Avalon (2 page)

My mother rubbed her belly wishing in some way that she wasn’t pregnant again. If she wasn’t about to have another child she would have happily been banished to Earth to be with me. Of course there was a chance she could have been banished somewhere else in the galaxy, but she would have pulled strings, called in favours, but she was too far gone. Her unborn baby’s destined union had already been decided and she had a duty to see this child into Avalon and to allow him to follow his destiny; his union, as most Avaloneans do, as my mother herself had done. I for some reason was the exception. My mother was in the most difficult position of her life, like drowning in quicksand unable to see a way out.

I continued to stay in my mother’s embrace while I looked out the window at the perfect manicured green grass, the blue sky and the flowers beginning to bloom. Some were fully open and smiling under the sun. I remembered picking some flowers from the front garden, wrapping them in foil and presenting them to my mother. I looked at the houses on our large estate; some bigger than others. We owned a lovely modern home;
inside
it was decorated with white painted walls, covered in spectacular art that my parents had collected over the years. The stairs leading up to my bedroom were covered with my framed artwork, which my mother told me gave a childlike innocence and happiness to the space. I will miss my room, my comfortable single bed with pastel patchwork bedding; my many dolls scattered around. I will miss my whiteboard, where I happily draw for hours, and my desk with all my pens, pencils, paints and paper-art.

I thought about my friends and squeezed my eyes tight promising myself to remember their faces. I thought about my neighbours and how I would never see Mrs Bloomingdale again, the lovely old lady from next door, who had never had children, yet was a children’s author. Mrs Bloomingdale would babysit me from time to time and would always tell me the most amazing stories. And what about my mother’s superb cooking? I would never taste her signature specialty dish; homemade gnocchi in a rich tomato sauce with a secret ingredient.

Avalon is a safe place to live because of its rules, no crime would be tolerated. Everyone was expected to give something to their society. Avalon considered itself a type of modern thinking Utopian society; they believed their way was the right way, the only way.

“Holly, if it wasn’t for my condition, you know I would be trying my best to escape from here and come with you, don’t you?”

I nodded.
“Will I ever see you again, Mum?”

“Oh, Holly, I hope so.”

C
hapter Two

I woke up and looked around the room. It looked a lot like my bedroom at home but somehow I knew it wasn’t mine. I remembered nothing about my journey here, only getting on a boat. I rubbed my sleepy eyes then farrowed my brow in deep thought, trying to remember what happened before I got here. I remembered my father driving our small car to the seaside while my mother squeezed my hand tight in the back seat of the car. She looked out the window holding her tears back, and kept mumbling, “This is the right thing to do, the right decision.”

We got out of the vehicle and had a long family hug.

“We will be in contact with your guardians for the first month, Holly. We are allowed to learn about how you are settling in, but only for the first month, then all contact will end. It is the rule, but know you are always in our heart.”

“You mean I will never ever talk to you again?” I gulped.

“No, not for now; not until the rules change. I vow to lobby against this rule of separation, if it is the last thing I ever do.”

My father squeezed me so tight I thought I was going to burst, then kissed my cheeks many times. My mother held me tight against her swollen belly, annoyed she couldn’t get close enough.

“You must go now,” my mother said. “Be brave. Know that you are in our hearts and thoughts.”

I began to walk away up the ramp towards the ship. My mother was now embraced in my father’s arms biting down on her lip and breathing deeply to hold back the tears. I began to cry, even though I didn’t want to, consumed by the emotion of seeing my parents in so much distress.

A kind looking lady with smiling brown eyes and red hair pinned back into a bun, dressed
in
a uniform; a navy blue skirt and jacket, greeted me on board the ship and took my small suitcase containing a few of my favourite items and my medical file, then led me to a room with a single bed. She stored my suitcase neatly before giving me a drink which she waited for me to finish. She told me to lie down, relax and enjoy the journey because when I woke up I would be with my guardians on Earth.

Sleepily I asked, “How do I get from here to Earth?”

“Just the same way everyone travels to Earth. We sail down the sea until we reach Sudden and then we enter the Atlantic Ocean and sail to our destination.”

“Sudden?”

“Yes, Sudden is a type of water worm hole. When we get to Sudden we sail the ship carefully on top of the water. It looks like a funnel and we spin so fast we don’t even feel the drop to Earth.”

“Oh,” is all I could say. I yawned and curled my body up on my bed, shutting my eyes and falling into a deep, heavy sleep.

Where I found myself now was similar to my own bedroom on Avalon, but not quite the same. I realised I must be on Earth. I got up and walked around the room, touching the furniture, the toys, the wardrobe and then stood over by the window and looked into a garden with decking and a wooden round table and chairs. The area was fenced in dark brown wood and around the edges there was a border with flowers in bloom. The grass was as bright and vibrant as on Avalon. Looking up at the sky I noticed the first significant difference between Avalon and Earth; Avalon almost always displayed a bright blue sky and here, wherever on Earth I was, it was not perfect; there were more clouds than splendid blue.

I walked to the bedroom door and stuck my head out looking left to right. There was no one about but I could hear voices from downstairs. When I reached the stairs I took slow tip-toed steps, having not quite made up my mind about this place.

“Morning,” came the voice of a man at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m Stuart.”

“Hello,” I said without emotion. “I’m Holly.”

“Sara, Holly’s awake,” the man with dark brown hair, shouted out.

A woman appeared next to the man and beamed at me. “Hello, Holly. We are your guardians.”

“Hello,” I said again dully. I continued to walk carefully down the stairs, holding onto the banister as I did so.

“You must be hungry, come this way, I’ve made some pancakes for breakfast. And I know pancakes are your favourite, your mother told me so already.”

“She did.” I smiled for the first time. “When did you talk to her?”

