The Summer Solstice ~ Enchanted (8 page)

We are strolling our way across a walking bridge
that looks to be opening up to a beachfront. The shore sounds as if it’s taking
a beating since the wind has picked up.

“I’m sorry again – about your mom I mean.”
Alec looks at me, our shoulders side-by-side.

At first, I’m not sure how to answer him. It’s not
a conversation I’m used to having. “She kept a lot of secrets from me,” I say
quietly. “Rose has all of these photo albums and great stories of my mom, but
my mom wanted nothing to do with the Summers. It’s all just so confusing.”

Alec frowns. “Your mom never said anything? Not
even a clue as to why she kept them from you?”

I shake my head. There’s an uncomfortable sensation
in my chest, knowing that I’m telling Alec too much. I barely know him. But
he’s been the only person besides Rose and Charlotte that I have to talk to.
Iris and Ava weren’t going to be asking me to join them at sleepovers any time
soon.

I touch the heart locket I wear around my neck. “My
mom gave me this.” I hold out the necklace so he can see it. “It was a week
before she died. She took me to the mall and we picked it out. She said she
wanted me to have something that always kept her close to my heart.”

The story troubles me now because it’s the first
time I’ve thought about the coincidence of my mom passing so soon after her
gift.

Alec must sense my heartbreak because he wraps a
comforting arm around my shoulders and squeezes. “That’s a great story. You’ll
never forget her, Kat. And she’ll always be looking over you. She must have
known that you’d end up here if anything happened to her.”

I nod my head, fighting back tears. “I think so
too.”

Silence fills the dimming night’s air as we walk
along the Coast, his arms still wrapping me like a blanket.

We’re standing in front of Summer Estate’s back
entrance now, facing each other. “I had fun today. Thanks for asking me to join
in.”

Alec shakes his head. “No. Thank you for being on
my team. You picked pool up quite well.”

I grin, happy that he is impressed. “Well I should
go.” I hesitate to walk away, unsure of when I’ll see him again.

“Do you run?” He asks me.

I nod and tilt my head. “Why?”

“I’m looking for a running partner. It’s more
motivating,” he grins. “Would you want to run with me? I like to go after
dark.”

My heartbeat quickens. “Okay.”

“Tomorrow?” He asks, a hopeful look in his eyes.

I smile and nod, not trusting myself to answer.
Oh,
Alec Stone. Who are you and what have you done to me?

The restaurant conversation between Alec, Iris, and
Ava weighs on my mind the next morning. But I’m not sure what disturbs me more
– the conversation between my peers, or the fact that I could hear every
word.

There were only two scenarios that I could come up
with – two of which made sense anyway. One, my hearing has improved
greatly – so great that I could hear over all other voices in the
restaurant. Two, I’m going crazy and made the entire thing up in my mind. I
vote for the latter. But could I have really created an entire conversation in
my head? My mom’s death has been hard on me. There have been a lot of changes
in my life in just the past three months, let alone two weeks. There.
Justified.

Exhausted from a restless sleep, I have a hard time
eating my breakfast. Rose sits there long after she’s finished her meal,
staring at me. She waits until I have eaten a good portion of my eggs before
speaking.

“How was your shopping trip yesterday?”

“Good. Thank you for my things. I can repay you. I
was considering what you said about finding a job. I think it would be good for
me.”

“Don’t be foolish. You don’t need to repay me.”
Rose’s harsh voice causes my fork to slip from my hand and land on the
porcelain with a clank.

Confused, I look up at her. “Okay, but I’d still
like to get a job.”

Rose nods. “I appreciate that, Katrina.” She sighs,
which confuses me deeply. I wait
for her to continue. “But we have plenty of money. In fact, Charlotte will take
you to the bank this week to open your checking account.”

“Rose, I know you have the money but I would really
like to do what I can for myself. This is all so new to me. And I don’t want to
lose sight of who I am because I’ve suddenly come to live with my rich
grandmother.” I close my eyes tightly, knowing that I need to rephrase. “I’m
sorry, Rose. You are being so generous, but I need to be comfortable.”

“You
are
stubborn like your
mother. You know, her and I had this exact same argument.”

I raise my eyebrows, interested. “Really? When she
came to live here?”

Rose has a look of amusement on her face. “Not
exactly. When she first arrived it was a temporary situation until we found
where she came from. But the story with finding her parents became complicated.
After a few months of us caring for her, we decided to make it official and
offer her a permanent home. She accepted of course. We had become a family. But
she made a point of not trying to spend family money outside of this house.”

I am proud in this acknowledgement and smile. “I
must get it from her.”

