September
On the morning
of the Wedding James decided to escape the madness surrounding his family and
go for a long walk, so he left the hotel early, it was bright and sunny when he
left, but it had rained heavily in the night and there was more in the
forecast, so he took an umbrella with him just in case.
There was a
road across from the Hotel called Halfway Lane which dissected the heavily
wooded centre of the island with High Lake Copse on the left and Bellevue Woods
on the right.
He was about
thirty minutes into his walk and was approaching the crags when two things
happened, firstly the skies darkened, and secondly a young woman in a summer
dress stepped into the Lane about ten yards ahead of him, and she really caught
his eye, the wiggle of her hips, the swirl of her skirts and he had just begun
to admire her legs when the heavens opened.
He immediately
deployed the umbrella and as the girl ahead of him was improperly dressed for
the conditions the code of gallantry dictated that he comes to her aid, so he
jogged towards her.
“Here under
here” he called
“Oh thanks,
that came from nowhere” she said
“And it’s
brutal too” he added and then she looked up for the first time
“Oh hello, its
James, isn’t it?”
“Hi Ava, what
are you doing here?” he asked
“Family
wedding, my sister Toni…”
“Is marrying my
cousin Liam” he continued
“That’s spooky”
she said and then there was a lightning flash and thunder rumbled very close
by, and she stiffened and squeezed in close to him and buried her face in his
shoulder
“Are you ok” he
asked
“Yes” came a
muffled response “I don’t like thunder”
“But thunder
won’t hurt you” he said and chuckled
“Don’t laugh”
she said laughing herself “thunder frightens me”
“Come on wimpy
I’ll walk you home” he said, “Where are you staying anyway?”
“The Beaumont
Manor”
“Me too”
The rain had
virtually stopped by the time they reached the hotel, but he kept the umbrella
up in order to keep her close but inevitably they reached their destination.
“Thanks” Ava
said “I would have been soaked to the skin if you hadn’t been on hand”
“My pleasure”
he said as he shook his umbrella dry
“I’ll see you
later at the wedding” she said and smiled before she went inside.
The wedding was
a nice affair, and the wedding Gods were kind enough to restrict the rain to
when it didn’t matter but they were not as kind to James who was frustrated at
every turn in his efforts to get close to Ava again, that was until he managed
to get one dance with her.
“How long are
staying here?” he asked as they danced along to the strains of Harry Nilsson’s
“Without You”
“We’re here
until Monday”
“Come sailing
with me tomorrow then” he suggested “we can have a picnic out on the Roman
Lake”
“Ok, that would
be nice”
They had the
lake to themselves, and they spent about an hour sailing and then he lowered
the sail in the middle of the lake, and they started their picnic, with James
sat in the stern and Ava midships.
They sat and
chatted, ate sandwiches, drank beer and laughed until the skies began to darken
and the far away rumbles of thunder wiped the smile off her face.
“Don’t worry,
you’re safe” he said, and the smile returned but then large raindrops began to
fall
“Oh no! Our
picnic” she exclaimed
“Don’t panic”
he said and reached under his seat and retrieved an umbrella
“My hero” she
said and moved to the stern to sit beside him and they sat and chatted, ate
sandwiches, drank beer and laughed as the rain fell around them, and then when
the picnic was done, they kissed, and she was so totally absorbed by it that
she wasn’t even aware of the thunder rumbling overhead.
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