le bonheur de vivre

2

"Mark," she nodded. "How are you?"

"Better than ever," the man replied, with a thick New York accent.

"Elodie! Oh, you are a beauty," Julie squeaked, pulling the girls fragile body into her arms. "A wet one though!" she recoiled.

The two of them cleared into the edge of the street. There was moment of silence. even nature stopped to listen to the tense intimacy between the friends who hadn't seen each other in years.

Elodie's mother stepped towards Dora.

"Dora, you are beautiful."

Elodie bit her lip.

"And this is Alexander," Julie butted in, introducing the man who wandered in a quiet confidence behind Dora.

"Hello Alexander," greeted her mother with an intrigued look.

Elodie watched him lift his hand into a shake, gripping her own mother's hand with such care and affinity. his eyes flickered anxiously, a hand running through his hair.

"and how do you know Alexander?" Lara asked, still holding eye contact with him.

"my fiancé," Dora beamed in the most opulent of voices.

"And a happy one I am too," he said, his voice lower than expected but a fruitful voice it was; affluent and smooth, drops of it falling at his feet.

He looked at Elodie for a second, with no trace of a smile flitting on his lips, but then turned back to her mother.

"Well come in, come in. There isn't a great deal of space and you'll have to get used to the bugs but other than that you have two rooms for yourselves." Lara muttered, stumbling backwards into the wooden shack they called a kitchen. "Sam is getting some things done in town but he'll be back later. Until then, please make yourselves at home."

Elodie let everyone funnel into the house before her, lingering, watching them. a glance at her ( the drowned rat ) by Alexander, reminded her or her nakedness, and so she scurried away from the conversation to her room despite an angered stare from her mother.

taking the side route ( ladder onto the roof ) a jump, and a tumble, she arrived at her door. A grapple at the handle and a pull was sufficient to remind her she had locked it, and reaching into her pocket to find no purse or keys she realised she had left them by the rock pool. she grumbled at her own forgetfulness, but a kick to the door would be enough to open it for now.

the bed was messy. the pillows were on the floor, and her duvet seemed to trickle off her mattress. the curtains were pulled, leaving a slither of dust to be lathered with light. her perfume bottle glistened on

"Elodie! Come talk to our guests!" her mother called from the living room hut.

Elodie poked her head out of her room to receive a fierce stare from her mother.

"Mama, I need to get changed."

"Elodie."

"Mama, I'm only wearing underwear and this soaking jacket."

"You should have thought about that before you went swimming."

"Mama!" Elodie huffed.

her mother left her with another stare, and so Elodie reluctantly grabbed her nightdress ( the closest piece of clothing ) from her door hook, and descended down the stairs, past Ruso, past the kitchen, past the guest rooms, towards the living room.

she could already here the babble of voices, laughter.

scrambling to get her nightdress over her, she stood out of the frame of the doorway and looked in.