Sunkissed by Bronte Meredith

Author:Bronte Meredith [Meredith, Bronte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11 – Drew

29th December

Town was both monotonously familiar and sparklingly different: the newsagent with an insane selection of magazines, an extensive collection of toys, games and books, and weird essentials for a summer holidays, like crab pots and snorkels.

Young girls with bored expressions and too long fingernails, shouted orders to the kitchen of the fish and chip shop with a massive menu and a line that snaked out the door at all hours of the day. Packs of kids settled in to eat potato scallops, deep fried Chiko rolls and hot chips, endless hot chips with tomato sauce.

Robbie held his hand, and Drew envied how unselfconscious Robbie was, even with the overt acceptance mixed with a prying but kind interest. Robbie didn’t seem to find it intrusive and unsettling like Drew and he wondered if they noticed because he held hands with Robbie, rather than because he held hands with a boy. Would it be different if Drew was here with some other tourist who these people didn’t know, hadn't known since he was a child? He tried to ignore his discomfort

“Hey, let's go in here,” said Robbie, pulling Drew into a strange little shop squeezed between a laundrette and a bicycle repair centre. Odd bits of shell and driftwood made up into clumsy, childlike, mobiles hanging at the entrance gave it the air of a beach shack. “It’s the opportunity shop. This is where Christmas puzzles go to die.” Robbie pulled a scary face and Drew laughed. “I’ve found some really cool stuff in here, some weird stuff too. Like, this one time, I came in and there was a purple linen safari suit, I mean, who would sell their purple safari suit? Who would even have one to sell?”

Drew looked around. An old lady with an orange cardigan, tightly wound curls and gold glasses sat at the front of the shop knitting. The place smelled like second hand holidays, musty and beachy and old. It was crowded with shells, toys, and books, clothes, records, and fishing tackle. Drew couldn't see any order to it, He loved it immediately.

“I’m just gonna,” Drew pointed to one of the tiny back rooms, filled with books and Robbie nodded, leaning up against the front counter to ask the lady something. Drew ducked through the low doorway and browsed the shelves, and the table in the centre of the room, and the stacks of books all over the floor and windowsill. Well-loved holiday classics like John Grisham’s Pelican Brief, sat next to Do-It-Yourself Permaculture and outdated high school geography textbooks. The old sagging brown armchair in the corner looked, both revolting and inviting. Robbie’s voice murmuring in the background faded as Drew gathered up a pile of odd-looking plays, science fiction and natural history books, plonking them on the floor next to the chair. He sunk down into it to check for a hidden treasure.

Unsure how much time had passed, Drew looked up, realising that he couldn't hear Robbie’s voice from the front of the shop any more.

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