Rose nods. “Yes, I suppose you do.” Then she
shrugs. “If it’s a job that you want, if it will make you feel good, then let’s
go job hunting.”

“” the Island Grille, I got an application
yesterday.” I wait for her to get upset but she doesn’t.

“Okay. But just request something part time. You will
be busy soon with – other things. I don’t want a job taking you away from
that stuff.” She’s swats an invisible fly. “You will understand when the time
comes.”

I still don’t understand what the deal is.
Everything that comes out of her mouth tells me that nothing is supposed to
make sense right now, but it will. “Okay, fine.” I groan. “When will any of this make
sense?”

“What do you mean?” She tilts her head in her own
confusion.

“I mean everything! You tell me I will soon
understand this and that and I just want it all to make sense now. What are you
waiting for?”

Rose narrows her eyes in my direction. “You must
practice patience dear. I only tell
you to wait because I want you to learn on your own. I will not spoon-feed you
everything. But I understand your frustration so here is what I can tell you.
There is a circle of life before you and it all begins on the day of your 16
^th
birthday.”

“The Summer Solstice.” I say this matter-of-factly.

Rose smiles and nods. “Yes dear, at least you’ve
been paying attention.”

I shake my head. “Attention to what? What is the
big deal with the Summer Solstice? And what are all these secrets about?
Wiccans are associated with the Summer Solstice. So, are you a Wiccan?”

Her eyes now glare, her nose flares and her voice
raises a few decimals. “Absolutely not! Where would you get an idea like that?”

I sigh, frustrated with myself for giving
everything away in this moment. “All this talk of the Solstice and Ancient
Greek rituals and the big deal you are making about my 16th birthday –
I’m just trying to put it all together. I went to the bookstore and bought some
books on the Solstice, you know, to understand it all. But when I was leaving
the store someone saw the books and asked me if I practiced Wicca. They thought
I was a witch!”

Rose takes a few seconds to answer. She seems to be
settling down after hearing my words. “I’m sorry about that dear. It is all
connected in a way but not in the way you think.” She stands up from the table.
“There’s something I need to show you.”

“Again?” I complain.”

“It won’t take long. And this, I think you will
appreciate. I was going to wait until after your 16
^th
birthday but I
think you are ready.”

She walks around the table and out to the great
room. I follow her, reluctantly. She passes the great room and at first, I
think she’s going to the den, but this time she turns right before the den and
down a wooden staircase. At the bottom of the stairs is a single door. It opens
into a bigger, circular-shaped room that is bursting with light.

There are sizeable rounded windows in one section
of the room that face the Bay, but the rest of the walls are wood paneled.
Books line the stretch of walls, winding around me. Each of the three floors of
books is separated by a small set of stairs. The dome ceiling made strictly
from glass. The morning sunlight shines down bright on us. I inhale and exhale
deeply.

There is a large cream area rug in the center of
the room. Above the rug sits a plush crimson loveseat adjacent to a matching
oversized chair.

“This is the Summer Library. Your grandfather was
far more into it than I was but I haven’t touched a thing.” She watches my face
for a second before continuing. “You’ll find more information here than any
bookstore.”

I turn in a circle, taking one final gaze around me
before answering. “Okay.”

Rose steps forward, fingering the row of books in
front of her. “Most of the books in here are first editions. Some books are
just for entertainment, but most of them have been passed down from our
ancestors. Some are even handwritten and well preserved. Any information you
seek on the Solstice will be here. And you’ll understand why your birthday is a
special day.”

I breathe out, still unbelieving. “This is
amazing.”

Rose makes an appreciative noise. “Well, I’m glad
you like it. I hope you’ll spend time here. It has only seen dust since your
grandfather passed.”

I nod my head. “Thank you.”

“I’ll leave you to it.”

“Wait!” I stop her before she exits. I have one
more question. She pauses in the doorway. “Why do people connect the Solstice
to Wicca?”

Rose doesn’t answer me right away. “Well, dear.
Wiccans have similar beliefs as us. They practice the art of magic and worship
the earth, gods and goddesses. They sacrifice things in order to stay holy to
their gods. Our family – well, we merely come from that magic. We don’t
practice
any art. We simply
are
that art.”

My eyes glare at her, unappreciative of her joke.
“The art of magic?”

“Have fun exploring, dear. I think I’ll take my nap
now. Let Charlotte know when you’re done and she can take you out if you’d like
to go somewhere.”

“Wait –.” I call to her now. Perhaps it’s the
desperation in my tone but she stops in her tracks and turns to me.

“What is it, dear?”

