Authors: Gill Arbuthnott
JUST ABOUT 2 LEAVE.
C U THIS AFTERNOON?
Josh watched the envelope icon sail across the screen as he pressed
Send
. He was looking forward to seeing Callie again, of course, but to his surprise he was getting slightly nervous. What if they had nothing to say to each other face to face? Facebook wasn’t the same as spending actual time with someone.
He looked at the pile of bags and boxes in the hall and took his headphones out.
“You don’t mean
all
this, do you?” he shouted to his mother, Anna, who was filling yet another bag in the kitchen.
“Yes. It’ll all fit in if we pack the boot carefully.”
“I didn’t realise we were going for three months.” Josh poked around in a couple of the bags. Blankets. Why was she packing blankets? It was shaping up to be the warmest summer for years and she was taking
blankets
?
“Are we still going to Pitmillie, or did you change the booking to Iceland and forget to tell me?”
Anna emerged from the kitchen with a bag in one hand and a list in the other.
“Ha ha. I’m not taking anything for granted after last year. I’ve never been so cold in bed in my life as I was then.”
“But…”
“Never mind
But
. Just shove it all in the boot. Carefully.”
Sometimes there was no point arguing.
***
“So when do I get to meet this boy?” demanded Julia as she shoved a load of washing into the machine. “You’re being very secretive about him.”
Callie cringed at the tone of her mother’s voice.
“I’m not being secretive. And don’t do the ‘boyfriend voice’. He’s a friend who’s a boy. Not a boyfriend. I’ll see him in the next day or two, but you and Dad will probably be at work.”
“Hmmm. Well, if he’s here for two weeks you can surely invite him round at some point when your dad and I are here?”
“Maybe.”
“At least it’s someone your own age instead of you wasting your time with these mad old women.”
Bet you wouldn’t call them that to their faces
, Callie thought.
“You know you have to put all this nonsense out of your head, Callie. It’s unnatural, unhealthy. You’re
not
different from everybody else. If you’d just make a bit more of an effort to fit in you’d find it easier to make friends.”
Callie gritted her teeth. They’d been having this
argument over and over since Rose had started teaching her how to use her powers, and she knew that nothing she said would make any difference.
“I just want you to be happy,” Julia said.
“I know.”
Chutney Mary wound herself round Callie’s ankles in a show of solidarity. Sometimes Callie felt as though she had more in common with the cat than with her mother.
***
Anna turned the car into the drive that led to East Neuk Cottages.
“Have you arranged to see Callie yet?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’m meeting her in the village this afternoon – if we manage to get the car unloaded in time.”
“Don’t moan. You’ll be glad when you see all the food I brought. Remember trying to buy stuff at the village shop last year?”
She stopped the car in front of their cottage and went off to get the keys. Josh lounged against the bonnet, gazing at the enormous expanse of blue sky, and the duller metallic blue of the sea beyond it. They were far enough from the road to have lost the traffic noise, and apart from the sound of a tractor engine somewhere in the distance, there was only hot, blue silence.
It felt like the start of a proper holiday.
***
Two hours later, Josh set off to walk into the village. On the way he passed The Old Smithy, where George and Rose, Callie’s grandparents, lived. Callie lived near the beach.
Josh arrived in the square, where they’d arranged to meet, and sat on a bench to wait, watching the passers-by from behind his sunglasses. After five minutes he saw a girl walking towards him. She had short, spiky brown hair and wore cut-off denim shorts, a t-shirt that was far too big for her and flip-flops. It was a few seconds before he realised it was Callie. He’d been expecting jeans and wellies and a long brown braid like last summer.
She sat down beside him and smiled at the expression on his face.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hello. Wow. You look… different.”
She ruffled her hair. “Yeah. Well… Thought I’d try something new.”
“It’s… actually, it’s okay. It suits you.”
“Beach?” Callie jumped up, and looked Josh up and down as he got to his feet, taking in his board shorts and Superdry tee. “Your hair’s longer.”
He pushed it out of his eyes. “Mum’s always on at me to get it cut.”
“My mum’s on at me to grow mine again.”
