Amber Aitken - Heart to Heart

Romeo finally won the tug-of-war and claimed the broom as his own. He was just about to disappear down the hut steps when Coral grabbed the end back to reclaim it.

Further along, a game of beach cricket had started up. The players were laughing loudly and running about and both girls stopped to watch them for a few moments.

“You know, the problem with living in a nice beachy town like Sunday Harbour,” grumbled Coral, “is that the single people out there are just too busy having fun to think about how lonely they actually might be.” She frowned thoughtfully and leaned against her broom. “They make matchmaking very difficult indeed.” Romeo sat at her feet and stared solemnly ahead like he knew exactly what she meant. “I mean, isn’t being in love what life is all about? Could there be anything better? Nobody can play beach cricket forever, can they?”

“Too right,” Nicks agreed. “But look, would you just give me that broom?” she said impatiently. “If you sweep any more slowly you’ll wear a hole in the floor.”

Coral grinned, handing the broom over cheerfully. “Sure, Nicky-Nicks. I’ll tidy up the inside of the hut, shall I?”

But it wasn’t really a question. Before Nicks could answer, Coral had dashed through the door. She simply loved being inside Coral Hut. With its whitewashed walls and the pretty rug of scrambling pink primroses, it hadn’t changed much since her Great-Aunt Coral’s days.

Coral sighed as she looked around at the walls decorated with gold-framed pictures of chubby cherubs and the two shelves with books of romantic poetry. The whole room was like a shrine to love. What could be better than that? CRREEAAK!

The sudden noise from next door snapped Coral out of her reverie. The sound was like furniture scraping. It really was a mystery. Coral shivered, even though it was warm. Perhaps she’d had too much sun. Or maybe it was time to head for the safety of home.

It was still morning when the girls got back to the beach hut, having handed out Cupid Company questionnaires to anyone who looked just a little bit lonely. Coral Hut stood fresh and pretty in its new coat of pale pink, lemon-yellow and minty-green stripes. There was no other hut quite like it among those dotted along Sunday Harbour’s promenade. The girls slowed to admire it.

The glossy red hut on the right-hand side of Coral Hut stood locked up tight, silent and gleaming in the bright sunlight.

The hut on the other side - named Headquarters - was painted a khaki colour and had camouflage netting thrown across its roof. Unlike the red hut, this hut buzzed with activity. Its small double doors were thrown wide open and Coral and Nicks’s neighbour Birdie, was lifting and bending and packing things into a rucksack at a frantic pace.

“Are you off somewhere?” Coral called out.

“Oh, hello, dears,” Birdie called over. “The Captain and I are going away for a few weeks.”

The girls stood still, waiting for Birdie to say something else. Birdie was the most talkative woman they knew - she spoke in chapters, not sentences. You never had to ask Birdie for more information, but this morning she was pretty quiet.

“So where are you going to?” Nicks finally asked, when they could wait no longer.

Birdie now held a torch in her hand. She shook it irritably and pressed the on/off switch several times. Pressing her eye to the end of the torch, she tried again. This time a bright beam of yellow light shot straight out. She dropped the torch and blinked a few times, momentarily blinded.

“Er, what was that, girls?”

“Where are you going?” repeated Nicks.

Birdie retrieved the torch from the deck and placed it in a small cardboard box. “My sister has just moved up north to the city. We promised we’d visit,” she finally replied.

“That is nice,” said Nicks, when it was obvious that Birdie was only telling the story in very small doses.

Birdie sighed. “Not really. I’m not fond of over-populated spaces.” She tried to smile - perhaps at the thought of seeing her sister - but the smile quickly dissolved into a grimace. Coral changed the subject.

“Birdie, we’ve been hearing some very strange noises—” she started.

“It’s terribly noisy in the city!” snorted Birdie.

Coral paused and chewed on her lip for a moment. “Not in the city… from the red beach hut next door. It sounds like—”

“Sounds like cars honking, engines roaring… traffic and trains… that’s all you hear in the city,” Birdie continued, ignoring them and visibly distressed. “It’s not like Sunday Harbour, where everything is quiet and peaceful.”

Coral decided to give it one more try. “But the noises coming from the red beach hut next door… they seem quite sinister.”

“Yes, yes, I know. And you’re quite right,” replied Birdie. “I must brave the city for my sister.” She paused and her eyes glazed over as she stared into the distance. Then she shuddered and snapped out of the moment before quickly resuming her packing. A compass, a pair of binoculars, mosquito nets, a set of two-way radios - they all went in her rucksack.

The girls watched her and sucked on their lips in concern.

“Maybe you’re misjudging the city a little?” suggested Nicks when Birdie added a tray of camouflage face paint to the bag.

Birdie glanced from the bag to the girls and back again. She stood upright and gave a small chuckle. “Perhaps you’re right.”

Both girls sighed with relief. That was more like the old Birdie.

“Attention, please!”

The girls spun round and found their noses touching an olive-green shirt with the word ARMY spelled in black across its front. It was Birdie’s husband.

“Morning, Captain!” They saluted half-heartedly (they still felt a little silly doing the salute thing).

The Captain smiled and tapped their heads affectionately. He moved over to the rucksack, limping slightly as he moved. If it weren’t for his bad knee he’d still be leopard-crawling through the bush with the rest of his beloved army comrades.

“Do we have everything?” he asked.

Birdie nodded. “It should be safe to leave the rest, I think.”

The Captain made a noise like a light aircraft coming in to land, as if he was considering things. “Well, I hope so,” he finally replied. “And I hope we can trust those four girls to be careful with Headquarters.”

“What four girls?” asked Coral, looking around Birdie and the Captain’s beach hut.

Suddenly, Romeo barked. A bold seagull had landed on the deck railing behind Birdie.

“Oh, I’m sorry, girls!” said Birdie, as if Romeo had been barking directly at her. “I should have told you that my niece Saffron is going to be staying in our house while we’re away. It’s the least we can do - after all, she’s given up her bedroom in the city for us.” Just the mention of the word ‘city’ seemed to turn Birdie nervous again. But then she coughed hard and squared her shoulders.

“Anyway, dears, Saffron and her friends will be making use of our home and our lovely beach hut while we’re away, which of course we’re delighted about. We trust her completely.”

The Captain made that light aircraft sort of a noise again. “Out of sight, out of mind, I say,” he replied. “We can’t take any chances with my specialised army gear.” He glanced lovingly at the rucksack they were taking away with them.

Birdie rolled her eyes and bent to zip up the bag. It was clearly time for them to leave. She kissed both girls on the forehead while the Captain closed and locked the doors to Headquarters. They waved goodbye. And then they were gone…