Six Steps Down

by Mandi Greenwood

  Freya told the class about Lily Sheldon emigrating from England with her mother-in-law, eager to start a new life in a new country with her beloved husband. Freya had been hard at work doing lots of research for her own speech and she talked avidly about the numerous garden parties and the benefits, the high teas, and the many grand balls that were held at Sheldon's Seat when it was a home filled with music and good fun. 'Lily and Michael Sheldon were warm and generous hosts,' said Freya. 'They entertained often and always to the highest standards. The nine staterooms at Sheldon's Seat were rarely empty for long. They always had guests staying.'

  Cate spoke in depth and quite comically about the day-to-day life in a mansion such as Sheldon's Seat. She quoted facts about the costs of running such a house, the price of groceries, how many servants they employed and what their wages were, what they had for dinner, and so forth. She soon had the whole class gagging and groaning about eating sheep's heads, swans, and castrated roosters. 'I mean, it wasn't bad enough that they were killing the poor roosters,' she lamented. 'But they had to torture them by cutting off their balls … err, I mean, by castrating them first.'

  Archie was up next. He talked about the tragic and sudden death of the young Lily Sheldon, telling the class how she died in childbirth in 1903 leaving Michael a broken and shattered man. Archie told how Michael sold everything and returned with his infant daughter to England where he was to live out his life a recluse. In the meantime, Sheldon's Seat, that once grand house, was left to decay. 'The interesting thing is,' remarked Archie, pointing at the class and narrowing his eyes conspiratorially, 'after Michael Sheldon locked the front door of Sheldon's Seat and walked away, nobody else lived in the house until the Brannon family moved in last November. It sat empty for one hundred and ten years! Waiting … waiting …' He wiggled his bony fingers menacingly at the class.

  The room was quiet following Archie's speech and this was the atmosphere that Aisley faced as she started to speak. She felt like she was standing under a bright, hot spotlight in the centre of a stage. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Chandra watching her intently. She deliberately didn't look at him, or at Bliss Anderson who was sitting at the rear of the room. 'Lily and Michael were twenty-one years apart in age,' she began, 'But that didn't matter one bit. They were very much in love and a truly devoted couple. A lot of people in this town think that Lily spent her time in Seamere feeling ill, depressed, and homesick. We are here to tell you that is simply not true. From the moment they arrived, the Sheldons lived life to the full. They both loved living in Australia and they both adored living on the top of Loch Hill. We found correspondence from Lily to her mother in England saying how happy she was.'

  Aisley paused to clear her throat. She felt frail, like she was made of egg shells that might shatter at any second. But she plunged bravely on. 'Lily was eight and a half months pregnant when she wrote that letter to her mother, but the letter was never posted because the very next day she went into labour and gave birth to a baby girl. Now, as Archie has already told you, she died during the birth. She is buried on the Sheldon family estate in Derbyshire in England. She was only twenty-one years old.'

  Aisley swallowed, remembering the photo of Lily sitting on the rocky outcrop on Cariad Lily Bay Beach. That photograph wasn't part of this presentation. As a group, they'd all decided it was too personal and special, and something they wanted to keep to themselves. 'Lily and Michael's daughter, Millicent Margaret Sheldon, lived until the age of seventy-two,' said Aisley. 'She died in 1975 and is survived by a son who still resides in Derbyshire. She lost another son in the Second World War. I believe the living son has a son of his own, but that's as far as I've got in the family tree to date. Maybe one day I'll discover more about the Sheldon's descendants.' Those last titbits were pieces of information she'd sourced on her own.

  She finished by telling the class about her parents' plans for restoring Sheldon's Seat once more and the things they'd done so far. She told how she felt honoured to be part of all that. Behind her on the whiteboard, the photograph of the garden party appeared. 'Ideally, my parents would like to have Sheldon's Seat looking like this again one day,' she concluded, gesturing at the photograph.

  Cate, Freya, Lucan, and Archie knew all about what had happened to Wade the night before and they knew about the hero Chandra had been. The fact that Wade was now recovering happily in the hospital with a new game in his Nintendo 3DS was down to Chandra. However, they didn't know about the rest.

