String of Fate

Chapter Fifty One

My parents had decided that for two weeks of the summer holidays to celebrate me finishing school and my sixteenth birthday, there would be a nice family holiday to Spain. Without me. I honestly didn't really mind. It meant that I got to spend two weeks with my grandmother in her store instead of dealing with the family that I sometimes found suffocating.

I hadn't seen her for ages, since Christmas in fact, because she lived a three hour train ride away in a little seaside town where my mother had grown up. My mother had moved to be closer to her university and to my father's parents. I had been looking forward to my personal holiday almost as much as my parents had been looking forward to their Spain holiday.

I just hadn't expected the weather to be so warm in this part of the world. The country was known as one of the colder countries on the planet. I hadn't expected the working in the shop to be so boring either, or the wanting to go with the surfer school customers when they talked about the surfing lesson that they had either just done or were about to go on.

My grandmother hadn't told me that the surf shop had opened last year, or that the ice cream parlour had come under new management. I had just assumed that it would have been closed down when the owner had died, but her granddaughter now owned it, running it with her girlfriend. It might be a good idea to visit my grandmother in her home town at Christmas time instead of just seeing her at the summer time.

"You're not looking forward to work tomorrow, are you?" My grandmother wondered on my second evening staying there. I glanced up at her from the ham, egg and chips that we had made together for tea. Was it that obvious that I found the shop work tedious and boring? I felt bad because I did want to take over the shop one day and it was unfair for me to hate it at the moment. "I know that you've been a little bored today. The rain does that to beach front shops. They always take a hit on the bad weather days. It's good that you're here, though. You should bring your laptop in with you tomorrow and you can use that behind the till."

"Great that sounds like a plan." I replied, thinking about how it would make the day less boring. I just hoped that there would be a Wi-Fi hotspot that I could connect to. Maybe the café across the road would have strong enough Wi-Fi that I could connect my laptop to. "Hopefully, the weather will be better for the shop tomorrow."

We finished our food and put the dishes in the sink before heading into the living room. I would do the dishes in the morning after breakfast like I usually did. Instead, we spent the evenings sitting in the living room and relaxing. My grandmother sat in her usual reclining armchair while I stretched out on the settee like I usually did.

"The forecast said sunny. If you wear a bather then you can go swimming in your lunch break if the weather stays warm enough." My gran explained. She picked up her book, opening it and pulling out the bookmark. She always liked to read in the evenings. I wondered how she had any books left to read. I pulled my laptop out of the bag and loaded it up. "I remember how cold the water is. I might go for a swim in the morning and you could open up for me. I haven't swum in the sea since Rachel died."

"Won't it be extremely cold in the morning? Shouldn't you wait until it warms up a bit?" I blurted. "I wouldn't like you getting ill."

She looked at me from the pages of her book, looking over the top of her reading glasses. "Of course it is, but it's refreshing. Would you mind opening the shop in the morning? It would be good practice if you decide to keep it after I've died. It will be yours, after all."

"What? Are you serious?" I questioned. She nodded before going back to her book. I mean, I didn't think about her dying. I just expected her to be there forever. "Of course I'd keep the shop, but you're going to be here for years yet."