The John Hughes Club

Chapter Forty Nine

"I need you to just wait here, okay? I have to quickly get everything ready," Chas quietly tells me, letting go of both my hands that he's just been tenderly holding by the tips of their fingers.

An effervescent giggle floats up my throat, slowly swishing my skirt around with the exhilarated movements of my curious body. "Okay," I musically answer, beyond excited for what awaits me inside of his workshop.

Unlocking the pedestrian door to it, Chas disappears inside. As the darkness of the October evening embraces me, as too, does its chill. Wrapping my arms around my fitted denim jacket that might be a complimentary part of my funky grunge outfit, it's pretty useless at keeping me warm. And yet, a smile refuses to leave my face. Despite the little blip in the shape of Josh earlier in the evening, the rest of our time at the cinema was great—the comedy was funny, my friends were even funnier, the popcorn was yum, and my boyfriend was a complete darling—and my birthday isn't even over yet.

Gazing up at a sky that isn't allowing me to see the stars because the clouds have laid claim to the upper atmosphere, I know that they are there, twinkling down on me from behind the many shades of  woollen-like greys that promise rain. I'm so happy, it wouldn't even matter if the rain were to come. For in this moment, not even thousands of droplets falling on me, can rain on my birthday parade.

I'm now sixteen, and happy.
Before the move to Minehead and before meeting Chas, I never could envision getting to this point and feeling the way I do now. I never thought that the loss of my sister, then the loss of our family unit, would allow me the joy of knowing true happiness, yet here I am, knowing it so well.

I like to think that my beautiful Anais has had an heavenly hand in where I now find myself. Standing beneath a vast and starless sky, I like to think that she's up there, playing amongst the stars and illuminating the universe with the light inside of her childlike soul.

Just as her short life had shaped me, so too, had her death. It shaped me, almost destroyed me. However, I've come through the other side of my grief. Anais would only ever visit me in my horrifying nightmares, now she comes in my pleasant dreams. I couldn't even think about her without falling apart, now I love to remember her and draw the images I see using my artistic mind. I've come a long way, and I like to believe that my sister has been with me as I've taken each and every step towards the happiness I am now feeling inside.

"Mindy?" Chas softly interrupts, his head peering around the door.

"Coming!" I sing out, rushing to the person I also like to believe my sister led me to.

"Close your eyes," he instructs with a light hush, beaming at me just before I do what he's asking of me.

Pinching my eyes shut, Chas starts guiding me inside of his workshop. Keeping my booted steps short and light, I fear that I'm going to accidentally crush my gorgeous boyfriend's toes. "I don't want to tread on you," I giggle, still being so careful as to where I put each foot.

Chortling behind me, Chas brings my wary feet to a stop. "Okay, you can open your eyes."

Right away, I do.
Right away, I softly gasp.
On the back wall of the workshop, hangs a coruscating curtain of fairy lights, illuminating the space with their golden strings of magic-like beauty. Beside the put-me-up bed, an Himalayan salt lamp sits on a tiny table, emitting a mesmeric pink glow from itself. My eyes so full of wonderment, then quickly come to rest on what Chas has prettily recreated in the centre of his woodwork domain—the birthday wish scene in Sixteen Candles.

On a shaggy flokati cream rug, stands an unfolded white wooden breakfast tray that has an iced birthday cake deliciously upon it, strikingly lit with sixteen candles. "Chas, this is just perfect," is all I can dazedly murmur, taking in everything of what my wonderful boyfriend has sentimentally done.