expire

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The park was empty when we reached it. The slide was damp and the climbing frame flaked paint, and the swings were swaying on rusty hinges. It was as if though ghosts were riding them. Not that such things existed, of course.

Yet that was what made it my favourite place. Not the possible prescence of ghosts, of course, but the quiet, the inevitable peace. It was always empty. Which was why I liked it. It is nice to get away from parents, sometimes.

I always take my sister here for walks. She has never liked it as much as I do though, unless it’s raining. The ditches in the ground serve as great splashing pools. Like today; I watch her run over to the gate, slam it back on its hinges and race to the nearest puddle in those trademark and clumpy cow-print wellies. Maggie had always had a thing for water.

Her twin, however, was not fond of rain at all. Alice stood and sulked next to the park gate, not wanting to get her fingers wet whilst opening it. At first, Mum had thought that Alice had OCD, but it turned out she just had a stubborn aversion to rain.

“Aaaaalliiiceee!!”

The shrill voice of my 6-year old sister beckoned her twin from where she stood, triumphantly, at the top of the slide. Alice’s stubborn expression wavered slightly for a second, before she stuck out her bottom lip and turned her back on the park. I smiled, padded over to where she stood, and took her small hand in mine.

“C’mon Alice, it’ll be fun! I’ll push you on the swings!” She turned round to face me.

“No it won’t. It’s all wet and yucky. I hate rain,”

I bent down to her level and brought out the blue checked tea towel Mum had armed me with. “I brought the slidy tea towel…” This, I knew now from many rainy park experiences, was her weak point. She smiled a tiny smile, brushed her dishevelled blonde hair out of her face and took it.

“Thanks Ivy,” she whispered, as though ashamed at giving in, before gingerly opening the gate with her pinkie finger and skipping over to where Maggie stood on the climbing frame. Ha. The things I do for my family.

Today was just one of the many rainy days forecast to come by the weather people on TV. Usually I wouldn’t trust them, since they mostly got it wrong, but right now their wet and dripping predictions became uncannily true. I realised, only too late after the start of the rainy season, that I had grown several sizes too big for my wellies. I ruined a good pair of trainers due to that.

I followed Alice into the park, catching the gate before it crashed into its already broken lock. Teenagers had seen to that. They used to come here all the time, to smoke and graffiti, before the council opened a newer park and they decided to go trash that instead. Since then the park has been free territory, as council now no longer bother with the usually regular litter pickers and clean-up teams. It's a convenient place to walk to for us, living just two blocks away; also as no one else dares come again in case the teenagers decide to revisit. Plus, it’s quiet. Something you rarely come across in our neighbourhood.

“Ivyyyy! Push meee!” Maggie’s voice awakened me from my thoughts, and I looked up to see her perched on the slide, Alice standing nervously behind her.

“Coming!” I called as I crossed over to the climbing frame, kicking bark chippings out of my way as I did so. The climbing frame was old, and its age showed as I climbed the once-red-but-now-rusty-red rungs up to my sister, the metal creaking with each step. Alice made way for me as I hoisted myself onto the moaning metal platform, letting my legs dangle off the edge as I twisted to the side, reaching out my hands to Maggie who sat expectantly on the slide. “Ready?”

“Yup,”

I pushed her forward, and watched as she squealed her way down to the bottom, leaping up and to the side as she waited for Alice to do the same. Her sister, now smiling brightly with her brief moody phase forgotten, moved forward and laid down the tea towel on the top of the slide, consequently plonking herself down onto it. She smiled back at me, which I took for a ‘push-me-now-please’, and so I nudged her forward, listening out for her identical squeal. Once she had arrived safely at the bottom, I settled myself at the top of the slide, now dry from its previous tea-towel descent. I shoved myself downwards, my feet reaching the end sooner than my sister’s. After all, I was taller than them; Being older had its advantages.