Secret Jewel of the Ocean

Chapter 16

Blue Hill, Maine was empty.

When I arrived at my grandparent’s house, I looked around their neighborhood to see only a few people outside. Maybe it was because of the dark, threatening clouds lingering over the premises, but I had expected to see more action than that. Not that I really cared…I wasn’t going to be leaving the house much anyway. I had no desire to.

“Hi, sweetie.” My grandma welcomed me into a warm hug, but I didn’t return the favor. She had this look of sympathy that I really couldn’t handle seeing. I didn’t want any sympathy - I wanted Jewel back.

“Honey, why don’t you help us unpack?” my mom said as I tried to plan my escape upstairs and into the guest bedroom for a very long nap in peace.

I sighed, knowing that my mom wasn’t suggesting - she was telling - me to help out. Making my way out to the jeep, I attempted to avoid the many memories whirling in my head like a tornado of regret and sadness. Being in the same place where such a horrid misfortune happened was beyond painful; I wanted to run and hide from everyone and everything that brought back any type of reminder that my best friend was dead.

“Here you go, hun,” my daddy said as he handed me my black suitcase. I wheeled it up to the front door and carried it upstairs to the guest bedroom, not bothering to unpack any of it. Once alone, I let myself fall into a heap of despair on the perfectly-made bed. It was so painful - the loss of my best friend. I kept telling myself that things would get better, but no result comforted me. My old life was vanishing into the wind, and my hope wasn’t far behind it.

It’s not that I didn’t want to feel better. I wished that I could. But it was simply too tough to gather up enough strength. I couldn’t find any sparks of faith inside me that could survive through this heartache.

It just goes to show how weak I was.

“April?”

My eyes flutter open, heavy with fatigue, and focus on my grandfather. Sitting on the bed I had fallen asleep on, he patted my feet, which were under warm cotton covers. “Why don’t we go get some ice-cream? You and me - like the old days.”

I looked up at him, remembering how it used to be. Every summer that I visited my grandparents, my grandpa would take me with him to get an ice-cream cone. He wouldn’t let anyone else join us. Whenever my mom or dad or grandma questioned the exclusiveness, my grandpa would tell them to leave him alone and let him spend some time with his only granddaughter that he sees just once a year.

No one bothered asking to leave with us anymore.

Anyway, there was this really cute ice-cream parlor a few blocks away from my grandparent’s house, and we’d always make an appearance there. But last summer, I noticed that it had been replaced. I guess they decided to close it, which is a real shame considering how cute it was. There was even a little store full of stuffed animals and candy in the back of the shop. My grandpa would get me a new stuffed animal every year, regardless of my age. I still have each of them lined up in my room, on a shelf near my bed.

“Okay,” I subsided, offering a little smile. “Let’s go.”

The streets of Blue Hill were packed with people - teenagers, adults, families, elderly people, etc. I heard laughs and saw excitement bounce around me as the sun set, portraying a scenery full of orange and pink.

The dark clouds had disappeared while I was sleeping, and the weather was lovely. A cool breeze of levity swept through my golden hair as I walked with my grandpa. The aroma of Italian food seized my senses, and we moved along, passing a beautiful Italian restaurant on the corner. I inhaled deeply, taking in the scents around me.

This was the first time in a long while that I had been out for anything other than school or events that my parents dragged me to. I felt completely out of place, like I didn’t belong anywhere. It was almost as though half of me was dead, and the other half lived on, lost and lifeless.

I tugged on the sleeves of my hoodie. The evening air had a chilling bite to it, and I was beginning to shiver. “It’s a cold night, isn’t it?” my grandfather said, breaking the peace.

I nodded and looked into the window of one of the shops we were passing. There were all kinds of colorful, trendy clothing inside; Jewel would’ve dragged me into it so quickly.

That is, if Jewel was still there.

“Where are we going?” I asked, remembering that the old ice-cream shop was closed for good.

“There’s a place down the street a bit, to the right.”

The area he pointed out seemed so familiar. Obviously I had been there before, considering I had gone to Blue Hill every summer. But right where my grandpa mentioned brought on such an odd feeling for me.

We continued onward, and darkness seized the last touch of light. Street lights shined down on the groups of people swarming around us. The rush of summer hype grew loud with happiness and pleasure as I slowly sauntered on, my head focused on the ground below me.

“Ah, here we are,” my grandpa said as we approached the ice-cream store. “Jewel’s Sweet Escape.”