The Beat of Safiri Bay (5 page)

“I thought you were eighteen?” he says with a frown

“Yes I am, at least for another few weeks”.

“Well since I only cage nineteen year old girls I should inform you that you are quite safe, for now.” I snort at that and start walking up the dune.

As I reach the top, I turn to see whether he followed, he did and he looks at me quizzically. I turn around again and keep on walking. The path is overgrown and it would not be a good idea to try to run down it. “Let me,” he says as he slides past me. I stiffen at his touch. Luckily there is only one way down and he keeps to the path easily. I find the idea of just having spent twenty minutes alone with this most appealing man almost as unreal as a dream. My consciousness reminds me of my previous comment; you do not know anything about him. That is not entirely true, I mean I know his name; He is Matt’s cousin and Karin’s brother so I guess they share the same surname. Alex Mallard. Somehow, it doesn’t sit right and I laugh quietly at myself for making assumptions.

“Where were you two?” Lin asks almost annoyed. I blush and she lifts an eyebrow at me. I pretend to be busy with the zipper on my gym bag. “I am sorry, it’s all my fault,” Alex says with that rough firm voice. “I wanted to have a look at the beach before we came back so I kept Lane with me.”

“Oh... okay,” Lin says slowly but she is still frowning at me so I nod at Alex and make my way to the door. “Gotta go, the kids are waiting,” I say and leave quickly. I am half way to the silver Jeep when I hear my name “Lane, wait up, Lane,” I turn and face Alex. “Hey,” he gets to me a bit out of breath “May I have your number?” oh, but, why? “s-sure” I say a bit befuddled. I take out my Blackberry. I am not about to give him my number without taking his. “Oh good, he says, could I have you pin as well?” He takes out his and looks at me expectantly. We exchange info and as I type Mallard in the space provided for a surname, he speaks up, “Dover,” he says.

“Excuse me?”

“My surname is Dover,” he repeats. I sigh. “What’s wrong?” he wants to know “It’s just,” I pull up my shoulders “nothing,” I say and he looks confused. “I really have to get going,” I say and walk the rest of the way to the Jeep. 

Why does it upset me so much that I know so little about him? First, I want nothing to do with him and now because of a few tears on my guitar I want to suddenly know everything there is to know about him. I must have my head checked. But right now I need a shower and then I need to get to school.

Chapter 3

I towel dry my hair and brush trough it thoroughly, no time to dry it properly today. My phone beeps, a bbm. I don’t really have time for this now but I check anyway.

Alex would like to add you as a contact...

Accept                  Decline

Off course I accept. I feel a little butterfly take off in my stomach.

Recent updates:

Alex is now a contact

I throw my phone down onto my bed and slip on a summers dress. I take it off again. That won’t work on my quad. I opt for a pair of jeggings and a top. Yes, that’s suitable. My phone beeps again. I ignore it and slip on my open toe flats. Just a splash of makeup and I’m ready to go. I look at my phone as if it’s a forbidden fruit. ‘Oh stuff time’ I think and open the message.

Alex: Thanks for the run Lane. I am impressed.

Me: Impressed? What did you expect?

He doesn’t reply but he’s read it. I really need to get going. I grab my Ibanez as it is the closest to the door and shove into the hard case. I strap it onto my back, pat Rocky on the head with my foot and make my way out the door. My phone beeps in my bag. Crap. It must be him but I really can’t check now. It will have to wait.

I have made it with two minutes to spare. There is hardly any time to greet Jill and she just waves at me over a stack of papers but makes no effort to get up for a smoke break. I walk past the office and back to the library. Matt has already set up my stand for me. I take my guitar out of the case and make sure it is in tune. I look for my plectrum. Where the hell is it? I hate not having all my stuff together. Matthew is able to play without a pick easily but my fingers are too soft for these steel strings. He sticks his head into the library.

“Well good morning there,” he says with a humorous tone. “Did you oversleep?” he smiles and I’m shocked at how much his smiles looks like Alex’s.

“Me? Sleep in? No ways. We went for a quick run this morning,” I say without a hint of who ‘we’ are.

“Off course,” he says and shakes his head “forever the fitness freak.” I laugh at that and then remember my phone. The kids start lining up and I push the idea of quickly checking it out of my mind. “Matt, you don’t perhaps keep extra picks here do you?”

“Um, yes, I think I have one in here,” he pulls one out of his jeans pocket together with a rubber elastic and a short pencil. “Um, thank you,” I say but I don’t take it. He blows his breath on it and wipes it on the side of his jeans. I laugh and take it from him, “that will make it better,” I say sarcastically. Matt is the only other person, except my dad, that I feel completely comfortable with and I do not mind his touch or his germs.

The junior group is so nice to teach. These local children have a natural rhythm and beautiful voices that still give me goose bumps. We sing ‘Good morning star shine’. It is weird to hear that type of classic coming out of their mouths but its sounds good and I am proud of them. At the end of our lesson, I ask them to go drink some water. The electricity was off and the heat was a bit much but the show must go on.

I put away my instrument and sink into one of the chairs. Vincent was watching from the window today, a clever move on his side. Matt appears with a glass of orange juice for me and sits on the chair at the end of the line. “Thanks,” I say and take a big sip. “Wow, its hot today,” I take another sip.

“We are stuck; no electricity means no computers, copying or coffee,”

“Who needs coffee in this heat?” and I pretend to wipe my forehead. He laughs, “sorry about the heat,” I nod and give a little laugh, he can’t do anything about it and I
will
survive. Sandra appears in the door then and he excuses himself. I reach for my bag and take my phone from the inside pocket. I open bbm.

Alex: I expected you to run like a girl. But you run like the wind.

