A Walk On The Beach

Chapter 2

Boy

HOLIDAYS ARE MOST fun in the Harvey household; there’s no budget. We go on holiday every summer and every winter. Also every autumn break and every spring break. Sometimes, I’m just glad to go home and, sometimes, even back to school. We’re always abroad. We’ve almost gone everywhere.

Of course, it’s fun...if you’re not surrounded by three little kids and one grumpy older sister, whose life revolves around her iPhone. This is her last holiday with us, anyway, before she goes off to Uni.

This summer we’re on an Island. It’s beautiful, says Mum. It’s cheap, says Dad. But then everything is cheap to him. He’s got a well-paid job, and when Granny died, she’d left us all her money. So, duh, we’re quite rich right now. We’re going on two holidays this summer. After a week here on the Island, we’re off to Hong Kong for the last four weeks of the summer holiday. Then I’m back to school. Really, I’m just looking forward to going back to my room, with my new games console. My mate Lloyd has been complaining about how he’s been grounded for the entire holiday. No gaming for him. Shame. But then I’m not that much better off. It’s like I’ve been grounded too. Parents can be so lame.

“Jordan! Come down here!” my sister Zoe yells. Her voice rings through the beach house.

I heave myself up from my hammock. I'd set it up as soon as we got here. Seriously, a bed is too boring. I got Dad to take the bed downstairs. I told him that we’ll take it back up when we go.

“JORDAN!”

I run to the top of the stairs and yell, “Calm down, BITCH. I’m coming!”

“Jordan, that’s Mum,” my little sister Caitlyn tells me. She folds her arms across her chest and arches an eyebrow. “Zoe’s flirting with the guys on the beach. Says she’ll be back by dinner.”

I groan. “Sorry, Mum!”

“I don’t think she’s listening to you at the moment,” Caitlyn says. She turns to go back into her room. She pauses. “But you’ll get it at dinnertime. Prepare to suffer for what you said.”

“Do you think I should go downstairs?” I ask. But the thirteen-year-old is already in her room. “Thanks a lot, Cait.”

So, trusting my instincts, I go downstairs. Mum is nowhere to be seen. Dad is at the front, where Tyler and Evelyn are building sand castles. I’m confused. Just two minutes ago, women of this house were screaming at me to come downstairs. Two minutes later, I’m downstairs – but none of those women are around. Women – I really don’t get them.

Something is in my pocket. I’m wearing the same pair of shorts I was last night. Can’t blame me. Mum’s doing all the laundry on Wednesday and today’s Monday. Plus, we’re only allowed to unpack three outfits. The rest is for Hong Kong, because apparently we’ve gone around the entire world now apart from China – and because apparently they don’t have any shops for us to buy clothes from. Yeah, Mum – but you can’t go around without seeing things without the print ‘Made in China’. Okay, so I’ve been told that Hong Kong is, like, only part of China – not really China. Whatever. But Zoe can’t wait til we go there. She says it’s, like, great because things there are cheap and she’s going to ‘shop until she drops’. Er, okay, Zoe.

I get out of the house and stumble onto the beach. Hot – too hot – sand scolds my bare feet. I jump onto the cooler pavement beside the house. The thing in my pocket jangles. Its sound made is twinkly – like a million stars. I pull it out and hold it out in front of me. It’s a key – a key to one of those sick scooters they’re renting out here on the Island. There are little tiny bells attached to them – blue bells. Then I remember where this is from. I'd found it on the pavement. I'd gone out on my own, roaming the streets of the Island, terrorising kids out late. Ha, no. Just kidding. I was running errands for my dad. Not very interesting is it? Anyway, this belongs to a girl, who was also wandering around near the beach. She was rummaging for something in her bag. I was walking like several metres behind her. Something fell from her bag but she didn’t seem to notice. She was on the phone. I tried calling for her; she didn’t hear me. And then Evelyn pulled me to the house. She told me, “Daddy was waiting for you, Jordan! Come on!”