  They didn't know about the discovery of Cariad Lili Bay and the secret tunnel. Not yet. Aisley was waiting for the right time to tell them and to show them.

  Mr Briskett had been sitting on the edge of his desk throughout their presentation. He looked thrilled. When Aisley concluded, he stood up and started clapping. The rest of the class joined in, with the single exception of Bliss Anderson. Aisley accidentally caught her eye and Bliss turned away, smacking at Megan to make her stop applauding. Megan obeyed out of habit, but she didn't look very happy about it. Then, as if to hurt Aisley some more, Bliss fixed her gaze firmly on Chandra and winked at him. Aisley dropped her eyes.

  'Well done guys,' cried Mr Briskett. 'That was a marvellous presentation!' He grinned broadly. 'It was profoundly interesting and I for one have learned a lot today. You six can be sure you'll all be getting an outstanding mark for it.' He beamed at them all. 'Sit down, take a load off, and enjoy the rest of the show,' he said. 'You've earned it. That was fabulous!' He turned to the class, 'Give them another round of applause folks! Good job.'

  Amidst the whistles and catcalls, Aisley sat down in her seat between Cate and Freya and exhaled slowly. Thank goodness that was over. She stared at the back of Chandra's head as he sat with Archie just in front of her. Her fingers ached to reach out over the short distance and touch him. Now she just had to find the courage to deal with him. Chandra was the final challenge, and he was going to be the hardest.

  Aisley's phone beeped as she arrived at her locker at the end of the day. She had a message. She picked up her phone and read what Chandra had written to her.

  "Can you meet me now on the surf beach where we were last night? Please. I'm going to die if I have to wait any longer to talk to you."

  Aisley ran her thumb over the touchscreen. She didn't want to wait any longer either. They had to sort this out, one way or another.

  "Okay," she texted back.

  The term was over, but her usual pre-holidays enthusiasm was missing. She took her time stacking her books neatly in her locker, pulling out odd and useless bits of paper rubbish and tossing them in a nearby bin. The hallways gradually emptied around her, until she was the last student left. While she was tidying up, she tried to put her thoughts in order as well, then she set off down Main Street and around the corner to the bottom of Loch Hill.

  She walked down the narrow, sandy track to the beach for the second time in twenty-four hours, only this time she was moving at a far more civilized pace, not sprinting along in a wild panic. The sky was blue and seagulls wheeled and screeched above her. It couldn't have been more different from the previous, stormy night.

  Chandra was sitting on the sand near where he'd pulled Wade from the sea the night before. Apart from the two of them, the beach was deserted. There was not another soul in sight. Aisley paused and looked out towards the end of the cliff and recalled the previous evening. She shivered violently and it had nothing at all to do with the wind chill. She walked slowly over to Chandra and sat down beside him.

  'Hi,' she said.

  He smiled at her. 'Hi,' he replied.

  'How are you feeling?' she asked.

  'Hey, you know me,' Chandra joked. 'It's just another day in the life of an epic superhero.'

  'Yeah, right.' Aisley played with the pleats in her school skirt.

  'No seriously,' he admitted. 'I feel a bit wasted.'

  Aisley nodded. 'I'm not surprised. That was an incredible thing you did last night. My parents want to build a monument to
you. They think you're amazing.'

  Chandra raised one eyebrow and pointed at himself. 'Of course they do,' he said. 'I mean, look at this face.'

  Aisley managed a weak smile.

  Chandra got serious. 'How's Wade?'

  'He's alright, thanks to you.'

  'I'm glad to hear that. He's a good kid.'

  'He has his moments,' Aisley conceded.

  'He's a little brother,' Chandra smiled. 'All of us little brothers kick arse.'

  Aisley snorted. She drew swirls in the sand with her fingers. 'I fixed the cellar floor,' she told him. 'I thought I'd wait until a more … more appropriate time to make it public.'

  Chandra nodded in agreement. 'That's a good idea,' he said.

  The silence spun out, heavy with tension, until he finally got to his feet and stood in front of her with his hands thrust deeply into his pockets. 'I don't know where to start,' he said helplessly. 'It was all so good and then we went wrong somewhere.'

