A Simple Love

 

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Chapter 1

Seven Years previously......
 

While the suns blinding me from seeing her actual face I’m treading water looking up at the rocks above.  All I can see is the silhouette of Ellie.  Ellie my best friend, a tough little pixie.  She has long brown wavy hair with a red tint, bright blue eyes and sits comfortably under my arm.  She may be small but no-one dare mess with El.  As she runs off the edge of the rocks she shouts ‘yahoo’ then curls into a complete ball, hitting the water like a large boulder making a splash worthy of a grown man’s.  She comes back up to the surface of the water, spitting out a mouth full of water, her hair all drawn back off her face “Let’s jump again, come on you and me holding hands” making her way back over to the trail that makes it way up to the top.

 I reluctantly follow her.  She walks out of the water, not caring that her swimmers have raised above the usual position on her bum.  I instantly turn red and really try to look away, but their is just no way you don’t look at Ellie.  Just as I’m making my way out of the water my twin brother makes a grand entry out of the bush.  “Come on El, lets jump” he says grabbing her hand.  She looks back at me and gives me a reassuring look.  The look she always gives me whenever Aden steels her away, which seems to more than often lately.  He is spirited like her, I’m much more subdue than those two.

While I’m climbing to the top of the rocks El and Aden have already jumped, and are splashing each other laughing.  “Wait Eddie til I get back up there” she yells at me while she is scrambling out of the water, with Aden watching her smiling.  He glances back up to me and winks.  I don’t like him looking at her but how do I stop it, jeez if I stopped every boy looking at her I would of punched up the whole school by now.  I wait at the top for her.  “Come on Eddie lets make a splash that pushes him right out of the water” grabbing hold of my hand and making me run carelessly with her.  Together we do make a large splash.  I know what Aden’s thinking as he sits on one of the halve submerged rocks, after all he is my twin.  Aden had other things on his mind when he looked at El that way.

“Mum wants us home for lunch bro” he says putting a helping hand out to El who is starting to walk out of the water.  “I’m ok Aden thanks” she says not accepting his hand.  “Come on you two your mum won’t be happy if we are late” grabbing her shorts off the tree branch where she had thrown them earlier, hopping along putting one leg then the other in while she is still moving.  I couldn't do that I would of toppled over, but not Ellie she seemed to be able to do everything perfectly.  Aden is behind her ready to catch her.  He has been hanging around with us a little bit more than usual lately.  El doesn’t think much about it but I have noticed it.  He usually has some sporting event to attend or some mate or girl to go see so yes I was getting a little suspicious of his ‘hanging around.’

 Ellie and I had a special friendship.  We had been best friends from when we were about ten years old.  We became friends when I had been sitting down at the rock pools having ‘time out,’ executed by my mum.  A household of four boys became rather loud and stressful so spots around the acreage was mum’s way of settling us down.  Down the rock pools was mine.  I was sitting on the bank skimming pebbles when I heard rustling coming from the bush, then a thin little girl appeared holding a large rope.  “Hey you, come and help me hang this over that branch” she demanded.  So I did.

I threw it up and over the branch, she tied it off, stripped down to her swimmers, held the rope as she back up, ran and swung out over the water letting go exactly when she should of so she got maximum height effect for the fall in.  She climb out handed me the rope and told me it was my turn.  “No thanks” I said.  “What’s wrong, it was fun, come on do it at least once, then if you don’t like it I’ll never get you to do it again” she said smiling at me.  “Oh I’m Ellie by the way, we just moved in over there.”  “I’m Eddie, we live over that way” turning in the other direction.  I took the rope off her knowing I was probably going to fall on my head, but she was right I had to have at least one try.  I didn’t fall off that day, but I did plenty of other times much to her amusement.

Ellie was hot headed, wild, noisy and crazy.  I was calm, cautious, quiet and not as crazy.  I always ended doing something silly when we were together but it was always her idea.  She was also very very smart.  When she did stop and we talked she totally amazed me.  She never studied.  I always needed to study.  She could read an entire school subject over once and just memorise it.  She knew I needed to study, so she would sit with me and read the whole subject over again to me.  She helped me pass every subject, only just but, I would never score ‘A’s like her but I would pass and that was all that matters.  We became pretty inseparable.

She was an only child and her house was pretty boring and quiet.  We would always be at my house although and especially on Sundays for lunch.  My big brother Jim would have the BBQ fired up.  We would all sit around the large timber bench that sat amongst the shady trees in our backyard.  Mum would bring all the food out and we would feast.  My little brother Jamie would plonk himself down next to Ellie.  She was like a little midget amongst us boys.  She would help my mum with the food like she was part of the family.  Dad would make sure we all thanked both Mum and Ellie.  This was the only time she didn’t talk as much.  She loved listening to all of banter on about something.  She would laugh along, and would chirp up when we were talking about something that had happened that included her.

