Short story number one

[searingedrock]

The sun was blazing and this is what they did when there was nothing to do: go to the beach. 

So Ross and Sarah and Johnathan and Lara are now sitting in Ross' mother's old Mazda and eating chips and Ross is complaining somewhat childishly "Ogosh allyuh I have to clean this car when I go home eh". Sarah and Lara go to the same school where all the other well-to-do girls go.  Ross and Johnathan go to the boy-school version of Sarah and Lara's school. 

Lara and Johnathan are brother and sister, but Ross and Sarah are friends, although they have had sex (in the back of Ross' mother's old Mazda after their last night of exams outside a party, Sarah trying not to be sick and Ross trying to finish because when he was drunk it was difficult) they pretend that it never happened.  But everyone knows. 

Johnathan says "Ey let's make this a short lime because I want to see Claire later".  Claire was his girlfriend and she was very popular because her parents were of French ancestry and very well off and she had blue eyes and creamy skin and because this was a colonial island, she was very popular.  In a book called "The History of Trinidad and Tobago" there were chapters on the important old families that built the island and Claire's ancestors were in it.  Johnathan's ancestors were poor agricultural workers from India who worked hard and opened a business and became rich.  Claire's family didn't know she was seeing Johnathan.

Sarah was singing with the song on the radio and sticking her head out of the window because the road they drove on was high up on a mountain and looking down she could see the bottom of the cliff and the ocean and trees and she liked the scary feeling she got.  Sarah and Ross' families weren't rich and their ancestors were not poor but not rich.  They were what one would have called 'mulatto' back in slavery days because they were mixed with both African and European, but these days they are called 'red-skinned'.  They had jobs like teachers and bank clerks because those were decent jobs and not humiliating like a labourer. 


Suddenly Sarah is halfway out of the window and she is screaming and Ross looks over with bulging eyes and remembers the road and swerves a bit, reaching for her in the passenger seat, but Johnathan lunges forward from the back and pulls at her clothes, dragging her back into the car.  Ross sucks his teeth audibly in disgust but Johnathan calls her a real stupid fool and asks whether she does try to be so stupid or whether she is a natural.  Lara laughs and laughs because in her heart of hearts she adores Sarah and wants to be wild and ridiculous like her and have all the boys panting after her pants too but as her mother says she has no time to be playing the ass and after her scholarship and degree she could study man.

And they drive down into the wide arcing bay with its palm fronds and gentle rolling waves and the sun becomes like a blanket of quiet and they hear everything: the waves, a child in a small snackette crying, old women cackling and in the distance, loud booming music.  Because in the heat all things move slowly.

The water is clear and in the open bay it is navy.  Johnathan and Ross are smoking weed and Lara is listening to music on her ipod.  Sarah is spinning and spinning in the water and her hair is golden curly waves and her skin is golden in the sun and Johnathan is watching her.  He passes the joint to Ross and runs down to the beach grabbing Sarah by the waist and laughing when she screams.  Ross begins walking slowly, coolly, down to the water.  The sunlight is almost to bright to bear.  Lara watches them from the shade of a coconut tree and then looks up and stares into the sun until her eyes burn and tear, running down her face.