Alphabet Soup

by Crinklybrownleaves

This is an A to Z of tiny stories and drabbles, all too short to stand alone. Involving lots of Dr Blake characters, but most will have Lucien and / or Jean in (well, what else would you expect from me!). All different times and moods, the only thing that holds them together is that there is one for each letter of the alphabet.

5. Evening

Sitting in the car and facing out across the water, Lucien wondered why it had taken him so long to come home. He didn't have many happy memories of his father, but this was one; their own secret spot by Lake Wendouree, tranquil and beautiful. He had loved his father blindly then, with no doubts or resentments, in the years before his mother's death. For Lucien this place was the joy of childhood, a place where he was free to be happy.

He had brought Mei Lin to the lake, trying to show her what it was about his home town that kept him there. She hadn't quite understood. She could see the beauty of the rippling water and the reeds, but it didn't stir her soul. Perhaps you had to grow up in Ballarat to understand.

Now, as the sun started to set over the distant water, the pink sky bathed them both in a warm light, and he turned to speak to Jean, but when he saw her face he kept silent, watching her for a moment. She seemed captivated by the changing colours of the sky, and by the black swans disappearing into the darkening shadows. She must have sensed his eyes on her, because she reached out and took his hand.

"Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?" she asked him, still not turning to him.

"Never," he replied, but he was no longer looking at the view.