A simple, humorous yet gritty coming of age story set within the British teen community during the dramatic summer of 1974 in Cyprus. 15 year old Alex's long time crush on Kate comes to a conclusion, but only after escalating tension with her curren...
April disappeared and May became June. Spring was eased out of the way by an impatient summer and the final drifts of snow had long disappeared from the highest peaks and deepest crags of the Troodos Mountains. Sporadic splashes of silvery light from the distant mountains tops provided only by the sun reflecting off the two large white domes on the top of Mount Olympus.
As the season changed, most inhabitants remained as oblivious as Alex of the upheaval approaching Aphrodite's isle. Those who cast a more wary and experienced eye west saw the new ruling Military regime on the Greek mainland, knowing the ripples of change could once more bring unrest to their island snuggled at the Eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea.
* * *
Simon served, or more accurately, endured the grounding imposed by his parents. Disqualified from the Horseshoe Hike for the second time in two attempts, for a month his movement had been limited to travelling to school and back each day. Simon had restrained his default response - vigorous questioning of any and all rules or restrictions. He was smart enough to realise that, whilst he had no doubt he'd done the right thing in defending his little brother - he had, not for the first time, crossed a line. And he knew this was not the time to challenge his Dad. Normally tolerant and flexible, the reprimand he had delivered on this occasion was withering and brooked no comeback. Simons' main regret was that he'd lost a month having fun with his mates and his permanent return to the UK and work was now only a couple of months away.
Much to Alex's relief, his own part in Simon's disqualification had never really been fully explored, but then he'd become used to hiding in plain sight in Simon's slender shadow. Simon was privately of the opinion he should have a special certificate of his own as the only person ever to have been evicted from the Horseshoe Hike twice. Knowing he'd been largely responsible for Simons' early exit, Alex had sensibly avoided any overt celebration on his completion of the Horseshoe Hike. He was content with an inner sense of quiet satisfaction and his official certificate.
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* * *
Alex still had to find a way to impress Kate. And it needed to be before Tristan returned from the UK for his summer break, which would come all too soon given how ridiculously early the public schools broke up. Determined he'd be successful, he set about devising several potential Kate winning plans.
As Alex started his plotting, the summer term at St. John's commenced. It began in pretty much the same way as the spring term had ended, though as normal, about half a dozen of his class at school had left Cyprus over the Easter period, in the main to go back to the UK.
In addition, of their mates, Rick had already left, Dan was due to go back to the UK in about 6 weeks and of course Simon would go back to England to start work later in July.
To begin with Alex's musings on how to win Kate battled unsuccessfully with time spent reading the Valiant or the excellent new Edge novel 'Bloody Summer' and all of his early ideas were discarded as pathetic or plain stupid. Eventually he decided, if he was serious about this, he'd have to use that period of his day when he often retreated into his own little shell and addressed the serious issues racing around his head. For Alex this meant the 45 minutes or so at the start of the day on the bus to school in Episkopi and on the same journey returning home .....
