The Island Angel

by Alex Slorra

  “Mum, look!”

  “Abbie, I’m fast asleep,” Anna muttered.

  “Just look.”

  “What? You woke me to watch a YouTube video… It’s awesome. Now let me sleep.”

  “Mum, it’s after nine!”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Mum— Forget it… Jess?”

  Jessica pushed herself up on one elbow to look over the peak of Anna’s shoulder. She quickly grabbed the edge of the duvet and drew it up to cover Anna’s bare back. “Yes?”

  Abbie held her iPad towards her, but it was too close for her to see. She took hold of the corner and tried to focus on the screen. “Is this the video you were editing?”

  Abbie nodded. “Yeah, it’s gone viral!”

  “Oh.” It showed the two of them singing in the pub from Friday. She smiled, pleased at Abbie’s excitement and relieved she had put on her T-shirt when she’d first woken. “When did you post this?”

  “Yesterday, before the storm.”

  Jessica read the number in the corner. “Whoa, that’s quite a few views.”

  “There are a lot of comments about you as well. Wait.”

  Abbie took the iPad and, after a second, popped it back in front of Jessica. “Look, like, the views are still going up. See, eight more. Will you teach me to play the guitar? I can borrow one from school.”

  Jessica smiled. “Sure.”

  “Cool beans.” Abbie went quiet. “I fed Daisy. She’s okay. The chickens are all okay as well.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Kermit is hanging around outside the house. I think he is waiting for you.”

  “Great,” Jessica muttered.

  “Can you help me with breakfast now?” Abbie whispered.

  “Umm, yeah, I suppose…Give me a second.”

  With that, Abbie spun around and darted out of the room.

  Jessica tried to digest the fact that the video they were both in had close to thirty thousand views in less than a day. Will the police see it and find me? She didn’t think so. But she was also tired of worrying about it. Facing the reality of things was becoming more important with each hour in Anna’s company.

  Anna rolled over, flopping her arm across Jessica’s chest.

  “Morning,” Jessica whispered.

  “Mm-hmm,” Anna muttered before her breathing changed to slow snorts.

  “Wow, aren’t you two cute.”

  Jessica snapped her head to the right.

  Sarah stood beside the bed wearing a robe and holding a towel. She also wore a big grin. “I’m going to use the shower. Okay?”

  “Ah. Sure.” Jessica could feel her cheeks flush. What is this, Saturday on Oxford Street?

  Once she could hear the shower running, she took a moment to find the strength needed to leave the warm bed and the beautiful woman strewn next to her. She thought about Abbie and how she hadn’t been fazed by seeing them together. Kids were so much more accepting than adults.

  The door squeaked on its hinges. Jessica watched it creep open, but no one entered. There was a sudden bad odour in the air, and she wafted her hand in front of her nose. The duvet started to slide off on its own accord.

  “God, what’s that smell?” Anna muttered, rolling slowly to one side and pushing herself up. “Kermit! He’s eating the bedding!”

  Jessica jumped up and tugged at it. The goat wouldn’t let go.

  Anna rubbed her eyes, then leaned over the edge of the bed, searching. She came up with her top and pulled it on.

  “What’s he doing in here?” Anna asked, still coming to.

  “I don’t know, but he won’t let go!”

  Anna began laughing. “He’s winning.”

  Kermit marched to the far side of the bed, causing Jessica to tumble forward onto the mattress.

  “You better put these on. Not that I don’t like seeing your butt.” Anna chuckled and threw Jessica’s pyjama shorts in her direction.

  She missed.

  Kermit snatched them up and started to chew.

  “You threw them right at him!”

  “He looked so hungry.”

  “Give my shorts back, devil goat!” Jessica lunged for them and gained hold, just as Kermit started to walk towards the door with them hanging from his mouth.

  She managed to rip them free and inspected them to see if she could put them on. But goat spit wasn’t something she wanted near her. When she turned, Anna was clasping her pyjama bottoms. She had them scrunched up in a ball, ready to throw them.

  “You can wear mine… If Kermit doesn’t get them first.”

