"Hey, Sammy, would you grab me an ice-cream?" Michael asked huskily from his space in the shade.
He had rented a huge, stripy beach umbrella and had pretty much claimed the space as his own, spreading out and sleeping comfortably in the warm sand. He had driven down to the beach on his bike, arriving before Elizabeth and Sam and securing a space on the fairly crowded stretch of beach. That's where they found him, snoring deeply under the umbrella. Sammy had protested but, Elizabeth had reasoned, since Mike did the leg work, the renting and the setup he was kind of entitled to use the space.
In the face of such a reasonable argument, Sammy had relented and allowed Michael to nap largely undisturbed.
He wanted a tan, anyway.
Lucy had made them a giant vegetable bake with cheese crust and homemade mashed potato for lunch, musing as only a mother can about how they weren't eating right since the move. She told everyone to have fun when they left, just after two thirty, assuring them that she was fine to wash up. She had smiled happily and secretly when Elizabeth had whispered to have fun and enjoy her night.
Typical boys, neither Sam or Michael had picked up on the hidden meaning.
"Ice-cream? Well wow! Sure Mikey! Sure thing!" Sam said loudly and with enthusiasm, "Do you want strawberry? Vanilla? Lemon sorbet? Choco? Choco-mint? Double chocolate? Cherry? Triple chocolate? Neapolitan? Strawberry? Vanilla? Choco? Cherry? Tri-"
Michael sloppily threw an inflatable ball at his younger brother's head. It bounced off with a light pinging noise.
It came with the umbrella rental but had pretty much gone unused until being weaponized.
"Why are you so obnoxious?" Michael asked with a light, sleepy groan.
"'Cause I'm not your slave, bud" was the simple reply.
"Choco-mint" Michael said easily, laying his head back into the sand once more.
"One choco-mint coming up, never" Sam said with the peppiness of an eager to please waiter before standing and jogging to join Elizabeth in the water.
She'd been paddling and swimming happily for a while.
Michael was sleeping again.
"Look what Mike gave me" he grinned, waist deep in the water as he held up the ball, "wanna play?"
The two played catch for a while, laughing and flinching when the ball splashed sea water in the faces. The beach had such a nice atmosphere, with families and friends enjoying the soft sand and smooth sea. The beach itself was scattered with umbrellas, with inflatable dolphins and rubber rings, sun loungers and huge towels. There were even some vendors selling food on the sand itself.
Michael had briefly awoken to wolf down a hamburger earlier, purchased from a cart that had been pushed with apparent difficulty through the bright sand. Sammy and Elizabeth were still pretty stuffed from lunch but Michael had barely chewed when he ate the juicy burger.
"You know, all he's doing is sleeping" Sammy announced when their game ground down to a halt and they moved to sit in the shallow water at the shore, the ball bobbing lightly between them.
Elizabeth stumbled in a dip, "who? Michael?"
"The Pope" Sam said with heavy sarcasm.
"Eh, he's tired, I guess" Elizabeth said with an easy shrug, ignoring his sarcastic reply, "and he did wake up to inhale that burger"
Truthfully, she thought he seemed OK. Not as hungover as the day before. He was just tired and he wasn't particularly grumpy.
She didn't see a problem.
"We've been here three hours and he hasn't even touched the water. Anyway I should be the tired one" Sam replied, stretching and maneuvering the ball to act as a back rest. It wobbled dangerously under his weight. He lowered his body a little, arms out to the side as he found his balance, "I wasn't joking when I told you he spoke for hours with the stuffing guy-"
"Fellow taxidermist?" Elizabeth corrected with a teasing grin.
"Let's not beat around the bush here"
"OK. Stuffing guy. Come on, it can't have been that bad..." Elizabeth tried but she had absolutely no desire to spend hours with Grandpa buying chemicals.
"When I was there, I imagined I was in a morgue. Like..I just knew that what it smelled like-"
Elizabeth grimaced.
"-and I made the mistake of telling Grandpa...so now I know, in great and particular detail, Elizabeth Emerson, the distinct differences between embalming and taxidermy"
"There's a difference?"
