~6~

Paradise Cove was a neat little seaside town. It had long yellow beaches lined with Norfolk pines and the occasional giant fern or palm tree. The sea was beautiful—vast, blue and glistening. If you looked at it too long it stung your eyes. The place was so bright, so colourful, so lovely; I almost forgot that I didn’t want to be here and that I had recently fainted from heatstroke.

 

Dolphin Cottage was a big house with wooden panels with flaking white paint. The roof was corrugated iron and was littered with gum leaves and sticks and possum poop. It had a statue of a dolphin outside, which was the only thing that looked classy and remotely new about the place. I insisted that I was fine, but Clea and Tanielle supported me up the stairs and onto the deck while Mrs Tollina fumbled with the lock and key.

 

We went inside, feeling that whoosh of air from a house that has been empty a long time. We were hit by the pleasant, woody house-smell of the place. I saw a table, some lounge chairs, a small TV, and a door leading to another room.

“Right!” said Mrs. Tollina, satisfied. “You go… go kill each other for the best room.”

Obediently, we dashed off through the door into the next room, even me. It was the kitchen, with its old-looking linoleum and counters, off-white fridge and green stove thing. Then there was another door, leading to a sort of games room, I guessed. It was a wide rectangle, with some vinyl couches and a big bookshelf. There were many doors coming off this room. Tanielle dashed forward and peeked in one of them.

“Bedrooms!” she announced. We split up, heading for the doors.

“Oh my God, this is beautiful!” I heard Clea yell from hers.

“Wow, awesome!”

“Ha!”

I opened the door I had chosen, and found a small room with a single bed. It had a wall mirror and a wicker bedside table with some complimentary lemon soap. Odd. This house had obviously been empty for a good while… why would there be complimentary lemon soap?

 

“Dibbs this room!” shrieked Tanielle, diving into one. I threw my bag on the bed and went to investigate.

Tanielle’s room had a double bed with a rainbow doona, and a wide window looking out over the trees. You could just see the sea. In the corner was an artist’s easel.

“Look!” she pointed to it, her mouth in a wide open smile. “LOOK!”

 

Clea’s room was blue all over… blue bedspread, blue walls, blue carpet, blue vanity table. The windows lead out to a balcony, like she had at home. She sat there when things were worrying her. I sometimes wish I had one of those.

“It’s perfect!” she cried, hugging the bed.

 

Kay’s room had a squishy purple couch next to the bed. It also had a desk with a lamp, and a view of the sea.

 

Rachel’s room was a nice shade of green, with a comfortable chair looking out to the ocean. “This is gorgeous,” she breathed.

 

“This is weird,” I declared when we met in the middle of the games room. “It’s as if these rooms have been custom made for us.”

“I know,” said Kay. “It’s almost spooky.”

“Hey girls! Found rooms?” Ms Richards popped into the games room.

We nodded.

“This place is huge, you know,” she continued. “It looked a lot smaller from the outside.”

I raised my eyebrows. It had looked smaller from the outside. A lot smaller.

 

We decided to clean the place up a bit. We dusted and vacuumed and made the place as shiny and bright as the beach. It looked good.

“So, now we go relax after our hard labour,” said Tanielle.

“To the beach!” cried Kay.

“To the beach!” the rest of us agreed.

 

In the gathering dusk, the beach was beautiful. The sky was turning pink and the sea was following, splashing lazily at the sand. We followed Clea to the rocky cove she had found last time she was here, and we sat there and watched the sunset. It brought back memories. Last holidays we had raced down here to rescue Clea from her heart break, and had sat on these very rocks and discussed our adventures. And Rachel had told us that she had discovered that she was adopted.

I suddenly realised what a bitch I had been. She only wants to find her family!

But… I looked around at us. Clea, Tanielle, Kay, Rachel and I. We had always been together. We were like family. And if Rachel found her real family, what did that make us?

 

That was it. That was the root of the uneasy feelings. Rachel would go off with her lovely parents and leave us in the dark.

Would they take her back? Would we even ever find them? Were they actually her family? What would she do? Would she live with them, in the mountains, and leave us behind in the city?

 

I like to be in control. I don’t like change. I don’t like loneliness.