Parents
. Josh and Callie grinned at each other, the ice broken, and began to meander down to the beach.
When they got there, they found the little car park above the dunes crowded with cars, and an ice-cream van parked at a precarious angle on the grass verge. They bought 99s then looked for a place away from
sticky, squabbling children on the sand. Josh gave a family with an Alsatian a wide berth and he and Callie settled themselves against a hummock of red rock.
“I’d forgotten you’re scared of dogs,” Callie teased.
“Not
scared
. Just… cautious. They’re all still wolves, I reckon, just waiting for their chance.”
Josh watched the waves running in.
“I’ve got a body board with me, but the waves aren’t really big enough,” he said.
“They will be when the wind goes round to the east. It’ll change in a couple of days. It’s really good then – cold, though, even when the weather’s like this.”
“Do you want to give it a go tomorrow?”
“It’ll be too calm. The next day should be better. We could go into St Andrews instead, or have you got plans?”
“No plans. It’s supposed to be a holiday, but Mum’s brought her laptop.”
“Another book?”
Josh nodded. “Some art thing she’s editing.” He wondered now why he’d been nervous of seeing Callie again. Shuffling himself away from the rock, he lay down with a groan of pleasure. “I love it when it’s hot. I’ll have to go and live in Spain or Greece or somewhere when I leave school.”
He squinted up at Callie. “Why did you cut your hair?”
She shrugged. “Fancied a change. And I thought I should give everyone at school something new to talk about.” She couldn’t quite keep the bleakness out of her voice.
“Ah. So you haven’t suddenly got interested in the
stupid stuff that everyone else likes and made loads of friends then?”
Callie snorted. “As if.” She twisted round to lie on her stomach, staring at Josh, who had his eyes closed. “If I was at school with you in Edinburgh, you’d think I was weird too. You wouldn’t talk to me.”
Josh opened his eyes and his mouth quickly, then stopped to think before he spoke, uncomfortably aware that there was some truth in what she had said.
“You’re right. I probably wouldn’t. Sorry. Back home – in school – I’d be one of the idiots who’s interested in stupid stuff, and tries to look cool. It’s just easier that way. Or at least, it’s hard to stop once you start.” He grimaced. “You probably wouldn’t want to speak to me there anyway. But I don’t have to worry about all that stuff here. I’m on holiday from trying to be cool. I can just be me, and you,” he smiled, “you’re always… you.”
“You’re not weird anyway,” he added hastily. “You just know weird stuff. You’re okay. And you fit here really well. You’re part of the place.” He shook his head, laughing at himself. “That sounds really stupid.”
Callie was staring at him intently.
“What?” he asked.
“What if I’m weirder than you think?” Her heart was beating faster as she said it, and she felt the familiar tingling in her palms. She tried to push it down, concentrating her gaze on a pile of seaweed nearby.
Josh raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
Callie saw a wisp of smoke rising from the seaweed and stared at the rock in front of her instead.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
***
In St Andrews the next morning there was a queue almost to the front door of Janetta’s Ice-cream Parlour, although it wasn’t even ten o’clock. Josh didn’t mind, though: it gave him just enough time to decide what flavours to have. Coffee. And raspberry. And a fudge finger stuck in the top.
He and Callie wandered past the cathedral ruins at ice-cream-licking speed.
“Oh no,” Callie said suddenly, coming to a halt.
“What?”
“The girl walking towards us, smiling. She hates me.”
“She looks friendly enough.”
“Trust me, she’s poison.”
“Hello, Callie,” said Evie, beaming. “How are you? Having a good summer?” Her eyes were fixed on Josh all the time she spoke. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your… friend?”
“Evie – Josh,” Callie said, with a marked lack of enthusiasm. “Well, we’d better be off.”
“I’m having a party next Friday. Why don’t you both come?”
“Sorry, I can’t,” said Callie without hesitation.
“Well then, Josh, why don’t you come on your own? Starts at eight. Callie knows the address.”
“Umm… thanks.”
“Must go. See you then, I hope. Your ice cream’s dripped down your top, Callie.”
Josh, watching Callie’s expression as she stared at Evie’s retreating back, half expected the other girl to spontaneously combust.