"Yes. A big one. Many, many big ones"
Sam looked pointedly at her and she laughed awkwardly, "OK. I..yeah. I recant, I'm sorry. I take it back, that does sound pretty bad"
"The stuffing shop really was bad, words are never going to be enough. I swear half of those chemicals must be illegal" Sam assured in his usual, over exaggerated way, "but OK...if I'm being totally honest, it was kinda fun to spend time with Grandpa. He's a cool guy, when he's not being crazy and-"
A shadow fell over them and they both glanced behind as an empty looking woman lowered an A4 piece of paper to their eye level. They glanced at it: a missing poster. In bold red letters, 'have you seen this man?' stood out. The man looked very vaguely familiar to Elizabeth, something about the face...but she couldn't place it. Elizabeth and Sam silently shook their heads, feeling the woman's sadness wash over them. She moved away without a word, on to the next group of people.
"Damn" Sam said quietly, "murder capital of the world…"
"Yeah…" she sighed a little and stood up, water dripping from her hair and body, "let's dry off. I'm all pruny" they hadn't brought towels, there was an unspoken agreement that they would be staying into the night and none of them wanted to lug beach bags around during the evening.
They both showered off the seawater in an open shower area and went to a small food spot on the edge of the beach. It was filled with other wet people enjoying a snack break.
They bought shaved ice before settling down on the hot, white plastic chairs to dry off.
"We are going to the comic book store, right?" Sam asked, awkwardly spooning some bright blue shaved ice into his mouth, "I wanna have a proper look"
"Use the straw!" she told him, sipping hers neatly.
She looked around at the various patrons, scanning the length of the beach as she did.
No sign of Dwayne or the boys.
"Yeah yeah yeah" he muttered, still spooning it.
It only took them half an hour to dry off under the glare of the sunlight and, when they walked back to Michael, the crowds on the beach were already splintering. Families were packing up their chairs and ice boxes and children whereas young couples and groups stayed on the beach, happily nested in their spots. Some were starting to collect firewood. Music starting to get louder at the boardwalk and Elizabeth smiled.
Michael was awake now, sat under the umbrella with his sunglasses and leather jacket waiting by his side. He threw sand at Sammy when a joking comment was made about his style but seemed to be in a good mood.
"So, we checking out this comic shop or what?" Michael asked as Elizabeth slipped on her sundress behind him. She brushed out her hair with a little difficulty, the sea salt had made the ends tangled but after a few run throughs with her fold able brush, which strained a great deal, her hair was knot free. She slipped on some lip balm.
"Yeah, come on. Liz! You look fine, put the mascara away. You don't even have a mirror…"
She sighed and plopped her small mascara back into her bag, Sam was right, she'd probably mess it up without a mirror.
Why hadn't she brought one?
She glanced down the beach again, eyes scanning the groups of people, putting the brush and balm back into her bag.
After slipping the denim shirt back around her waist and picking up her small bag, the three set off, trudging up the sandy stairs leading to the boardwalk.
They passed a screaming child, his face red and scrunched up painfully tight as he wailed that he wanted to play on the "spinny cups". He was fighting his tired looking mother with all his might and Sam pulled a face as he edged past them.
"Hey, you're wearing that stupid poncho?" Michael poked his brother as they made their way beyond the rides and towards the vast array of brightly lit shops.
"This is fashion" Sammy assured, flicking his brother's finger away.
"So's my jacket"
A scoff.
A scuffle.
"You two are terrible!" Elizabeth told her grinning brothers as she stopped in front of the comic book shop. It looked a bit dingy inside and tired on the outside. All the other shops seemed to add a multitude of neon lights and flashing bulbs to their exterior, probably in an attempt to rival the boardwalks own glittering appeal but the comic book shop didn't.
It wasn't neglected or sad but it looked different..unloved.
She looked up at the sky, the sun was already on its way to setting. They were lucky they decided to get out and dry off when they did, she mused, brushing her hair off her shoulders.
A mechanical clown jiggled and laughed with great joy as someone exited the shop.
It didn't look to be particularly busy inside.
Sam was glancing at the titles on the shelves and display boxes outside but sighed in disappointment, "this is their bargain crap. I hope they keep the good ones inside.." he picked up a title, "and that they restocked since last time"
"You're such a comic snob!" Michael told him, watching as Sammy walked into the shop without bothering to reply.
"Ohh cool man" Michael nodded with a grin, "ok, ok..."
Elizabeth knew that Sam had won that round.
