak and brother's snort of laughter. He looked to his left and saw Elizabeth with an avalanche of melted cheese, special sauce, lettuce and meat juice down her chin and dolloped on her the front and lap of her dress.
"My shirt!" he shouted, quickly jumping up and grabbing a fistful of napkins. He threw them to her, cupping his hands above the knot of his shirt, to protect against the slow moving splodge of sauces. Michael was laughing, though it wasn't clear if he was laughing at the danger Sam's shirt was in or how disgusting Elizabeth looked.
When the sauce had been mopped up, Sam cautiously moved his hand away from her stomach and his shirt and allowed himself to smile.
"That was close" he said with a smile and then, in seriousness, "grease like that would be a nightmare to wash", he returned to his burger. There were circular, white smudges on Elizabeth's black dress from where the mayo had settled, and Michael, chuckling still, told her it kind of looked like a bird had a dropped a load down her.
"Sorry, Sammy," Elizabeth said with laughter in her voice as she dabbed at the grease and sauce glistening on her chin, "took me by surprise"
She laughed a little, "You know, I was kind of nervous before we left. I was worried about kids from school being here and what they would think about me and here I am, covered in onion and special sauce" she laughed again, "..I don't know" she shook her head and waved her arm in a dismissive gesture.
It was difficult to articulate her thoughts, about why she didn't want to be seen before school. On the first day, she could control what she wore, acted and how she presented herself.
Being out in the open took all that control away.
Michael was watching her intently, "Hey, you'll be fine when school starts. Come on, you've never had problems before. None of us have," he glanced at Sam, "You, too, Sammy. We're all gonna be fine here"
These words were slowly becoming his mantra.
Elizabeth smiled at him, thankful for his strength. Sam nodded without comment, finishing off the last of the French fries. Evidently school wasn't concerning him all that much.
"Anyway. What were you saying, Sam? Before messy guts over here spilled?"
"Yeah, sorry Sammy. What's up?"
"Huh? Oh, I don't know. It's gone now" he said with a shrug, not particularly caring. He stretched, a clear signal for everyone to get moving.
They gathered up their trash and dumped it in a near overflowing can piled high with plastic cups, wrinkled papers and food stained packages.
Walking alongside each other, they started their walk home, the bright lights of the boardwalk illuminating the street ahead.
They arrived home close to ten twenty and noticed Lucy, sat on a chair in the old conservatory. She was cuddled up under a blanket, holding a steaming cup and reading a book. Amidst a chorus of 'hey mom', she looked up and smiled widely and warmly.
"Hey guys, did you have fun?" she asked, putting her book down and looking them all over individually, quietly checking for damage or piercings.
"It was good, Mom," Sam said, sitting on a bench largely filled with potted plants and some gardening tools. Michael leaned against the door frame while Elizabeth took a damaged wicker chair underneath one of the kitchen windows. The night was pleasantly warm, a soft wind bringing nicely warmed air into the room.
"We played some games, walked around. There's a comic book shop!" he said the last part happily, "it was closed today but I thought we could check it out tomorrow?"
Michael grinned at his brother's eagerness, "Sorry we were late, we tried a different way home"
"Oh, that's OK. I wasn't going to send the search party until about ten thirty, so you're all safe" Lucy replied with a twinkle in her eye, "there's cocoa on the stove and grandpa made s'mores over the hob, he said to help yourselves"
The three siblings glanced at a barbecue set in the garden, just beyond the glass covered conservatory and wondered why their grandfather would make messy s'mores over the gas burners in the kitchen. They saw their mother's smile and knew she was thinking the same thing.
"Was your night good?" Elizabeth asked as Sam added an, "anything around?"
Michael watched her intently. He knew their money situation wasn't as stable as Lucy had assured Sam earlier at lunch. He knew they were close to being flat broke.
"No, nothing there. I spoke to some friendly people though," she took a sip of her drink and closed her book fully, "but they said I was a little late into the season to be hired. But, I got a few leads and bits of advice…" she smiled again, "so yes, it was a good night"
Sam and Elizabeth nodded and said they were glad, but Michael, with his dark eyes watched her quietly.
"Well. Time for bed soon, OK?" Lucy asked kindly and they all nodded. Sam asked if he could read for a bit, which was fine. They stood up, leaving the now darkened conservatory.
Lucy followed them into the house, bundling up the blanket and book as she did so. Michael carried her cup.
"I have to do some errands tomorrow but I was going to the boardwalk after dinner," Lucy said as Sam and Elizabeth started towards the stairs. Michael was heading towards the s'mores and cocoa, "let's go down together. I won't cramp you're style, don't worry" she kissed Sam on his head, repeating his comment from earlier in the day.
Assuring her that could never be the case and saying their goodnights, Sam and Elizabeth happily went their own way for the night.
"Honey?" Lucy said quietly, walking in to the kitchen and standing beside the table. Michael, was holding a charred s'more, "talk to me"
"Huh?" Michael feigned ignorance, not wanting to burden his mother.
"Oh sweetheart, this has been so difficult for you, you had to take on so many responsibilities…" Lucy began but Michael softly cut her off.
"I'm worried about you, Mom, I'm OK. Really.."
"Well so am I", Lucy replied walking to her eldest son and rubbing his arm firmly. Her son was under two years away from leaving his teens behind, he wasn't a hugger anymore, "I'm doing fine, Michael. Please, don't think about me. Have fun, enjoy all this time before school starts" she smiled again, "My son. I'm so proud of you"
They spoke quietly for a while, discussing the weird characters on the boardwalk and the fancy restaurants Lucy had visited. Four s'mores were eaten but the cocoa remained untouched. A wide yawn from Lucy prompted her to announce she was going to bed, bringing an end to their comfortable conversation. She lightly advised Michael to do the same and, wiping his hands on a tea towel, he had agreed. They said their goodnights to grandpa, who was reading the TV guide in his workroom, and headed up the stairs.
The night was quiet, the house still.