Stargirl of the Edge

Ch 14 - Malachite Pendant

In this chapter we have three main elements - the disastrous episode with the boyfriend and the flowers  (inspired by an advert from the 1980s), the Down's Syndrome boy on Facebook (note he will return again under a different identity) and the introduction of the malachite pendant, once owned by Olivia's great aunt Tamara. The idea of the looking at an ancestor in old photographs came to me when my friend Peter Cannon showed me some beautiful old family photos.

Tuesday 14th of February was of course Valentines Day. She was glad it wasn’t a school day otherwise she would have to put up with classmates teasing her about secret admirers. ‘Livvy has a boyfriend,’ they would sing, knowing she hadn’t. As far as she was concerned, Valentines day was just a day like any other. 

Liz was in the village helping to organise a charity event in the evening and she asked Olivia to come along and help. They needed some paper plates and Liz asked Olivia to go and get some from the one of the two supermarkets. Olivia was worried in case Ben would be on duty and try to pester her again. She looked through the entrance towards the tills and was relieved to see that he wasn’t there.

She walked inside, found the paper plates and went to the checkout. Serving on the till was Ben’s colleague, the blond haired guy. He eyed her discreetly, took the money, handed her the plates and she left. Then he left the checkouts, went through to the staff area, and put his head out of the door which led to the back yard.

“Hey, your fancy girl was in just now.”

“What?” said Ben, stubbing out a cigarette.

“I just served her, she went out the door.”

Ben ran back into the supermarket, past the till and towards the front entrance. Stopping by the flower rack, pausing for only a second or two to choose, he grabbed a bunch of flowers and ran at high speed through the doors after her. 

“Olivia! Olivia!” he said, out of breath. She had already turned the corner onto the main street.

Keeping the flowers behind his back, he caught up with her and she turned round, startled and embarassed to have had her name called out on the street.

“Olivia. I just wanted to say... Sorry! Sorry for what happened, you know, spilling the water over you, I’m really sorry. And I wanted to give you these.”

He held out the flowers to her, almost thrusting them into her face. She looked at the flowers, then him, but her reaction wasn’t what he expected.

“Get them away from me!” she said, pushing with her hand.

“What?” said Ben.

“Just don’t let them come near me!”

He pulled them back and looked at them to see if there was anything wrong with them. To him, they looked fine.

“I am not like all girls!” she said, “why doesn’t anyone understand?”

She took a moment to compose herself again.

“I’m sorry. I know, you chose them and spent a lot of money on them, I know but… I’m sure some other girl would like them... but not me.”

She took one last look at the flowers and at him. Her facial expression was a mixture of apologetic, angry and sad. She turned and walked on down the main street. He looked at the poor, unwanted flowers, threw them on the pavement and walked, dejectedly, back to the supermarket. 

At the entrance, the manager was waiting.

“My office, Ben!” he shouted.

A few minutes later Olivia joined her mum and the other women, and put the incident out of her mind.