'Cora?’ Rob called and jumped to his feet.
He ran outside and saw in a cloud of dust and debris Nana Spence hunched over resting her hands on her knees.
‘Are you okay?’ Rob asked concerned.
‘Fine,’ she croaked, ‘just a little winded...’
Rob went to his grandmother’s side and helped her back into the house.
‘We’re going to have to get that door fixed,’ she said as the two of them stepped through the empty door frame, ‘let’s put it back on its hinges before it gets dark.’ She looked at Rob and smiled, ‘and then we’ve got to talk...’
Rob put the sledgehammer back in the garden shed and fixed the front door back into its frame. He poured his grandmother a cup of tea and made her the only meal he knew how to make; beans on toast.
Rob generously buttered the toast and poured the slightly burnt beans on top. Nana Spence ate slowly and in silence. She finished the rest of her tea and Rob put the cup and plate next to the sink.
Robert looked outside through the window behind the sink and washed the dirty cup and plate. The sky outside had turned a miserable grey. Rain hung to the cool wind that swirled about on the cold summer’s day and the sun hid behind a veil of clouds.
Rob lit the fire in the lounge and brought his grandmother a blanket. He sat in the armchair opposite her and eagerly waited for her to start talking.
‘Your leg has turned silver because you have touched a star,’ Nana Spence said quite simply.
‘The thing that fell into the sea?’ Rob asked.
‘Yes. I believe it was a star...’ she sighed and added quietly, ‘a star that many have been waiting for...’
A look of sadness lingered across the elderly woman’s face and her eyes became distant.
‘I have seen a silvery burn such as this only once before now...with your father.’
‘My dad?’ Rob whispered.
‘Yes,’ Nana Spence nodded.
Robert Clarke could remember very little about his parents, they died when he was three and he certainly didn’t remember anything about his father touching a star.
All he really knew about them was that his father had died from a heart attack and his mother had died from a broken heart.
He found it sad that that was all he knew about them and that all he felt sad about was feeling sad about how little he knew about his parents.
He did not miss them or love them. How could he miss someone he never really met? How could he love someone he couldn’t remember?
Robert rarely thought about his parents, not even on Father’s Day or Mothering Sunday. Others had parents, he had Nana Spence. She was the only parent he needed. Rob cleared his mind and returned his attention to the elderly woman sitting opposite him.
‘You see Robert...’ Nana Spence continued, ‘your father was a Star Catcher...’
‘A Star Catcher?’ Rob breathed.
‘Yes, he could harness the power of stars,’ Nana Spence explained. ‘For as long as humans have lived there have been Star Catchers. Your father was one and now so are you...you see, your father had a heart of silver.’
‘Don’t you mean a heart of gold?’ Rob corrected.
‘No,’ Nana Spence smiled, ‘I mean it was quite literally the colour silver, much like your leg. When your father was a young boy he cut himself on a small piece of a star and it turned his heart silver. Your grandfather kept fragments of stars he had found over the years...’
YOU ARE READING
The Bearded Man and The Ghost Girl
Teen Fiction'Robert first saw the ghost girl standing in the churchyard. Her hair was long, her skin was pale and her body glowed, bathing the nearby graves in a cool white light. She was unlike any girl Robert had seen. Her face was unconventionally beautiful...
