Treasure Beach: Chapter One, Part Two
Not sure why you're here or what to do? Visit this page for enlightenment and instructions. And don't forget to visit quilter Pat Sloan's website to sew along on the Happiness Key quilt that goes along with the series.
Treasure Beach: Chapter One, Part Two
Olivia Symington didn't know where she was going, and she didn't much care anyway. Her grandmother was napping, and while she'd said Olivia should go right ahead and watch television or listen to the radio, her house was beyond tiny, and there was no privacy. Nana was old, and she was coughing a lot. The doctor said she had to rest and take a fistful of pills, or the cough might turn into pneumonia.
Even though it was blazing hot outside, Olivia figured it was better to hang out somewhere in the shade than to risk making noise. She had left a note, and she had her new cell phone, in case Nana needed her when she woke up.
She wished she could show the phone to her best friend Lizzie Turner, who had lived right down the road until last month. They had talked a lot about how cool it would be to have one, but Lizzie's mom couldn't afford it and Nana hadn't understood the purpose. When Olivia had finally explained the problem to Tracy, Tracy had gone right to Nana and told her that having a cell phone wasn't uncommon for a girl Olivia's age, that it was a smart idea in case Olivia needed to call home in an emergency. Nana, who said the only phone she'd had as a girl was on something called a party-line, had finally agreed.
Tracy, who owned the five houses that made up Happiness Key understood what it was like to be a kid, just the way Olivia's mother had. Karen Symington, Olivia's mom, had always seemed to know what was going on in Olivia's world. Tracy, who was a little younger than Karen would be if she had lived, always knew, too. Nana, was, well, somebody who fondly remembered party-lines.
Karen was gone now. Lizzie, Olivia's best friend was gone. And Olivia's father? Well, Olivia hoped he was gone forever, too. Lee Symington was a bad man, a dangerous man, and she was so, so glad he was in prison and wouldn't get out until she was all grown up. Of course now she was, like, an orphan. And if something happened to her grandmother, if Nana got sicker and died, then Olivia would be all alone.
That was hard to think about.
Olivia's head began to hurt and she wished that she'd grabbed a hat. School was starting soon, and the last thing she wanted was to show up on the first day of middle school with a sunburn. She had seen a show on Animal Planet about chickens who pecked to death any other chicken who was injured, and she figured that was as close to explaining how things were going to be in middle school as anything she'd been told during orientation.
She cut through an empty lot beside Tracy's house and headed toward the bay. Her grandmother didn't like her cutting through the brush. There were snakes and fire ants and sandspurs, but Olivia was careful. Besides, she and Lizzie had worn a path through this lot to their own private beach, Treasure Beach and made a pact to keep the spot and the name a secret.
When Lizzie was still living at Happiness Key Treasure Beach was where the two girls had hung out the most. Lizzie had gotten a metal detector for her birthday, and she and Olivia had found more treasure on this short stretch of sand than anywhere else on the key. So, okay, the treasure was just a few coins and part of an old silver charm bracelet. Wanda had explained about the bracelet. She had said that when she was young, girls used to buy charms that symbolized some part of their lives. The fragment she and Lizzie had found had a diploma and maybe a horse worn to a nub by waves and sand.
Olivia figured there were no charms representing her life that anybody would ever want to see.