  Aisley swallowed hard and blinked up at him.

  He looked down at her sadly. 'What happened to us?' he asked.

  'I don't want to be one of the crowd,' she said softly.

  He blinked. 'What do you mean?'

  She looked out across the ocean and sighed. 'When I first realised you liked me I was so happy,' she said, picking her words carefully. 'Why a guy like you would even look at someone like me …' She shrugged.

  Chandra shook his head. He was confused. 'A guy like me?' he asked. 'Someone like you? You've got it so wrong, Ais. That a girl like you would even bother with a guy like me is far more amazing, in my opinion.'

  'No,' she stood up and crossed her arms across her chest. 'You're good-looking, you're smart, and you're popular. You could have any girl you want.' She looked at him and repeated herself. 'You could have any girl you want and apparently you do.'

  Chandra stared at her. 'That's not true.'

  'But that's the thing,' Aisley argued. 'Cate said you've always been popular with the girls. Bria asked you out and you fobbed her off. Was that because you had already crossed her off your list? Like I said, I don't want to just be one of the crowd.'

  Chandra looked dumbfounded. 'I don't understand.'

  Aisley sighed. 'I know it's cool to not be tied to just one person these days, but I'm just not like that. I dunno ... maybe I'm old-fashioned.' She took a deep breath and got to the crux of the problem. 'Bliss said …'

  'Archie told me what Bliss said to you.'

  'Archie?' Now she was the confused one.

  'Cate told Archie and Archie told me. Well, maybe he didn't know everything, but he told me enough for me to know she hurt you.'

  'Well then you know what I'm on about,' said Aisley. She took several steps away and turned back to face him. 'Bliss told me that sooner or later you'd dump me and move on to the next girl,' Aisley explained. 'She told me I wasn't … exclusive, because you aren't that kind of guy.'

  'What!' Chandra looked appalled.

  Aisley's voice trembled, but she managed to go on. 'She said that you wouldn't want to hold hands forever and that if I didn't …' It was so hard to say the next thing. She didn't know if she even could.

  'Ais…' he took a step towards her.

  She backed away. 'That if I didn't …' Aisley swallowed hard, '…have sex with you, you'd lose interest.' She was crying now, the tears running down her face as all the doubts of the past week came bubbling to the surface like poison.

  Chandra was shaking his head. 'No …'

  Aisley kept going, because if she stopped now, all was lost. 'She said that … um, she knew you were like that, because that's the only reason she's still holding your interest. That was how she put it, anyway. Basically, she told me to back off because you two are together …'

  Chandra looked as if she'd stuck a knife through his chest.

  Aisley hugged herself, her voice shaking. 'She told me that when you're not with me it's because you're with her … and you're not holding hands.' She made herself go on. 'I tried not to believe it. I really did. But I'd seen you.'

  He shook his head again, looking bewildered.

  'I saw you and her in the corridor at school last week. And she was all over you, Chandra! …and you were laughing … so I thought, maybe, she was right. I'd totally misunderstood how you wanted things to be and I'd made a complete fool of myself.' Aisley couldn't go on, because there was a great burning hole where her heart used to be. This was awful.

  Chandra didn't know which way to turn. He walked to the edge of the water first, then turned and started pacing. He stopped and put his hand to his stomach as if he were in pain. To Aisley, he looked like he'd been kicked in the balls, which she supposed he had been, metaphorically speaking. He looked like he wanted to cry. 'I have to tell you,' he said, his voice cracking. 'I have never, ever hooked up with Bliss in any way. I wouldn't. I couldn't! God!'

  Aisley shook her head and walked away a bit.

  'She's a manipulative, flirting bitch,' he said passionately. 'Ais …'

  Aisley pushed her windswept hair out of her face and gazed sadly at him.

  'Ais,' Chandra repeated. He looked utterly miserable. 'She's lying.' He shambled forwards a few steps. 'Okay, yes, alright,' he said. 'I admit it. She was flirting with me last week in school, but that's nothing new. She's always flirting with someone. You know that. She has this ... this habit, of sort of draping herself on guys.'