Ellie’s Dad was the Maintenance/Gardener for the upper class family that lived behind us across the water.  Her mum cleaned the house and cooked for them.  Ellie was sort of forced to be friends with the rich families daughter Elizabeth.  Ellie was pleasant to her but always a tiny bit guarded.  Elizabeth would quite often include herself in our activities.  Aden would flirt with Elizabeth but she was always determined to sit with me.  Aden and I were identical.  So from about twelve onwards we made sure we never looked the same.  He was a little broader than me and always kept a buzz cut.  I liked my hair a little longer and was not so metro.  He was going to be a policeman.  I was going to be ‘whatever‘ I felt like.  Ellie was going to be a doctor.  And I never underestimated that was exactly what she would end up being.  Elizabeth was going to be the complete opposite to what her father said she was going to be.

As we sailed thru our early teen years, Ellie, Elizabeth, Aden and I would all hang down the rock pools in summer.  We would spend all day down there where the water was cool and shaded.  Our rope swing still hung over the water.  We would all swing over the water on it.  There was a large rock ledge that we would jump off except Elizabeth who was always too scared.  Aden always stirred her about this, daring her continually.  I never got into it, it had taken me a bit of encouragement on Ellie’s behalf to jump off a few years ago, so I knew how she felt.  She would stay at the bottom and watch with me.  

One of the days when we were about fifteen she spoke up about jumping. “I’ll jump off if you hold my hand Eddie” she whispered to me smiling.  I could see Ellie watching us from the top before she ran and jumped, with Aden jumping in straight after.  Ellie swam over to us, smiling at me and giving me a questioning look about what the whisper was about.  “Elizabeth will jump if I hold her hand” I said.  “Go on then” Aden pipes up.  “Go for it Elizabeth, don’t let her go Eddie” Ellie says smiling at me as she treads water.  I get up and hold my hand out to her, with her allowing me to lift her to her feet and guide her up the track.  I could see she was smiling.

We make it to the top, with her peering over the edge.  Then she stands close to me waiting for me to reassure her.  “Ellie helped me jump the first time, maybe she is the best one to have up here with you” I say to her.  “No, I want you here, I like holding your hand” she says a little too close.  “Come on then it gets worst if you delay it” grabbing her hand.  “Wait...” she says taking a breathe stopping me from pulling her.  “Maybe another day then” I say to her a little impatiently.  “No, I’ll do it, just make sure your there at the bottom to help me ok” she says like a little girl.  “Ok, lets do this” dragging her not allowing her to think anymore.

We jump and as she emerges from water she doesn’t stop talking about how much fun that was.  “Aden you jump with her next” I say trying to discourage her from including me in the next time.  “No, Eddie just you and me, come lets do it again” pushing me towards the waters edge.  I look at Ellie who is looking at me.  “Come on Ellie come up with us” I say.  She hops back in the water off the rock she had been sitting on, the only rock that had a shaft of sun shining on it, which had made her look like a dream with all the misty air from the small waterfall flying around.  “Ok, lets go, come on Beth I’ll teach you how do a ‘bomb’ drop” encouraging Beth to hold her hand.  I believe Ellie had just saved me from Elizabeth.

A few times over the passing year Elizabeth cornered me but Ellie always seemed to be their to save me.  I told Aden about Elizabeth annoying me.  Wrong move that was because now he found he could easily match himself up with Ellie whenever we went anywhere as Elizabeth was always hanging off me.  Luckily she didn’t go to the same school as us or life would be unbearable.  Why she couldn't just be friendly and not over-bearing I just didn’t get.  Ellie would make jokes about how I’m just a big cuddly teddy bear.  I would tell her Aden is bigger than me why doesn’t Elizabeth want to cuddle him.

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Chapter 2

After that summer Elizabeth hung around with us all the time.  She was an only child also so Ellie and her had one thing in common.  That was one thing, also my friendship which was the other one.  Elizabeth went to a upper class girls school about forty minutes from home.  Her parents owned all the land up to the national park with the rock pool that we all swam in.  She didn’t particularly like her father who thought she was going to be some kind of wonderful lawyer, but Elizabeth liked Art.  She was actually very good at sketching often sitting on the rocks at the water edge sketching away while we all swam. 

Aden had tried his hardest to get friendly with her.  He never had any trouble getting a girl to fall for him.  Elizabeth and Ellie were the only two girls he hadn’t hooked up with in the area I think.  He was the male version of Ellie.  He was confident, loud and a little crazy.  Him and Ellie were both very spirited.  This would sometimes cause dangerous challenges between them.  When walking to school they would dare each other to stand on the train tracks until the last minute.  They would both enter the paddock with the large prize winning Brahman bull tempting it to chase either one of them.  They would stir all the dogs along the fences.  It was often a really noisy walk to and from school.  Sometimes a little stressful.

