Rain was spiting down on the car roof as it jolted down the craggy road with a surface which could only be likened to a ginger nut biscuit; cracking and terribly unsuitable for driving on, especially when wet. The driver of the car was an elegant, willowy woman with long glossy brunette hair pulled back into a tight bun. She was focused on the road, but continuously turned her head to check her young passenger, who was engrossed in watching the streams of water cascading down the windows. The woman opened her mouth to speak, thought against it and pressed her high heeled foot harder down on the accelerating peddle. After a few minutes the passenger tore her gaze from the window and focused on the driver, scowling a little. “Mother...” the girl croaked, whilst pushing her lank brown hair away from her face, revealing her large, almost amber coloured eyes which seemed to glow with her pale complexion. “Please don’t make me do this; I really don’t want to be alone in that house. Wouldn’t it just be easier if-”
“No.” The woman snapped. “Your grandmother is going through enough in hospital without having to worry about the house; you know it means the world to her. Anyway, it is only for the summer holiday, you will be back in six weeks and I have stocked the kitchen with food and other necessities.”
The girl furrowed her brow “What does it matter? Nana lost her marbles years ago; I doubt she knows her own name, let alone that she has a house. She will forget about it after a few days in hospital. It is a miracle that she has survived so long by herself in that place.”
“Karin! Don’t say that about her. She used to be a wonderful lady, so I was told. And I would like to add that she isn’t mad. She is just simply...” the woman bit her lip and waved her left hand briefly to try and find the correct word. “Eccentric. That’s what she is. I will have no more arguing, this is what your father would have wanted so it’s what you will do. I would be with you myself if it weren’t for the business trip. Don’t you see? I’m giving you space and an opportunity for independence as a young adult; you are 17 now after all. Any other teenager would jump at the idea.”
The beaten girl, Karin, shook her head sadly and turned her head back to the passenger window and stared into the distance. The rest of the journey was in silence.
The further and further the car drove, the worse the road got, until it eventually entered a small town, which was arguably too small to even really classify as a town , just a cluster of ancient houses surrounding a green, a green grocers, a butchers, a post office a tea room and a marble library, which dominated the entire scenery. As they got neared the end of the town, they took a sharp turning through a dirt track between two fields. Cows lazily poked their heads through the gaps in the hedgerow, chewing and batting their eyelashes as if to welcome the strangers. Karin huffed and rested her head against the cool glass, she didn’t like cows much anyway, but these ones irritated her beyond belief. How dare they look at her like that? How dare they assume that she would be happy to see them, or be happy to see this town? She stopped her accusing thoughts and giggled quietly, her anger fading. So this is what she was reduced to... blaming all the troubles of the world on cattle. Whilst she was imagining and exploring the possibilities of a global cow take over, her mother had pulled up and parked the car in front of a beautiful white stone house with ivy growing up the sides, built in the style of the 1600’s. Karin soon snapped out of her daydream and absorbed her surroundings. Her grandmother may have been mental (to put it lightly), but she sure did know how to keep a garden. The lawn was neat and rosebushes framed the entire garden, somehow completely suiting in with the rustic farmland landscape. The windows and door to the house were all made of dark aging timber, which complimented the hand blown glass windows. Karin’s mother was the first to break the silence. “Do you want help with your bags? I need to get going soon so I can stop off and visit your grandmother before the flight, but I think I can spare a few minutes to help you settle in if you want...”