“Oh, your mother has been in correspondence with me for quite some time. How else could I make your bedroom almost the same as the one you had on Avalon? Your mother wanted your transition to Earth to be as easy as possible. She has given me some recipes for your favourite food and told me everything about you. I must say I am really looking forward to having you here.” Sara said.

I looked Sara over noticing her brown shoulder length hair and her pleasant disposition. “Thank you.” I said.

“Come, come with me,” Sara said indicating for me to walk with her to the kitchen.

The contemporary white kitchen had cupboards and stainless steel fittings, along with a breakfast island strategically centred in the middle of the room. I perched up on the breakfast barstool and faced the island while my guardian put some oil and butter into a fry pan.

“So, Holly. You can call me Sara if you like. I do not intend to take the place of your mother. You can think of me as a friend of your mother’s, as an additional parent, someone who has both her and your interest at heart. When people ask you why you call me Sara, you can say because you live with your aunt.”

“And what about when they ask about where my parents are?”

“You can say they are no longer around. You don’t have to expand; people won’t probe you for further information, at least not in the beginning.”

“What will I say when they ask me for more information?”

“You can tell them your mother sent you away to live with me because she was unable to look after you. Tell them she was unwell and now she is not with you anymore.”

“I suppose saying it like that means it’s not a lie.”

“Exactly. Now, how do you like your pancakes? With syrup, Nutella or sugar and lemon?

“Syrup please.”

“Then syrup it is,” Sara said handing me a stack of four pancakes.

I wanted to be angry, to be rebellious about being sent to this hell-hole called Earth, forced to live with some random Avalonean guardians who would assume to be my parents. But I couldn’t. So far this hell-hole Earth, was not a hell-hole at all, and my new guardians were nothing but nice. My grudge seemed to lighten as the day went on, with Sara and Stuart showing me around the house and giving me time to shower and change into one of my new outfits, a pair of jeans, a plain long sleeve white top and a cute little fitted tweed jacket. I told Sara I liked my new wardrobe and she seemed pleased to have made me happy. I entered the living room displaying a big grey comfortable corner sofa with tons of inviting cushions sprawled all over it. The suite nearly devoured the whole room, but didn’t look out of place. I wanted to take a running jump and dive onto it, but restrained myself.

As if reading my mind Stuart said, “It’s pretty comfy looking, why don’t you take a big run and come and sit over here?”

I looked at Sara and then looked back at Stuart and took a running jump and landed flat on the sofa, laughing hard. “That was fun.”

“I bet it was. Listen, Holly. Everything in this house is yours as much as it is ours. You don’t have to ask to come and sit in here with us, you just do it.”

“OK,” I said sitting up and looking down at my hands.

“Right. Now that you’re washed and changed, let’s do something fun.”

My eyes lit up. “What shall we do?”

“Umm let’s see, we could go bowling,” Sara said.

“Bowling? What is that?”

“It’s a game, and it’s fun,” Sara said coming over to my seated position on the sofa, “Come on; let’s take a drive. I’ll show you where we live, where your new school is and how to bowl.”

My mum was right, this would be an adventure. I stood up and followed Sara outside.

Sara led me to the car, a strange looking item with wheels, very different to our hovercraft back on Avalon. I walked around the whole car, touching the surface with my hand, discovering this strange but interesting object for the first time. I looked inside.

“I like the cockpit,” I beamed.

“We don’t call it a cockpit on Earth. It’s called the driver’s seat and next to it is the passenger’s seat..”

“How does it work?”

“Exactly like a hovercraft but with wheels that touch the road.”

“Wow!”

“It’s different isn’t it?” Sara laughed. “I remember when I saw these Earth vehicles for the first time, I felt exactly like you.”

“Sara, how long have you been on Earth?”

“Well let me see, I’m thirty-six now, so I’ve been here for…. twenty-two years.”

“Wow, that is a long time.”

“I suppose it is for a twelve year old.”

I nodded.

“Come on hop in,” Sara said opening up the doors in one click. Stuart climbed in the driver’s side while Sara sat next to him in the passenger seat. I had the whole of the back to myself. “Are you comfortable back there?” Sara asked, craning her neck around.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Let’s go for a drive and show Holly where we live, Stuart. Holly we live in Warshire, Lanbridgshire.”

“Warshire?” I said with a scrunched up f
ace. “Warshire, Lanbridgshire. W
hat a weird name for a place.”

Stuart and Sara laughed at my revelation then Stuart announced, “We’re going to get on just fine.

I eagerly looked out the window at the streets as we navigated our way around Warshire. Some of the houses were huge, but some were small blocks of houses, flats, is how Sara had explained it to me. Sara and Stuart’s house was medium sized, with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, situated on an estate, where some of the house facades look the same. It was a comfortable size but smaller than my house in Avalon.

“What do you do?” I asked my guardians.

“I’m a school teacher,” Stuart said.

“I work as a graphic designer,” Sara finished. “Do you know what you want to do when you get older?”

“Not really. My dad’s a doctor and my mum’s a dentist. I might do something like that, but then again I might be a teacher, I like the idea of teaching. I like drawing too.”

“You might like graphic design then. I’ll show you my work sometime.” Sara said.

“I’d like that.”

The banter continued in the car as we drove down the highway. I was feeling relaxed around Sara and Stuart and they happily answered all my questions. I couldn’t stop looking at the cars on Earth, so many different shapes and sizes and with wheels! We stopped at some lights and looking across into the vehicle next to me I saw a baby in a car seat sitting in the back of the vehicle, just like me. It made me think about our hovercraft car in Avalon, and where my baby brother would sit. All of a sudden I realised I would never know my brother and a single tear dropped from my eye as I began to think about what I had given up. Perhaps I should have accepted my union with my chosen one for the sake of staying with my family.