7
“Oh my gosh, Jill, we heard about what happened the other day!” Bianca held her hand to her face as the group of girls sat on some rocks at the beach, half-watching their friends playing soccer but mostly just enjoying the sunshine and the freshness of the afternoon after a morning of rain. She was a pale slender girl with bobbed brown hair, a friend of Jill and Anya’s from primary school.
“About what?” asked Jill, looking over to the soccer game to check on Simon, who was having a great time playing with James and the bigger boys from the youth group. They were a little further up the beach than usual, where there was a wider area of sand to play on.
“About that guy from the beach coming to your house while you were cleaning!” said Hayley, who was shorter, with light brown skin and soft dark curls. “You must have DIED of embarrassment!”
“It wasn’t that bad,” said Jill. “It was only cleaning.”
“Yeah, but Jill,” said Hayley, “Anya said you had dirt on your face and you were wearing some awful green thing ...”
“I looked terrible,” laughed Jill, “but it really wasn’t such a big deal. I felt a bit bad for them. They must have got a surprise, that’s all. It was funny, actually.”
“But that guy, Jill – don’t you think he looks like Justin Bieber, except with dark hair? Anya showed him to me on the beach yesterday. He is really cute!” Hayley giggled.
“He is just a guy,” said Jill. “Sure, he’s good-looking. I have to admit that. But he’s a normal guy, just like James or David or anyone else. You don’t have to get all weird about it!”
All three girls burst out laughing. “That guy is not anything like James or David!” laughed Bianca.
“I suppose not,” said Jill, remembering how she had mentally placed him in the same category as the beautiful girls on the beach.
“But I talked to him and he’s really … just a guy.” “With a dreamy smile,” sighed Anya.
“Dreamy!” laughed Jill. “You sound as if you’ve gone back to the 1950’s.”
“Ah yes, we forgot,” said Anya in a grave tone. “Remember girls, Jill has made a resolution.”
The other girls nodded their heads. “Oh yes,” said Bianca, putting her arm around Jill’s shoulders. “She has given up boys, remember.” “I should never have told you guys about that,” mumbled Jill. “All you do is tease me about it.”
“Sorry, Jill,” said Anya. “We don’t want to tease you. Maybe we should also read the book you read and we’ll understand better. But I can’t imagine I would ever say that I will never have a boyfriend until I meet my future husband.”
“Because all the boys are lining up to date you,” said Bianca. “If you decided to give up dating you would be fighting them off!”
“Okay, okay,” said Anya. “Let’s be honest – we like boys and we wish we could meet some nice cute ones who like us too. Isn’t that all we want, girls?”
Hayley and Bianca enthusiastically voiced their agreement.
“I just want to do the right thing, guys,” said Jill. “I have my reasons, okay? When I read that book earlier this year it really made me think. I liked the idea that you could aim for marriage and not for some temporary relationship.”
“But we are seventeen, Jill! Marriage is far away!” said Hayley. “I am not getting married until I am at least twenty-eight. I think that’s the perfect age.”
“My mom says she has it all planned,” said Bianca. “She says that she wants me to marry Pieter, her best friend’s son. He is going to be a sheep farmer, girls, imagine!” Bianca grimaced at the thought. “And I don’t think she’s joking either.”
“My papa says if a boy breaks my heart he’s getting out his baseball bat,” said Anya.
“Well, I have to figure it out for myself,” said Jill. “Aunt Bert has never mentioned the subject and I doubt she ever will, and my dad isn’t exactly around to be getting out his baseball bat. I just don’t want to get my heart broken for nothing.”
“I think some boy already broke your heart and that’s why you’ve gone all extreme on this,” said Anya.
“That’s not it at all,” said Jill, shaking her head. “All I need at this point in my life is friends, okay? Boys and girls.”
“But you could be going out with Josh Kramer,” said Bianca in a loud whisper, looking behind her at the boys. “He’s really nice, and he’s got his nose in a book half the time just like you. Instead you’re avoiding each other and it’s all awkward.”
“I don’t want to go out with Josh Kramer!” said Jill. “I wish he hadn’t asked me. We could have just carried on being friends and he might have realised it wasn’t going to happen without all this awkwardness.”
“I suppose you’re right there,” said Anya. “But it sounds so boring! Don’t you dream about walking down the beach over there, holding the hand of a boy who thinks you are the greatest, and then you kiss him as the sun sets behind you, and you feel like the most beautiful girl in the world?” Anya had a wistful look in her eyes, her hand over her heart.
Jill, Bianca and Hayley couldn’t help laughing at their crazy friend, her heart always out on her sleeve for anyone to see.
“It is a lovely fantasy, Anya,” said Jill. “I just hope that for me, and for you too I guess, that boy who thinks I am the greatest thinks I’m great enough to marry. Fast forward a few years of course,” she added quickly.
“Oh Jill. You are such a granny in a teenager’s body,” said Anya, giving her a hug.
Just then Simon ran up to them and pulled on Jill’s arm. The other boys were still playing. “Jill,” he said, a little out of breath. “Can we go and call Alex and Anna? Maybe they want to play soccer too.” “Alex and Anna?” said Jill. “Are they here?”