"He's been here before, don't know what he expects to have changed" Elizabeth shrugged a little, eyeing the clown again, watching as its red and white polka dot dress shook with its mechanized laughter.
"Your hair looks nice" Michael told Elizabeth by way of reply, looking at her and seemingly noticing for the first time.
"Why?" she asked with furrowed brows, not trusting him.
"It's like…a bit wavy or whatever?" he replied with an easy shrug, following his brother into the empty shop.
"Tousled, Mike. Tousled" she told him, sighing at his limited vocabulary. That's why she liked to have girl time with her mom..but she was grateful for the compliment anyway. They were few and far between from him. It was usually Sammy, the fashionable one, who bestowed the occasional compliment upon her. She touched a strand of her hair and smiled lightly, she guessed the sea salt did it.
She glanced behind her, eyeing the crowd, fighting back a sign of disappointment she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
Sam was already deep inside the shop, glancing at titles and walking the aisle like a comic king. Elizabeth smiled. He almost strutted along the aisles. She walked over to her older brother who was scanning some titles intensely.
"I don't get the appeal.." she murmured to him.
He ignored her, still staring at the array before him.
Just as she began to heave a bored sigh, he nudged her, smirking.
She looked and-"Oh" she blinked a few times as she stared at a ridiculously busty brunette damsel who was trapped in…tentacles? Her skirt was ripped up to almost underwear level - not that it looked like she was wearing any - and hardened nipples peaked out of her ripped bra.
Michael picked up another title, this one with an equally busty blonde trapped seductively in an hour glass, some villain staring in the distance. He grinned and cringed at the same time before whispering, "Is this why Sammy likes comics so much?"
She laughed, putting her hand over her mouth, "she doesn't look particularly worried..."
She reached for a title too, this one with another busty woman...a busty green alien woman. She had three huge breasts, straining under a silver bodysuit.
"I sense a theme" she laughed quietly to Mike, who had taken the magazine from her and began reading the back, "'it's the year 3035 and the galactic MegaHotties have come to take over the earth-'" he couldn't keep his deep, announcer voice and cracked up a little, "God this is terrible Liz, 'and'…hahaha…'and make the males their..slaves'" they were both giggling lowly at the ridiculousness of it all when Sam approached them.
He was flanked by two serious, scowling boys wearing different types of camouflage.
"Nice, guys. Real mature" Sam said with a shake of his head.
Michael put the comic back hastily and Elizabeth bit her lip.
"Sorry" they both muttered.
Sam sighed like a disappointed grandmother, "I'd like to introduce you to Edgar and Alan Frog" he gestured to the two boys beside him and Elizabeth didn't quite catch which one was which.
They grunted in greeting.
"Oh cool, so this is your shop?" Elizabeth asked them.
"Our parents' shop" one of them corrected, wearing a red headband to keep his wavy hair off his face, "We work here, help them out"
"That's nice" Michael said with a nod.
It was dark outside and he had pushed his sunglasses up off his face and into his hair.
Both Elizabeth and Michael looked towards the checkout where two adults wearing oddly distinctive hippy clothes were passed completely out, leaning against each other and the wall. The male looked like he was drooling and Elizabeth thought she understood why the shop looked so unloved compared to the others.
"Anyway, the Frog brothers and I were gonna hang out for a little bit" Sam told them, a look on his face daring either of his siblings to make fun of him.
"Oh so-"
"I'll meet you at home" Sam said easily, his eyes again daring them to embarrass him.
Elizabeth hit Michael with a subtle but hard jab as he opened his mouth.
"That's great! What are you guys gonna do?" she asked with a smile.
Blank faces from the Frog Brothers, "hang out" they replied in unison.
"OK" Elizabeth replied with a smile, stepping back.
Jesus.
But, she thought, when you're in a new town and haven't got friends, beggars can't be choosers.
"So we'll see you at home?" she confirmed as Sam nodded.
"Yeah. Have fun" he told them with a smile, standing alongside his new friends.
His eyes were telling them: go away.
"Uh OK. So see you at home" Michael said, a little taken aback by how fast Sam had ditched them.
How the tables have turned, he thought.
"They're kinda slow, huh?" one of the brothers whispered loudly to Sam, watching as Michael and Elizabeth stepped out and into the darkness and now glittering lights of the boardwalk.
"They're not so bad but yeah, my brother? Slower than a turtle—"