  “No, you don’t!” Jessica leapt onto the bed and pinned Anna’s arm, but she adeptly swished the bottoms out of her reach.

  “I’ll give them to you for a kiss.”

  “God, you’re so demanding.”

  “And a coffee and breakfast in bed and—”

  She kissed Anna, who wrapped her free arm around Jessica’s neck. The bottoms were retrieved without a struggle when the kiss deepened.

  “Um, goat in the bedroom problem…need to sort it,” Jessica said with her lips still pressed to Anna’s. She really wanted to ignore Kermit at this point. “Sarah in the shower… And a teenager waiting for me in the kitchen.”

  “So, no fun then.” Anna nibbled on Jessica’s neck.

  “Anna, I need to get dressed—” Jessica stammered.

  Anna laughed and pushed Jessica away with two hands. “Go bond with your goat friend.” She rolled back into her pillow, dragging the duvet over her head.

  Jessica smiled. She tugged on the bottoms and stalked over to Kermit, who stood staring at her. She grabbed hold of his collar and led him out into the hall. The goat seemed content to accompany her. “A carrot for you. But you have to stay outside.”

  “Oh, my God!” Abbie laughed when she saw Jessica leading Kermit to the front door. “How’d he get in?”

  “Window maybe? I think he’s after a carrot.”

  “I already gave him some. They’re in the bucket outside. But he wouldn’t eat them.”

  Jessica shoved Kermit’s rear to get him to leave the house, and she followed him out.

  A clear sky and cold air met Jessica beyond the front door. She reached into a galvanised bucket set on a section of broken millstone to the left of the door and grabbed a carrot. They were animal feed grade, rather than from a supermarket, larger and a faded orange colour. She offered one to Kermit. He took it, munched and swallowed. Jessica presented another, but he didn’t take it and instead trotted across the courtyard.

  “Great. He only wants me to be the one to pamper him,” Jessica muttered to herself. She shook her head in disbelief and went inside.

  “Can you help me now?” Abbie asked, holding a bag of flour.

  “I’d like to wash and get changed first.” Jessica desperately needed a shower after all that had happened last night.

  “Can you do it now?” Abbie’s eyes were hopeful and determined.

  “Why?”

  “It’s Mum’s birthday. Well, it’s on Tuesday, but I want to do it today while Sarah is here too.”

  “Oh. How old will she be?”

  “Twenty-six. But she’s been twenty-six for the last three years.”

  “I see… So, what are you making?”

  Abbie picked up her iPad and started to thumb the screen.

  “I want to make crêpes.”

  “Do you have a recipe?”

  Abbie showed Jessica the iPad.

  While Jessica made the batter, her thoughts dwelled on the fact that she had no money to buy Anna a birthday present. This was soon replaced by a nagging discord. Anna must have been fifteen, maybe even fourteen when Abbie was conceived.

  ANNA LIMPED INTO the bathroom. She took two paracetamols with a gulp of water from the tap. Her leg had stiffened overnight, and she found it too painful to put any weight on it. She’d been hiding this as she suspected Jessica and Sarah would insist they take her to a hospital. She didn’t want to spe
nd Sunday morning driving to the nearest A&E and likely have to wait the rest of the day to be seen, before being told she should stay in bed and not travel or walk anywhere. She’d see the doctor at the medical centre when it was next open.

  In the shower, the hot water cascaded over her. Her thigh throbbed from the heat and she shimmied to one side so that it was out of the spray. She finished washing her hair, hopped back to the toilet, and sat on the closed lid.

  “How the heck am I going to work?” she muttered.

  From the washbag on the cistern, she removed a pair of nail scissors. Her nails weren’t long, and a few had been cut right back after being broken doing work around the farm. She had tried to keep them all a good length. John was rather particular about Anna looking her best. She clipped all her nails as short as she could. Not as an act of defiance, but due to a new practical necessity and, perhaps, to show who she truly was.

  There was a knock, then Jessica’s voice from the bathroom door. “Do you want breakfast in bed or are you coming down?”

