A Thousand Salt Kisses (Book 1 of Salt Kiss series)

><> Chapter Fifty-Four <><

A couple of weeks had passed and I was now back at school. It was difficult getting back into the routine but it helped to keep my mind off my heartache.

Following the rescue, I had spent five days in bed with yet another terrible cold but the truth was I had been more sick with sadness than anything else.

Mum and Dad had spoiled me rotten, of course, believing that my ordeal was all their doing.  When I had arrived back with the lifeguards they had hugged me with the tightness of a pair of anacondas. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for them - their only child taken hostage out at sea like that.

On the bright side, their fight against SKANX had not only brought them back together, but they were closer than ever. Mum had given up her funny little studio flat on the mainland and moved back to the house. In typical Mum-style she had turned her nose up at all of Dad's decorating, and had insisted on a 'full revamp', which was already underway.

As for SKANX, well, the factory had been closed once Mum and Dad had submitted their evidence and was pending a full investigation. The 'prognosis', I'm told, was not looking very good at all.

Of course nobody knew the truth about how I had come to be in the water that evening, whilst the boat had sunk, and Geake had disappeared entirely.

I had told the lifeguards, the police and my parents that the boat had been dodgy, like all of SKANX's equipment, and that Geake had drowned trying to frantically patch up the sinking vessel.

"I guess, he fell on his own sword," I'd said, whilst almost everybody had murmured in agreement.

It was all highly feasible, especially given Mum's stolen documents lifting the lid on the shambolic truth behind the company.

Nobody knew what had really happened that day, except one person, that is...

"Heard you've had quite a colourful time of late, kid," said George, as I popped my head round the door of his fisher hut one day after school.

"I don't know, George," I said walking inside the warmly lit room. He was sitting down with his trusty mug, and an aroma of liqueur hung around him. "I'd say more blacky-greyish."

He smiled at me sympathetically. The sorrow must have been written all over my face. "You're not holding up, are you?" he said.

I sat down opposite him and put my head in my hands.

"I just don't know how I'm ever going to get over him, George," I said.

He reached over the table and rubbed my arm. "I heard you two fell for each other very deeply," he said, "but its for the best, Kid."

I looked up at him.

"Yeah?" I asked, searching his face for answers, for some kind of reinforcement that this pain was somehow worth it.

"Yeah," said George. "You don't want to get too messed up in that. You'll end up like me. A sad old lost man"

"Well, I'd have to have a bit of the old gender-reassigment surgery, but yeah..." I managed to smile, putting a hand on his. It was a wrinkled, leathery hand and I still found it incredibly hard to believe that this was the offspring of the radiant Nephys.

"Well the good news is, they took his body away from the crime scene, you know?" said George in a hushed voice. "Just so things don't get complicated for you."

I nodded. I had worried what would happen if they came across Gerraint Geake wrapped a million times to the anchor. It was good of them to do that for me.

"George?" I asked.

"Yep?" he said brightly.

"Did your Dad ever get over Nephys?"

George rolled his eyes. "Well, I wouldn't know. He was a bit of ladies' man, my father.  He always had some lass on the go. It was hard to tell who he was in love with, but what I do know is that whenever he talked about her, he would go all misty-eyed and gooey."

"Do you think I will ever be able to find anyone who compares to him?" I asked. "Llyr, I mean."

George laughed. "Well, he's quite a catch that's for sure," he answered, cocking an eyebrow.

I giggled at the pun, the first time I had felt a pinch of amusement in days.

"But, I mean you're young, beautiful. I'm sure you could have anyone you wanted," he continued. "You may well find a charming young land-dweller one day and forget all about our Llyr."

I shook my head firmly. There was no way I could ever forget him.

"George?"

"Hmm?"

"You said you went to the Amethyst Palace once...?"

"No, my dear. I said that I had seen it," he explained mysteriously.

"Well, how could you have seen it without going there?" I cried.

"Well, how do you see the The Taj Mahal without going there?" he asked.

I was baffled. "Um, TV... or something?"

George got up and walked to a shelf of books in the corner. He pulled down an ancient book about trouts whilst I watched on confused.

He fanned through some old brown pages and a cloud of dust puffed out all around him, causing a coughing fit. When the dust cleared, I saw a little rectangular piece of paper spiralling onto the floor.

"Aha!" he exclaimed bending over, and then moaning with pain and clutching at his back. I rushed over to help him. 

"Here," he grunted, handing me the piece of paper.

I took it in my hands and looked at it. It took me a while to process what it was, but once I understood, I stood there transfixed.

It was a small photograph of the most amazing coloured building I had ever seen. It was like a huge rock of lilac candy, with circular doorways and mystical chunky engravings. 

A beam of light caught part of the building's jagged roof and it sparkled, very much like the purple cliffs on Crystal Beach in the sunset. A jade-green sea garden danced around the Amethyst Place and I closed my eyes for a minute and envisaged Llyr here, gliding through the waters outside his home.

"My mother took it back in the nineties. I brought her a disposible underwater camera when they first came out,"  George explained, taking a gulp from his mug.

I smiled at him and turned back to the photo.

I guess, like George, this was the closest I would ever get to Llyr, Nephys and the sea peoples' world. A photo and a bit of visualization to fill in the gaps.  

Or is it? As I gazed on at the picture something deep inside me told me that maybe one day, I may swim within those lilac walls. But then again,  I have a big imagination...


                                                                                       The End