An Unearthly Adventure

Shall We Begin

1.

The night air was algid and sharp. The sky was clear; it had rained during the day causing the previous accumulation of grey clouds to evaporate and consequently disappear. The BBC one weather man had threatened snow to fall over the course of the night and everyone would most likely be waking up to a white car and driveway. Snow could be both burdensome and delightful. Either way it was an aspect of winter everyone must face reluctantly or welcomingly; no matter how hard you tried to avoid it, it will always interfere with your day to day life. Roads needed gritted, schools called off, very rarely work and public transport inevitably delayed. On the other hand, snow, especially un-walked on snow, the kind you see at the early hours of the morning when the day has not yet began, is beautiful. What a lovely sight to behold! Another delightful sight is when the kids go sledging down the once green hill and build snowmen with glove wrapped hands. However when the sludge is formed and slowly but, surely it sinks into your boots and the cold completely consumes you; then you have cause to cry.

On this night, two teenage girls ambled along the pavement at a steady pace. The road shone like silver: the lamplight gleamed ahead. Not a sound could be heard besides their soft voices and the occasional scurrying of a fox or cat speedily crossing a road or skulking in brambles. They were on their way home from a day at the cinema, the film had been a sad one; when they crossed under a lamp the smudges of mascara and red blotches became visible. Despite the drop in morale this film caused they seemed quite chipper and this could be explained simply by the fact that this night was Saturday night. Saturday night meant they could stay up as late as they wanted and there would be no specific reason i.e. school to get up for. And that was the profundity of Saturday nights in a teenage life. Saturday night was heaven.

Hayward road was a hilly street with around 14 semi-detached houses, each with their own little ripe green lawn, freshly mown every weekend and a couple of flower patches plotted around the rim of each front garden; suburban bliss, although it seemed it was necessary for every house to be perfect or the owner of the house would be killed by the village green preservation society. Carrie Sellers lived in number 7, right bang in the middle of the street and her best friend, Felicity Harmen lived at the bottom of the street, number 2. They had always been there, born into the street but, both of them were determined they would never die in it; they were desperate to get out, see the world, live a little. Now, was that profound period of suspension between childhood and adulthood, it was filled with angst and an aching longing for fulfilment and excitement, which was a thing often only found with boys. Boys were a big factor in their lives, but no boy ever seemed to be interested in either one of these natural beauties. Their town, Mountville, didn't aid the situation; it was infested with boys their age (sixteen) however, none of them were anything special. There'd been a few hopefuls over the years but, it came down to tolerance which was a thing neither of the girls had. Immature boys never went down well. There was always hope though, if a house was to go on sale and a new family arrived to inhabit it, then there may be a boy or two in that family; single and looking for love. Or maybe not love but, teenage kicks for sure. They would never fight over a guy: "bros before ho's" was a mantra they stuck to. They were best friends, always and forever.

The two girls had turned the corner on to Hayward and they reached Felicity's door in less than 10 steps. They were deep in conversation, discussing last night's episode of Supernatural.

"I mean, honestly, how can they kill off Dean and Sam every single bloody season and always bring them back to life?!"

Felicity exclaimed, her arms flaying up in the air in protest.

"Flick, it's Supernatural they can do whatever the hell they want," Carrie changed her uncomfortable position; shifting the left leg that she had been leaning on to the right leg. "You need to stop getting your knickers in a twist; it's just a TV show!" Felicity gasped.

"Just a TV show!" Felicity's face was a clear picture of anger. Carrie took a slight step backwards protecting herself from the wrath about to come in her direction.

"JUST. A. TV. SHOW!" Felicity's eyes widened, her eyeballs bulging and for a moment, Carrie imagined black smoke would come out of her ears.

"Wow! Wow! Calm down. Calm down, Flick. I never meant to unleash the hound." Carrie said, holding her hands up in an apologetic plead to spare her.

"I am not amused." Felicity replied, keeping a straight face which was a very surprising thing for her to achieve; there always seemed to be a slight smile creeping up in the corner of her mouth threatening to break into a gum-showing shiner.

"Oh. My. God. I am freezing my balls off!"

Carrie broke out, planting her hands under her arms praying for her body heat to alleviate the numbness. Felicity lifted an eyebrow.

"You don't have balls, Carrie."

"Oh yeah, I wouldn't be so sure, old sport!"

She winked, a strand of red hair falling over her right eye.

"Anyway, I'm glad it's cold," Carrie broke into a mocking shock face at Felicity's bold statement.

"Wait a sec, you're glad!" Carrie lifted an eyebrow slightly. "You're glad that my balls are gonna fall off!"

"It's going to snow tomorrow!" The words practically burst out of her with such enthusiasm and sheer elation that Carrie thought for a moment she would fly off like some kind of restless bird.

"Oh, bloody fantastic! Snow, the one aspect of winter I fucking hate more than Christmas"

"Oh shutta your face, Scrooge." Felicity replied in a fake New York accent and Carrie scoffed in amusement.

"Snow is a wonderful thing. It's all white and fluffy. You can go sledging on the hill and-"

"We can all build snowmen and make snow angels in our backyards!" Carrie interrupted with a high level of sarcasm and an amused expression on her face. Either it was the sheer enthusiasm that had come over Felicity as she thought about the wonderful activities the snow would bring or she simply didn't realise Carrie's sarcasm but, Felicity expanded on the white vision, not stopping to take a breath.

"We can have snowball fights after school and..." There was a slight pause as Felicity stared off into space elusively, trying to think of the other fun activities they could partake on but, she was failing miserably.

"And... all the things you said, Carrie." She snapped back, replying reassuringly, as if she was frightened Carrie would change her mind and decide that the snow did not serve a "fun" purpose. The irony was, of course, that that is what she believed.

"Yes, yes. All the things I said. Most sincerely and profoundly." She agreed, making a salute with her right hand. She wondered to herself how Felicity could be sixteen years old, so adult like the majority of the time and then, when she is reminded of any happy memories she had in her childhood i.e. snow then, she seems to become a child again. And more than anything, she wondered how she could mistake her sarcasm for well, not sarcasm. Still, she continued with the charade, enjoying it entirely.

"Well, I don't know about you. But, I just can't wait for tomorrow, what shall we do Miss. Harmen?" Carrie continued with a fake southern American accent.

"We must be patient," Felicity replied in complete urgency. "Tomorrow is another day."

"Who said that?" Carrie said in genuine curiosity.

"Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind." Felicity snapped, thinking to herself that Carrie may have been the stupidest person in the world to ask a question like that. It seemed her infamous superiority complex was still present in this new child like form of Felicity Harmen.

"Really? I thought it was Annie." Then, a second later, she shrugged dismissively as if her query didn't matter at all anymore.

"Uncultured idiot" Felicity scoffed displaying a scornful expression on her face.

"Yeah. Yeah. I know, Miss. Smarty Pants." She gave a slight laugh at Felicity pulling a face at her then proceeded to amble steadily across the road in a diagonal direction headed for her house and left Felicity standing there, thinking silently about what tomorrow would bring.