Then at school they were involved in all the competitive sports they could be in.  I would go and watch Ellie dive off the highest spring boards, or run around the running track a few hundred laps (exaggerating of course, but that is what it felt like) or I would watch Aden swim a few hundred laps of the pool (again exaggerating) or cheer him on at the footy match.  I would be there for them encouraging them on.  Ellie always smiled at me at the end of each activity, she told me it made her happy knowing I was there for her, so I always made sure I was.  I don’t think Aden cared either way.  I think he only wanted me there because he knew wherever I was Ellie would be. 

When he played footy on the week-end Elizabeth always made the match too.  We would all sit and cheer him on, my whole family and the two girls.  I didn’t really feel left out that no-one ever cheered me on as I never did anything they could cheer for.  I thought I needed to find a sport I liked but I just didn’t really have a love for any sport.  I liked engines.  Car engines, motorbike engines even mowers.  I was known around as the kid that can fix any engine.  Dad let me have a little section of his shed where I would tinker in my spare time with whatever someone had dropped off for me to fix.  It came natural to me and I enjoyed it. 

Dad had been a mechanic in his younger years but now owned the local bakery with mum.  He even got me maintaining the machinery at the bakery for him.  He had an early retirement from manual work when he had his first heart attack at forty.  So life was at a way slower pace for our family.  Stressing out was not our families motto.  Ellie’s Dad and Mum never pushed her but always encouraged her to focus on her future.  They always made sure that her and I were strictly friends.  Boys and a career just weren’t in the equation.  This never stopped Aden flirting with both Ellie and Elizabeth, very unsuccessfully.  Elizabeth continually flirted with me although.

She would sit close to me, talk to me about the pressure her parents put on her.  She would tell he how envious she is of my family and mine and Ellie’s friendship.  She liked Ellie but sometimes I thought she only put up with her because she wanted to be near me.  I would ask Ellie about this, but she wouldn’t talk about it too in depth with me.  Maybe it was just my imagination.  Maybe Ellie would never think of me as anything but her best friend.  We were young, there was still plenty of time for us to become more.  That was the one thing in life I was sure of - that I would be with Ellie forever.  She was ying to my yang, my better other halve, she was wild I was calm, she was smart I wasn’t. 

In the last year of our school year when we started going to parties was when Ellie and I started to lean on each other a bit more.  We decided that if everyone thought we were together then we would have so much more fun.  No boy would annoy her and no girl would annoy me.  We would turn up together, hang around together, dance together, I would cuddle her and she would cuddle me but we just didn’t do anything else.  We tricked everyone except Aden and Elizabeth who both knew our plan.  I didn’t care that much except Elizabeth continually gripped that Ellie was getting all my attention.  Ellie didn’t care that Elizabeth complained, she liked that for once in her stuck up life she wasn’t getting her own way. 

“That’s not nice to think like that, I don’t think she has it that easy at home El” I said to her walking home from one of the parties.  “Oh you have no idea how rich that family is Eddie, we are both very poor compared to her, she could have anything she wanted” she said a little bit angrily.  “Doesn’t mean she is happy but El, your way smarter than her, you could have everything you want because your smart and your happy” I said.  “And you could have anything you want because your so kind hearted, and I think your happy” she said to me waiting for my answer.  “Yeah I’m happy but I don’t know what I’m going to do when you go off to University, I won’t be happy then.”  “I’ll be back each week-end it’s only the week days and you’ll be busy building something I bet” she said holding my arm.

I already knew that University was going to take up all our time.  For the first six months she tried her hardest to juggle Uni and home but it got harder and harder, then she made coming home fortnightly then monthly.  She would text me apologizing with me always letting her know it was ok.  Aden was having a gap year and working for mum and dad, and I was busy fixing my engines.  Elizabeth was having a gap year also.  She threatened her father that if she didn’t get a ‘year off‘ she wouldn’t pursue any career, so she was home a lot.  She was over my home a lot.  She would coax me down the rock pool for a swim, or talk me into taking her to a party.  She wanted me to pretend I was with her so the boys left her alone.  She told me that they were only after her for her money. 

This is when my life turned to crap.  I missed Ellie so much.  I started drinking a little more than I usually had at parties.  I just couldn't stop thinking about her.  That night I made the worst mistake I was ever going to make.  I got so drunk I ended up with Elizabeth naked down at the rock pool.  I really don’t remember much at all, except that when I woke up Elizabeth was tucked up under my arm.  I felt like I was going to be sick, not only from the alcohol I had consumed but from what I did last night.  Ellie was never going to forgive me, ever.  When I started to get up Elizabeth woke up and was so happy.  She didn’t say much to me, she could see my unhappiness.  I just walked away, I felt so ashamed.  I didn’t want to face her.