  “I’ll come down. But I’ll need help.” She didn’t want to be a wimp, but the stairs had been built two hundred years ago; the rises were higher than they should be, and the steps were narrow.

  “Okay. I’ll wait for you.”

  “We should take you to the hospital.” Jessica insisted for the third time, once they had made it to the bottom of the stairs.

  “It’s too far, and there won’t be anything they can do. You can take me to the clinic on Tuesday. And you can get your bandage redone.”

  Jessica flipped her hand in front of her, as if noticing the grubby dressing for the first time. “What’s wrong with going Monday?”

  “It’s a bank holiday. It’ll be shut.”

  “Oh, yes.”

  Once Anna was sitting at the kitchen table next to Sarah, Jessica went to help Abbie. From the sweet buttery smell and from what was on the table, she could tell they were making pancakes.

  In the background, Abbie’s phone played music through a small portable speaker, while in front of her was a rush placemat and a knife and fork. Anna moved the knife as far away as her reach would extend.

  In the centre of the table was a ramekin of sugar and another of—she tasted it, lemon juice. There was also a bowl of sliced strawberries next to an open tin of golden syrup. Anna glanced between the three people she most cared about with a smile dancing on her lips.

  “What’s for breakfast?” Anna asked. “And where’s my coffee?” She was being playful with her demands, but she really did need some caffeine.

  “Crêpes.” Abbie lifted a non-stick frying pan off the electric hob and showed Anna the contents. “Like, should I flip it now?” she asked Sarah.

  “Go for it.”

  Anna was about to say “be careful” or “don’t make a mess,” but caught herself.

  Abbie flicked the pan, and the crêpe dutifully flipped in situ.

  Sarah clapped.

  “Wow, that’s awesome.” Anna laughed. “How’d you learn to do that?”

  “While you were in the shower, Sarah taught me.”

  “We sacrificed a couple of crêpes for the betterment of womankind,” Sarah added.

  Jessica handed Anna her favourite, chipped purple mug filled with coffee while whispering, “Happy early birthday.”

  Anna’s emotions spiked, and she tried to keep her tears under control.

  A plate containing a crêpe was placed in front of her. “You can put what you like on it. Does it look okay?” Abbie asked.

  The crêpe was yellow with a brown pattern that looked like the cratered surface of the moon. I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry. It was the first time Abbie had cooked for her.

  “It looks amazing,” Anna managed to get out while hugging Abbie around the waist.

  After Abbie returned to the stove, Jessica put an arm around Anna from behind and kissed her cheek. “Overwhelmed again?”

  Anna nodded. “This is a different world to a week ago,” she whispered. She glanced over to Sarah to see her studying them.

  Jessica released Anna and went back to stand beside Abbie as she flipped another crêpe.

  “I take back what I said about you procrastinating.” Sarah kept her voice low.

  Anna shrugged. “It’s okay.”

  “I was wrong. I think you two might have something special.”

  Anna poured lemon juice and sprinkled sugar over her crêpe, before rolling it up. She hadn’t felt embarrassed because of Sarah’s compliment. In fact, it felt like an affirmation of her feelings towards Jessica.

  Sarah leaned close and whispered, “By the way, I know who she is.” She paused and flicked her eyes to Jessica, who was still busy at the stove. “I knew I’d seen her before. I once had to help book a lineup for a retro alt-rock festival, digging up bands from the revival in the noughties. Her name was suggested by a few people in the office. But we couldn’t locate her. I wonder why she ended her music career? They said she was amazing.”

  “She would’ve been young.”

  “Seventeen. Google Jessica Esland. You’ll find a couple performances. Really popular at the time, not mainstream, but indie when indie meant indie.”

  Jessica put a plate containing a crêpe in front of Sarah and sat down opposite. “They’ll get cold.”

  Anna cut off an end with her fork and popped it into her mouth. “This is amazing,” she called to Abbie.

  Abbie turned. Her posture showed confidence, and she smiled. “I’ll keep cooking until you say stop.”

  Sarah smeared jam on her crêpe. “Keep them coming, honey!”

