A Thousand Salt Kisses (Book 1 of Salt Kiss series)

><> Chapter Thirty <><

Starfish Island baked in the midday sun. Nobody here would know of the ferocious storm in St Agatha the night before, were it not on the front page of every local paper. I had walked away from the corner shop hastily, as soon as I saw the headlines, cutting down a narrow little alley.

Now I pressed my nose against another shop window and let my eyes travel over the ornaments in the display.

I had never seen this little place before and had never imagined such a shop could exist on Starfish. Surely there couldn't be a demand for antiques on the island to keep it going all year round, I mused. My eyes stopped on the figurine of a mermaid. She was perched on a rock and smiling while running a comb through her hair. I sighed and looked away.

I had ventured across the island with Maurice as I couldn't bear to be in the house a moment longer. I could not even find the words to describe the tension. It was just so horrible, and I couldn't believe this was all happening to my perfect loving parents.

Just after we discovered Mum and Mr Geake, she had been taken to the hospital in one of the ambulances for a check-up. Dad accompanied her ever-faithfully, but they were both completely silent for most of the journey and for the four hours that we waited in A&E. I think they were both in shock.

This morning they were both still pretty mute, and I had had to make awkward conversation at the breakfast table; something that I had never had to do in my entire seventeen years.

Mum had then rested in the conservatory with a newspaper as she had been given two weeks off to recover.

Maybe this week they would finally get to spend some time together, and realize how much they love each other, I thought hopefully as Maurice and I wondered aimlessly down another back street.

I looked at my watch and realized that I had somehow managed to kill about three hours dawdling around the island.

I was near Rosie's house, so I stopped by. I had initially wanted someone to talk to but Jemima was there, and the two of them were in high spirits, lounging about in the garden laughing and drinking tea.

I joined them for a cup but opted out of going into my problems, as I didn't want to ruin their fun. Instead, I listened to them compare Will and Allan and tried to laugh at the right places. Will snored, Allan didn't I learned as I sat in the deck chair feigning interest.

"Are you seeing anyone Crystal?" asked Jemima, her grey eyes looking over at me inquisitively.

"Yeah, I guess," I said, hoping she did not pursue further detail.

Her eyes remained on me, prompting me to provide more information.

"Um, well, he's a really interesting guy. He's from, you know, another island," I stuttered, desperately thinking of how I could change the subject. I decided to pretend to be distracted by Maurice. "Hey Moz, don't dig over there!"

Maurice, who was sitting docilely under a tree behind the girls, looked up confused.

"Huh?" said Jemima, her eyes darted to Rosie. "Another island?"

"Yes," said Rosie brightly. "There are other islands about, you know."

"Where? I've never heard of any," replied Jemima. "Certainly not one that anybody lives on, and my Dad's a Search and Rescue pilot..."

This triggered another topic of conversation that I did not wish to discuss. I closed my eyes.

"He was out in that storm last night, rescuing that boat!" Jemima exclaimed. "He said he's never seen such a vicious, concentrated storm in his entire career. The ship literally fell apart, can you imagine being on that thing."