The conversation at the restaurant has come back to
haunt me in a dream the night before and I know Rose might have answers for me.
I tell her the story of Alec’s conversation with Ava and Iris. Rose doesn’t give
much away as I tell her the story but when I’ve finished she takes a seat
across from me and crosses her ankles.

I watch as she settles in, eyes – everywhere
but on mine. I wait patiently, wondering what is playing in her mind now.

Finally, she speaks. “I wouldn’t think too much
about the fact that you were able to hear them. I would just chalk that up to
great genes.” It sounds as if she’s teasing me, but her smile tells me
different. “As for the conversation you overheard,” Rose continues. “I guess I
should tell you. There are – many politics that come with running a town
of this size. We’re not the smallest town, but it’s small enough for certain
folks to feel a sense of privilege if they’ve lived here long enough. Most of
us in the community agree with the laws we’ve set, and they want me as their
leader. But there are some that don’t agree and think that they can run this
place much better than I can.”

As Rose speaks I can see a sadness in her eyes.
“What rules?”

Rose sighs. “Business owners around here want to
rip down trees and bulldoze historical landmarks in order to build McDonalds
and Wal-Marts. They want to promote the Community Center as a tourism spot. The
majority of us deny the right to own any business in this town unless it is
locally built and run. It’s just our way of preserving what – to us
– is
unique
.” Unique plays oddly in her tone, as if she really
meant to say something else.

“So Iris and Ava’s parents don’t agree with
preserving the community.”

“To say the least,” Rose says dryly.

She stands, signaling
that my time is up. She leaves before I can get any more questions out.
Why
does she have to be so mysterious?
I look around the three-storied room of
wonderment and grin. I have a lot of reading to do.

Rose and Charlotte are both aware of my new nightly
run schedule – although I may have left out the part about Alec. It’s the
first night of my planned run with Alec and I don’t want to take any chance
that they will say no.

Rose is just happy that I’m wearing new clothes.
She compliments my black running shorts and hot pink tank top that Charlotte
chose for me then turns in for the night. Charlotte stays up to clean but she
is adamant that I leave her to do it alone.

Alec and I meet in front of his house. He greets me
with bright and challenging eyes. “Alright, let’s see if you’re as good at
running as you are at pool.”

I laugh, knowing I can hold my own. We stretch
before taking off into the night. I follow Alec’s pace as we start with a light
jog down along the coast. As our jog speeds into a run, a smile spreads across
my face. There’s something about the night breeze along the coast that
energizes every bone in my body and brings buoyancy to each advance.

I keep up with Alec as we run side-by-side. He
takes me down past the private beach and out into the community streets. We run
under the buzzing streetlamps along the sidewalks of the stunning homes.

My thigh and calf muscles tighten and release with
each stride. I am stronger with each second that passes. Usually at this point
in my runs I start to get tired but it’s as if I could go for miles.

Alec takes us in and out of the small intercostal
neighborhoods outside of ours and I’m suddenly curious to see a map of Apollo
Beach. It’s as if we’re making a star in our path.

Alec doesn’t begin to slow down until we are back
on our community beach. I slow down with him and look at him for the first time
since the beginning of our run. He’s sweating and breathing heavily. I assume I
should be just as tired – but I want to keep running.

Dejected, I slow to a walk with him. He’s looking
at me now. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I make a face, twisting my lips into a hesitant
smile, my eyebrows raised. “I guess I just have a lot of energy tonight?”

Alec shakes his head. “We just ran five miles and
you haven’t even broken a sweat.”

I laugh. “I’ve been running a lot.”

“You are superhuman woman. Come on.”

He pulls me towards the shore and kicks off his
shoes. His brief touch on my hand leaves goose bumps all over my body. He
slides his shirt off his back and it lands in the sand. I turn my eyes away
quickly once I realize I’m staring. I peek up at him now, trying not to look
directly at his toned chest and abdominal muscles. I slide my shoes and socks
off and meet him down at the shore.

Half of Alec’s body is under the water now and I go
to meet him. He splashes me gently, his eyes never leaving mine. I laugh and
cup my hands in the water in retaliation. But before I can release the water
and splash him back, there’s a hungry rumble in the sky.

We look up just as a bolt of lightning strikes in
the distance and a shower of rain pours down on us. As if reading each other’s
mind, we take off for the shore and stumble our way out. Alec runs ahead and
scrambles to grab our things. We trip along the shore’s edge to our homes. The
sound of our laughter is barely audible over the tropical storm that pours down
on us. His hair is sopping wet, rain dripping down onto his face. I want to
reach out to him and wipe the drops away but I restrain myself. “Thanks for the
run,” I shout. The wind whips my hair around my head.