The Seasons

Summer - Part One

Confession time! This was my favourite one to write. I'm a sucker for cute surfers. Many garbage decisions in my life were made due to cute surfers. I have also been to Portugal many times, so it was delightful to revisit in my memories.

- Cam x

Summer

It was way too hot. The airport was stiflingly hot, and I had travelled through it by going from café to café, soaking up the air conditioning. Now, however, I was in arrivals, waiting for my sister Maria, and there wasn't a flash of air-con in sight. I groaned. I needed to change into shorts desperately.

My mother had suggested the trip to me, partly out of concern for my sister, and partly to get me out of her house. I had been crashing there since my boyfriend broke up with me and I lost my job in short succession, and admittedly 'one week' had turned into six months. The concern for my sister was due to the fact that my sister was, and always had been, a basket case. It was like the moment she turned twenty-three she lost all faith in the world and became an apathetic, depressing drain on everyone around her.

Ouch, I heard my conscience say. It wasn't her fault she was depressed. It was, however, her fault that she flat-out refused to accept anything was wrong and get help. Maria was a nightmare. A year ago, her husband had divorced her, and she had run off to Portugal, barely speaking to us once after her move. It had finally been too long for me to claim that I was 'too busy' to go and see her, and my mother had bought me the ticket and practically shoved me into the plane.

"Alex?!"

The bright, cheerful voice hit me before anything else. Then I saw her hair; blonde, mixed with caramel brown tones, lightened by the sun. She was in a sundress, white with pink flowers, and huge sunglasses. But it was her expression that shocked me the most; she was smiling. No, she was grinning, a beaming smile taking over her face. She lifted her sunglasses and I saw, with shock, that the smile met her eyes, joy radiating from them. This couldn't be my sister.

"Alex!" she cheered, racing over to me and leaping into my arms. "I can't believe you're here! Welcome to Praia de Luz! Well, sort of. Welcome to Faro airport, we'll be in Luz in like a half hour."

"Umm," I replied. "Hey...?"

"That's all you've got after a year?" she laughed at me, ruffling my hair. "C'mon, I parked in a no-parking zone, we've got to hurry - you'll be glad to know the car has air-con!"

My heart lifted at the thought of being remotely comfortable again. "Oh, thank God."

She led me out to the car, opening the passenger side door for me. "Whoa, it's weird being in a car with the steering wheel on the left," I said, as she pulled onto the right-hand side of the road. "Yep, that's also weird."

"I don't think I could drive a car in England now," she chuckled. "I've been driving since I got here, got my test sorted in the first week. I'm used to it now. So anyway, how was your flight?"

"Loud," I replied. "There was a screaming baby in front of me the whole trip."

"Aww, they can be cute when they're settled," she laughed. "You get a fair amount of crying children at the beach near my flat, but all you have to do is wait for the doughnut guy to come around."

"The... doughnut guy?" I asked, bemused.

"Oh, he's ace," she grinned. "He walks around the beach with hot sugary doughnuts, it's like two for a euro. I swear, I take my lunch break there purely for them. It shouldn't work, hot weather with hot doughnuts, but it totally does."