I could keep this a secret, something I had never kept from Ellie.  We never lied to each other or kept any secret.  We hadn’t talked about everything for so long and I knew this was going to be a very hard thing to tell her.  Maybe it is best if she never knows.  Only I would have to live with the lie then.  I doubt very much Elizabeth will think any thing of it, I still have no idea what happened that night anyway, maybe nothing happened.  I really really hoped.

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Chapter 3

I couldn't say anything to Ellie over text message, I just knew it was the wrong thing to text her.  Our texting has dwindled down to once a week, on Sunday at lunch when she knew all the family would be together and I could relay messages back and forth like she was sitting there with us.  The whole family missed her.  Mum thought my sadness was because of Ellie being gone.  Little did she know of the giant big ugly mistake I had made in one drunken stupid night.  I wanted to talk to Ellie face to face.  I would have to wait until she makes it home.  

But after about six weeks of total torture, avoiding Elizabeth in every way even running off into the bush to escape her when she turned up on our doorstep, she finally caught me sitting at the rock pool.  She came and sat next to me.  “Eddie I’m sorry about that night, I thought you would want to be with me after you had, you know done that with me.  I was wrong but.  The thing is there is another problem now, way worst than that - I’m pregnant and I know it is yours.”  I just leaned forward putting my face into my hands and yelled “NO” loudly.    My life is seriously over now.  I didn’t have much life actually planned just that I was going to be here for Ellie, but now even that had been thrown away.

“Listen, I’m having the baby, but I’m not keeping it.  I don’t want a baby, I want to travel and live in Paris, go to Art school over there, I’m not going to drag a kid along.  I’m going to move to the city and let Daddy think I’m attending University until I have it then I’m gone.  I don’t care what you want, that is the plan, at least I have one I suppose.”  I spoke up rather quickly for someone who had no plans for the future.  “Hang on...your not justing throwing away my baby....you can’t just give away our baby like that....I’ll raise it if you won’t, you didn’t even ask me what I want.”  “Oh come on Eddie, you don’t even know what your going to do the next week let alone the next year, I’ll be out of your way, I won’t even tell Ellie, I know that is all your worried about.”  “It isn’t that Elizabeth, your talking about an actual human being, not something disposable.  I won’t let you just throw it away, my parents will want to be grand-parents, I won’t let you do it.”  “I’m leaving tomorrow.  I’ll call you in about seven months time when it’s born.”  She holds on to my shoulder to get up but I make her sit back down.  “No...wait...you’ll have to marry me, then at least the baby will have my last name, at least let me do the right thing just this once, I’ll raise the baby, and you can go.”  She thought about it for about a minute “Fine, make it soon so Dad leaves me alone.”  And then got up and walked away.

I felt so bad treating Elizabeth like that even if I don’t particularly like her.  I didn’t realise what I had just done.  I’m marrying someone that I don’t even like let alone love.  I sat down at the rock pool until the sun set.  When I told Dad and Mum what happened they looked really sad but didn’t make me feel bad.  They told me they would be here for whatever I decide.  I had let them down, I had let Ellie down but I had let myself down the most.  Elizabeth was right, I never had any plans for the future, it had just been decided without my planning it at all.  The next awful thing to happen was I received a text from Ellie telling me she will be back on the week-end.  Her coming home was not going to be awful but what I had to tell her was.

On the day I was to see Ellie I went walking off into the bush again.  I climb to the top of the rock ledge sitting dangling my legs over the edge.  I wanted to rewind my life back about six weeks.  This was not going to be an easy day.  I heard my name being called off in the distance and didn’t answer.  Then about five minutes later there she stood at the waters edge shading her eyes looking up at me.  “Hey you hiding from me?  Stay there I’m coming up” she said heading towards the track.  She plonks herself down beside me.  I glance over to her.  Her beautiful hair is all tide back in a scruffy low bun.  She has put a few lighter colours thru it.  She looked radiant.  She looked taller.  I think she had grown a bit, or maybe I just felt small and low.

“What’s going on Eddie? Why are you here all alone?  What’s going on, you stressing out? You only come here when your stressed? Talk to me” she said in one breathe.  I knew I had to just say it straight out, she was too smart for me beat around the bush, she would work it out before I had finished mucking around saying it.  “I’m getting married...to Elizabeth” was all I said.  

There was a eerie silence, I don’t remember hearing the waterfall, any birds nothing, just silence.  I remember looking at Ellie’s face.  Not for long but, she just got up and jumped off the ledge, staying underwater for a bit longer than usual.  Obviously screaming as I could see giant big bubbles coming up from below, I swore I could hear the screams with each one bursting at the surface.   She dragged herself out of the water, never looking back, she just ran off into the bush.  I didn’t run after her.  I didn’t go anywhere.  I just stayed there until the sun set again.  Not until Aden stood at the bottom of the water edges did I feel inclined to actually get up and get on with it..... 

 

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