a cottage secret

a regular summer day

It was a regular summer day. The road was quiet and beautiful, more so than the girl thought it would be. She wasn't so thrilled with the idea of leaving her family right before her trip but her parents were figuring some things out and thought it would be better for her to stay away from that mess. So she agreed to go to Nana's farm for the season.

She couldn't stop looking at the window of the car. Everything was going so fast. The trees seemed to be dancing and the clouds seemed to be following her.

For some reason, she wasn't feeling melancholic. Yes, she wouldn't see her parents in a while. Yes, they couldn't stop arguing. Yes, she was moving to another country in a few months. She was understandably terrified. But at the same time, her heart was vibrating to life's beat – nothing could stand in her way. Her life was finally going to begin.

Her hair was flying high and the world was shining bright.

After a few hours in the car, she stepped outside when they got to the farm. Her father and her mother hugged her and told her to call whenever she needed to. They both gave her a kiss on the forehead and greeted the grandma Then off they went, alone and together again in the car. They would probably discuss all the way back to the city. At least they kept their calm while she was there so she wouldn't get stressed on her first day away.

Grandma was a sixty years old lady with long grey hair tied in a knot. She usually wore a white dress with a brown apron over it. Her farm was the biggest in the county and she had lots of employers. They used to call her Barb. She took care of the garden herself and went to the farmers' market alone every time. She took big pride in her vegetables.

Her granddaughter, her only one, had been there only two times before and didn't recognize everything. There was a wooden porch before the entrance, with many chairs with colorful cushions. The house itself was white and had many, many windows. Each and every one of them had space for flower pots.

She took out her shoes to go in and let her bare feet slide through the clean wooden floors. Some of the staff said hi to her but she couldn't remember any of her faces. After putting her bags in her bedroom on the second floor, she went to the kitchen to make her some coffee and then to the front porch yard to drink it peacefully.

She could hear the sound of birds making nests on the roof. The wind singing while touching the flowers of the field a few meters away.

She could never hear any of that in the city. Only cars and mad people.

Even her coffee smelled better than usual.

She was happy. It seemed like that summer would be better than she expected. She could only feel nature's peace and order.

What would she do now? There were so many possibilities. She could help her grandma take care of the garden, or maybe watch the other people take care of the horses, the chickens, the kitchen. She could learn how to make those amazing scones she remembered having when she was a kid.

Ah, she'd probably never learn. For that moment, all she wanted was to look around and get inspired.

The closest house to Nana's big farm was a small yellow one a few meters to the left. The cook told her there lived a family of three, soon to be four - seven if you included the pets. There was Sophie, who took care of the house and baked the best pies of the region and was pregnant of another child; then there was Rick, who planted vegetables and sometimes would take care of the neighbors' cattle to get a little more money; and there was Elizabeth, also known as Betty. She was their kid, maybe sixteen years old.

Betty had dark blond curly hair that she kept tied down with a piece of old cloth. Her eyes were hazel and her nose looked like a button. She also had freckles in her face that she terribly tried to hide. Her smile was a bit crooked and she was ashamed of it – which made her a little shy. But overall, a "great girl" as everyone called her.

She had seen the other girl arrive in the fancy car by her bedroom window. When she put her feet on the ground for the first time, Betty's heart skipped a beat. That girl was intimidating, with her fancy white shoes that would soon get muddy and beautiful fancy clothes. Her hair was long and black and flowed with the wind. Her eye color was impossible to see but Betty was sure her eyes were something otherworldly.

She stayed there in her bedroom, completely silent, trying to focus on a book or any other thing besides the girl who was sitting on that big porch – but she couldn't help her heart's desire to be her friend, to get to know her. But that friendship was probably just going to be imaginary since Betty would never have anything to talk to her about.

After half an hour, her parents got back home and asked her to pick some of the flowers from their garden so they could sell as bouquets. They had some beautiful sunflowers.