  Aisley bit her lip and listened.

  'I dunno …' Chandra ran his fingers through his hair and swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing as he tried to control his emotions. 'I guess that's what you saw. Knowing her, she probably saw you coming down the hall and thought it was a great chance to convince you something was going on between us.' Chandra put his hands on his hips and paced back and forth again. 'I know I should've pushed her away,' he said. 'But the truth is, she acts like that so often, with all of us guys that you sort of stop noticing it after a while. It's just annoying … like a freaking fly.' He stopped pacing and looked at Aisley again. 'There's only one reason why she'd do this to us,' he said.

  'I'm listening,' Aisley replied.

  'I think …' he said slowly, '… and I want this to come out the right way and not make me sound big-headed … but I think that because she knows she can't have me … she wants me. That's the only reason.'

  'She'd go to all that trouble?' Aisley murmured. 'She must really want you.'

  'But she doesn't!' said Chandra desperately. 'Not at all. Don't you see? She never did, until she saw that you had me. So she made up all that crap about her and me, just to hurt you. To make you dump me. And it's working!' He looked at her, brown eyes pleading. 'It's you, Ais. Not me. She's jealous of you because you're clever and friendly and beautiful, and because of what we have together. You and me. She can only dream of something that good.'

  Aisley listened and knew it was the truth. She nodded slowly. 'I was so confused,' she said. 'She made you seem like such a player and I didn't want to be just another score, one on a list of girls that you were ticking off. I thought …' she stopped abruptly.

  'You thought what?' he prompted gently.

  Aisley breathed a loud sigh and rolled her eyes. 'It'll sound dumb out loud,' she warned him. 'But I thought we were, I dunno ... special. I thought we were special, and different.'

  Chandra moved closer until they were almost touching. This time, Aisley didn't move away. 'That's because we are special,' he insisted. 'You're right. I've never felt like this about anyone ever. I think about you all the time. These last few days have been shit! The worst week of my life … and Aisley?'

  She looked at him.

  'There is no list. I'm not like that.' He took her hands in his. 'I don't have a list I'm ticking off. I never did and I never will.'

  She ran her thumbs over the backs of his hands, feeling the warmth of his skin.

  'Do you believe me?' he asked.

  'Yes,' she replied. 'I do.'

  And she did. 'I'm sorry I doub
ted you,' she said. 'It's been the worst week of my life too.' She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his shoulder. She felt such an immense sense of relief that she thought she might pass out. After all the mess, it was going to be okay.

  Slipping his arms around her, Chandra pulled her as close as he could and then he buried his face in her hair. They stood there, unwilling to let go of each other ever again.

  'Just for the record,' he murmured in her ear. 'I've never had sex with anyone. I need you to know that too.'

  'It's okay,' she said softly. 'It's none of my business. You don't have to tell me anymore.'

  'Yes I do,' he pulled back slightly and took her face in his hands. 'And it's all your business, because I want it to be out there with us. No secrets. Because we are special and different and I can't bear for anything to damage that ever again.'

  'Alright,' she whispered

  They gazed at each other.

  'I'm in love with you Aisley,' he confessed. 'I've been in love with you for quite a while now.'

  Her green eyes held his steady gaze and she smiled. 'That's good,' she said softly. 'That is so, so good. Because I'm in love with you too. I think I have been from the very beginning.'

  With their arms wrapped tightly around each other, they sank down on to the sand and kissed like they could never stop. As they lay there, tangled around one another, Aisley pressed her face against Chandra's neck and smiled gratefully. It was over. The final thing was over and everything was going to be all right.

  Epilogue

  Day one of the school holidays

  They stood in a big, loose circle on the sand of Cariad Lili Bay Beach. Aisley stood next to Chandra, and then came Archie, then Cate. Next to Cate stood Freya. Lucan completed the circle. Some distance away, Wade was running and clambering on the rocks with Lucan's brother Nyle. Just beyond them was Shay. She was sitting on the sand reading a book and keeping a close eye on Wade. It was going to take a little while for her to relax with him again.