le bonheur de vivre

4

Elodie woke to the early and purest light. the brightness was stark and almost sterile before she adjusted, and the lushness of the green outside her window flooded into her eyes with such richness that she had to blink before standing up.

quietly she walked to her closet and took out her mustard yellow bikini and white t-shirt. she stripped down to full nakedness for a moment, the air pinching her skin. she put on the clothes and leant out of the window, picking a violet and putting it in her hair.

god, she was beautiful.

she opened the door slowly and tiptoed down the stairs, saluting Ruso, then climbing up the ladder on the kitchen wall and onto the roof. Here she could see into all the little shacks in the property and peering down into the second green roofed room on her right she saw the curtains were open, frolicking in the wind hat descended over the mountain.

she could see Dora and Alexander lying in their white sheeted cradle of a bed. he lay shirtless, clinging dora. such privacy flung into her eyes.

who is the exposed one now, she thought. who has cut their chest open and shown the other the inside of their skin? I see your nakedness, your déshabillé, just like you saw mine.

she heard a car rattling down the road, the people, who she suspected were her friends coming to pick her up for the beach trip, screaming. what a god awful bunch of lunatics.

"Oi, Oi, Elodieee! nous venons," she heard one of them shout.

"tais-toi! my mama is asleep."

the car swerved round the bend off her street and she saw it packed with seventeen year olds. It halted to a sudden stop in front of her house and she jumped down from the roof and stumbled to the boot, pulling it open.

Garret sat, clinging his knees, surrounded by beach equipment. he gave her an awkward glance as she clambered into the cramped car. the riotous laughs echoed as the car backed up and started mounting the hill.

"salut Marie, Anna, Oliver, Maurice," Elodie paused. "Eliot."

She leaned into the ear of Marie who sat in front of her.

"did you know Eliot was coming?"

"ah oui! isn't it exciting."

these friends had all know each other since they had learned to walk, but Eliot had left to America to get a better education and had only returned recently. Elodie liked him. She liked him because he was gorgeous to look at.

Oliver and Anna played with each other flirtatiously in the middle row, nudges and giggles and all. the car clattered to the top of the hill and from their they could see all the islands. St Maarten, Antigua and St Kitts as well. a million different greens and reds were splattered across the craggy island, and with the whoops and yells of the fools inside the car it seemed as if everyone outside it woke up with a moan and groan, from the parrots in the cages at the side of the road to the woman who sold plantains in the creole village.

"you just took the wrong road!" Marie shouted at Maurice who was driving.

"I know my way to Gouverneur."

"clearly not, you're meant to take the second road," Eliot interrupted. Elodie watched his neck and his hair as he looked out the window. he had marvellous locks, a brilliant golden brown that radiated in the dawn sun.

"look! there it is," squealed Anna in excitement, extending a finger at the cerulean ocean. the car clunked onwards, and Elodie noticed Garret watching her watch Eliot. he was a nervous boy.

a twist two meters into the forest was adequate to call a parking spot. the kids overflowed out of the vehicle and Elodie banged impatiently on the boot before Marie came and let her out. Grabbing an umbrella, she started running to the beach.