  Anna shifted her focus to Jessica. “So, you were Jessica Esland and amazing? Well, I know you’re amazing. But why did you give up music?” She knew her question was out of left field, but she wanted to know.

  Jessica double blinked, her smile dropped, and she wrapped her arms around herself.

  “Annamaria,” Sarah baulked. “You can’t just ask things like that.”

  There was silence for a moment, except for Abbie’s phone playing a song from The Underfex.

  Annoyed with herself for upsetting Jessica, Anna reached across the table and took her hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “It’s all right. I need to share it with you,” Jessica whispered. “But it’s not an ideal breakfast topic.”

  The next crêpe, flipped a bit too vigorously, hit the ceiling and stayed there. Slowly, it peeled off and landed on Sarah’s plate.

  Abbie and Anna burst out laughing.

  “Skillz, gurl!” Sarah said, reaching for the jam.

  “Hey, that’s Jessica’s.” Anna took hold of Sarah’s plate.

  “No way, it was flipped to me.”

  They yanked it back and forth across the table.

  “Fine then.” Anna let go. “Eat it with all the cobwebs and dead flies.”

  Sarah studied the crêpe as if it might be possessed by an evil spirit. She shrugged and tucked in anyway.

  When Anna returned her gaze to Jessica, her smile had returned. A longing sparkled in her magical eyes. Those three words popped back into Anna’s head. She sighed and wished breakfast would never end.

  Chapter Fifteen

  FATIGUED FROM THE events of yesterday evening, Anna limped back to the sofa in the lounge. Sarah had left a few minutes earlier and given Anna a present, telling her not to open it until her birthday.

  She pushed the present to one side, turned on her laptop, and began plugging pointless numbers into a spreadsheet. The tension of her crippled finances caused her head to pound. There was no way to magically conjure up thousands of pounds.

  She wondered what Jessica’s plans were. She didn’t want her to leave. In fact, she couldn’t face the possibility of Jessica not being around.

  Her thoughts went to those exquisite moments the night before. It caused a pulse of excitement to ripple through her. She put down the laptop, grabbed her mobile phone, and dialled a number she’d never pl
anned to ring again.

  “Hi, John, it’s Anna.”

  “Hi… I wasn’t expecting to hear from you… How are you doing?”

  “Fine. And you?”

  “Good, thanks. You caught me tasting wine. I’m in France on a short break with Heather.”

  She wanted to avoid any small talk. “John, this is a quick call. I have a friend who needs some legal advice. I was hoping you could spare some time to talk with her.”

  There was a second’s pause before John answered. “Perhaps, what’s the background?” His tone now included an edge of anticipation for some unknown reason.

  Anna relayed as much as she dared tell about Jessica’s troubles without having her permission to do so.

  “I see. Interesting… Anna, I’d have to treat this a formal appointment. And given the serious nature, it will have to be in person.”

  “Okay… I need you to do this as a favour. You understand. My financial situation is not ideal, and I don’t think that’s all my fault.” She paused. “Jessica is staying with me at the moment. She’s important to me, and I need your help.” Anna hated saying the last few words.

  John responded straight away. “Of course, I’ll help.” He cleared his throat, before continuing. “I’m back on Tuesday. Where do you want to meet?”

  His quick agreement had taken Anna by surprise. She twisted her hair with her free hand, gathering her thoughts. “Can you come here? It’s best she doesn’t travel for the reasons I explained.”

  Another pause on the line. “Does two on Tuesday work?”

  “It will have to be around eleven because of the tides.”

  “Okay, eleven then.”

  “Thanks.” Anna tried to keep her emotion out of the response.

  When the call ended, she felt drained. She stretched out on the sofa and turned to face its back, closing her eyes. At least he has agreed.

  As she drifted off to sleep, her mind travelled down rat holes, leading to events in her past. Times with John, Abbie, and then her brain latched on to a darker memory. The one that haunted her most nights.

  ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 2002

  Spotting Sarah, Anna made a beeline for her table. “You can’t hang out here all day,” Anna said through gritted teeth.