“Not one of your best mates, then?” he said.
“You could say that. She would have ignored me if you hadn’t been here. Never mind her. She’ll be off to have her nails permed or her hair massaged or something. What do
you
want to do?”
Josh shrugged. “Dunno. Don’t mind really, only not shops.”
“Not even the cake shop?” She flashed a smile.
“I’ll make an exception for that. Might leave it till a bit later, though.”
“We could go to the castle.”
“Okay.”
Callie led Josh down a narrow lane and as they emerged at the other end he saw the ruins of St Andrews Castle across the road, straight in front of him.
He started to cross, but Callie caught his arm.
“Just a minute.” She pulled him a few paces from the end of the lane. “Look.” She pointed at the ground.
Josh looked. She was pointing at a circular metal plate in the pavement just in front of someone’s front door, like a manhole cover, but peppered with small holes.
He looked at Callie questioningly.
“What? St Andrews’ most famous manhole cover?”
Callie smirked. “Just wait. It’ll make sense in a bit. Come on, let’s go in.”
Josh paused at the gate to read the notice about ticket prices and started to fish in his pocket for money, but Callie shook her head.
“You won’t need money.”
Puzzled, he followed her into the entrance building.
Behind the ticket desk stood an elderly lady, watching with a gimlet eye as two tourists picked up and put down one souvenir after another. She looked as though she was trying to will them to leave, Josh thought and, just as he did so, they both put down the tea towels they’d been admiring and went out of the door at the far side of the shop.
When Josh glanced back at the ticket lady he could have sworn the smile she wore was one of triumph, but it couldn’t be, of course.
“Hello, Bessie,” Callie said to her.
“Good morning, dear. How are you? And this must be Josh, I suppose?”
Callie nodded. “Josh, this is Bessie Dunlop. She’s a friend of Rose’s.”
“Hello. Nice to meet you,” said Josh automatically.
“Are you going in?” Bessie asked.
“Yes, please, Bessie. I’m showing Josh the sights and it must be at least two years since I’ve been round the place. Does Josh have to pay?”
Bessie made a tutting noise. “Of course not, since he’s with you. We can’t treat him like one of these pesky tourists. They get everywhere you know, Josh, cluttering the place up. It would be much quieter without them. Still, I suppose they keep me out of mischief.” She exchanged a glance with Callie that could only be described as conspiratorial, then looked round to check there were no inconvenient tourists bearing down on them. “Coast’s clear. In you go.”
“Thanks, Bessie. See you later.”
The castle was four sides of a ruin round a central
square of daisy-spotted grass, all perched right on the cliff edge.
Josh wandered round, reading the information boards to work out what the various crumbling walls had been.
“How old is it?” he asked Callie.
“I can’t remember when it was built, but it was destroyed in the sixteenth century.”
“By the English?”
“No, the French. Some tourists in Pitmillie asked George about it once and when he told them about the French destroying it, they asked him what sort of aircraft they’d used.”
Josh burst out laughing. “Seriously? In the sixteenth century?”
Callie nodded, grinning. “Some people just don’t get history properly.”
They looked over the cliff edge, trying to imagine what it must have been like to watch a fleet of ships come to destroy you.
“Come on,” said Callie, pulling him away, “I want to show you something.”
She led Josh to one corner of the ruin, where a flight of steps disappeared down through the grass and underground, for all the world like a giant rabbit hole.
“A dungeon?” he guessed.
Callie shook her head and stood aside to let him go first.
At the foot of the stairs was a tunnel bored into the solid rock, with a handrail on one side and lights cutting through the gloom at intervals. The roof was so low that Josh had to bend almost double.
“What
is
this place?” he asked as he shuffled along uncomfortably.
“Wait till you get to the ladder, then I’ll explain,” Callie said mystifyingly, creeping along behind him.
“I hope it’s not far,” Josh groaned as he bashed his head on the roof yet again a couple of minutes later, but just as he spoke, the top of a metal ladder came into view.
Josh climbed down the slippery treads and found, to his relief, that he could stand up properly at the bottom. He listened to water dripping from the roof as he waited for Callie to join him.