Lane: Thanks, that is a nice compliment. Sorry it took me so long to reply, I am at work.

He answers immediately

Alex: No prob. How is it?

Lane: Hot as hell. Seriously. No air-conditioning.

Alex: LOL, you are spoilt but I like that.

Lane: I am not spoilt I have needs.

Alex: You are vague!

Lane: What is that supposed to mean???

Alex: Meet me at the beach and I’ll tell you.

Lane: Hmmm, I don’t know. I am almost nineteen remember!

Alex: You are very entertaining do you know that?

Lane: Who me?....

Alex: Main beach entrance at 12?

Lane: K

Where there was one, there are now ten thousand butterflies doing barrel rolls in my stomach. Why does he want to meet? What does he want to say? What will I say? Somehow texting makes me brave, it always has, but face to face, that’s something else. Oh stop with the thinking Lane. Just let it happen naturally.

Matt is back on his chair and looks as confused as I feel. “Why the frown?” I ask with concern.

“What is up with you? You almost came late which you never do, you didn’t have your things ready and you are smiling at your phone, which I have never seen you do before either and you have a look I can’t place.” I smile at him. How can I put this subtly?

“What can you tell me about your cousin?” 

“What does Karin have to do with it?” Off course he thinks I’m talking about her. No one can actually read my mind and I am glad for it. It is shouting ALEX at me all day. “Oh, I just wondered how old she is,” I quickly cover.

“She is thirty two, Alex is twenty seven” he gives me more than I could hope for. “Oh, okay,” he looks at me and continues.

“I don’t really know Alex that well; we didn’t see much of each other growing up.” As I am about to ask why, Vincent arrives at his side big eyed and panting. “Matt... snake... in the bathroom,” Matt rolls his eyes, “second one this week,” and he pats Vincent on the back. A shiver runs down my spine. Actually, I am much better with snakes than with spiders. “I’ll see you later,” I shout after Matt, I have no desire to face a snake so early in my day. Jill is taking a smoke break and I wave good-bye as I walk past her. I feel guilty for not making small talk with her today but I need time by myself.

Back home I leave my quad by the back door. I am going to use it again within an hour or two so there is no use parking it in the garage. I pull my guitar off my back and stand it upright in the kitchen. I should have tea now but my heart is beating irregularly and I decide against it. I take my equipment to my room and start unpacking it and cleaning it. I am so nervous. What does he want to tell me and will I be able to stand him if he gets so close to me. I change into shorts. I don’t go to the beach in long pants as a rule. It’s almost eleven and I have never wished time by as I am doing now. I decide to make my way to the beach earlier. I will go to Mary at the beach cafe and wait it out there until twelve.

Mary is a mother of two toddlers and together with her husband runs the beach cafe. I walk over to the counter and she sees me. “Lany, honey how are you?” I laugh at her friendly greeting.

“Good thanks,” I say. “How is Dusty and Keagan?” I like the two boys, they are very active and make you forget about yourself while you are with them. “They are exhausting,” she laughs and I understand exactly what she means. I don’t know how anyone would want to have a child let alone two. Seriously, they are like little worms that eat away at your personality and make you forget about who you are.

The smell of deep fried chicken hangs around the cafe. Mary wipes her hands on her apron and calls me over to an open table. We chat away for about half an hour about Jay’s upcoming party and the boys. I check my phone; it’s half an hour later and I decide to walk to the flat dune beach entrance. I’ll wait there and soak up some sun.

As I approach the dune, I spot him sitting on the sand, legs bent, hands hanging over his knees, just staring out over the water. He is so good looking to me. I wonder what other people’s opinion is of his looks. He sees me and gets up lazily. “Hi there,” he says and gives me an even lazier smile. He reaches for me but I hold back, he drops his arms and turn around. We walk to the edge of the water just past the launching site of the diver’s rubber-ducks. I am dizzy from the tension between us and stop to stand next to him. “Let’s sit,” he says but I don’t move. “Lane I don’t know why you are so scared of me,” he says with a look that shows his hurt and it makes me want to reach out to him but I don’t. “I am not scared of you, why would you think that?” I whisper. I do not know how to handle this.

“Then what is it?” he asks rather roughly. “Every time I accidently touch you, you pull away. Why don’t you like me?” I wish the sand would swallow me. I will have to tell him but now is not the time and that would mean the end of my little ‘let’s have fun looking at the hunk’ show.

“I have an idea,” he says. I sit down next to him but not close.

“Ye-e-e-s” I stretch it out.

“Answer for an answer,” he says hopefully.

“You want to play a game?”

“Yes, I want to find out more about you and it could be fun.”

“Dr Phil will have a fit” I joke and he laughs. It’s a beautiful sound, definitely an E chord, and my new favourite since a second ago.

“You go first,” I say. Even though I want to find out more about him, I am nervous to start this game.

“All right, let’s see. Your name is Lane, Surname is Rose, you are eighteen, almost nineteen, and your dad has a weird girlfriend,”

I laugh, “Did I mention her?”

“No but Lin did.”

“Have you been asking about me behind my back?”

He pulls up his shoulders and smile.

I can’t help but smile too, a wide all teeth barred smile. This is so much fun and we haven’t even asked a single question yet. “You drive a silver Jeep,”

“Um, correction, my dad drives a silver Jeep, I just use it from time to time,”

“Thank you,” he nods at me, “one less thing I have to ask,” I pout.

“You had it wrong so I just corrected you; anyway you shouldn’t make assumptions like that!”

“Okay okay I’ll ask a question,” he lies down on his back and I envy him. I wish I could let go like that and just roll in the sand.

“When is your birthday?

“Ah, you know it is soon,”

“That is not the correct answer,” he says and shakes his finger at me.