“They’re staying in that house there,” said Simon, pointing to one of the houses directly opposite them. “We went there when they were looking after me. I told you the beach is right up to their front door!”
“That house?” said Anya. “Wow!” They all knew that holiday rentals for that row of houses cost a fortune. The one he was pointing to was huge, all glass and metal with a massive cantilevered balcony that looked out at the sea. The beach didn’t exactly reach right up to the house, but a short path up a small slope led to a gate in a fence around the property. And there was a garage, probably for a boat, on the lower level that did seem to have sand pretty much up to its door.
“Gorgeous and rich,” sighed Anya. “Some people just have it all.”
Jill gave her a gentle shove on the arm. “Come on Anya. They are just people, human beings made by God, just like you and me.”
“Maybe they will see us if we wave,” said Simon. He ran a bit closer to the house, which was barely thirty metres away, and started jumping up and down and waving.
“Probably not, Simon, unless they are actually on the balcony,” said Jill. Much to her surprise, a figure appeared on the balcony. It was an older man, however, with something in his hand; maybe a newspaper. He shielded his face with his hand, probably trying to see who was waving at him.
Simon carried on jumping and waving. He ran a little closer. “Alex!” he shouted. “Anna! Come and play soccer with us!”
The man disappeared into the house and soon two other figures that could only have been Alex and Anna appeared and waved back. Simon carried on shouting although it was probably a little far for them to hear what he was saying.
“Are we actually going to meet him?” said Bianca. “Simon, you are one useful little brother!”
“Let’s walk up there,” said Jill.
“SURE!” gushed Anya, hurrying forward. “I wonder if he will remember me!”
“I’m sure he will, Anya. He told me about you and Simon doing Jaws scenes in the waves the other day.”
“Oh, my goodness,” said Anya. “I always embarrass myself without even thinking about it!”
Anya and the girls followed Simon as he skipped up the beach towards the slope and the path. Just as they got there, Alex and Anna appeared in the back garden of the house and made their way to the open gate.
“Hi Alex!” said Simon, as they reached the gate.
“Hi,” said Alex, grinning at the girls and ruffling Simon’s hair. Okay, thought Jill. That smile is dreamy. She noticed the logo on the pocket of his smart golf shirt – a very expensive imported brand. Even his slip slops were smart, not like Jill’s which she had bought for R20 from the supermarket. “Nice to see you again, Simon, Jill,” he said. “And Anya.”
“You remember my name!” said Anya. She had blushed very red but was smiling from ear to ear. Hayley and Bianca had gone quiet, hanging behind Jill and Anya.
“Sure,” said Alex. “You left Simon with us, remember?”
“I remember,” said Anya. “I got in big trouble with Jill for that!”
“Big trouble with Jill?” laughed Alex. “That’s hard to imagine.” He looked at Jill and smiled at her. That hair, she thought. How did he get it to flick at the front like that?
“There’s a bunch of us playing soccer on the beach,” said Simon, looking up at Alex. “Well, it’s the guys playing soccer, the girls are just sitting on the rocks and talking. Do you and Anna want to come? Do you?”
“Sure,” said Alex. “I wouldn’t mind getting some exercise. We just went out to lunch at the golf club and I think I ate too much.” He lifted his arms and stretched.
“I’m not exactly dressed for the beach,” said Anna, looking down at her short dress. “But I suppose I can come for a while.” Jill looked at Anna’s dress, thinking there was no way she could ever wear that colour pink with her red hair. Or fill out that dress the way Anna did ‒ if Alex was Percy Jackson then Anna was Wonder Woman, all the way. Jill noticed Alex look at his sister with his eyebrows raised as she said she would come, but she just made a face and shoved his arm. She was surprised that Anna wanted to come, too.
Alex and Anna were introduced to Bianca and Hayley, and they all made their way down. As they reached the boys, Tristan, Hayley’s younger brother, scored between the piles of seaweed they had set up as goals, and the five other guys who were playing all clapped him on the back and then walked up to meet the new arrivals. Jill found herself the default connection, and did the introductions, glad that Josh Kramer came up with the rest of them and didn’t seem to be avoiding her any more.
“James, David, Ricardo, Fezile, Josh and Tristan – this is Alex and Anna. They’re on holiday here.”
James extended his hand to shake Alex’s. “Great to meet you!” he said with his usual warm enthusiasm. “And you too,” he said to Anna. She smiled at him.
“I’m glad to see there aren’t only teenagers on this beach,” she said. “I was starting to think I was the only person over eighteen here without a snotty baby on my hip.”
James laughed. “Nope,” he said. “There are a few of us – but only a few. Hopefully we make up in quality what we lack in quantity.”
“Hopefully,” she said, smiling again. She seemed impressed with his answer.
James turned to Alex. “Going to join us for some soccer?”
“Why not?” said Alex, just as he had on Jill’s couch when he was offered coffee and jelly tot biscuits. He kicked off his slops, rolled up his jeans and joined the soccer match.
8
Jill and the other girls joined the soccer game when some of the boys had had enough. It was impossible not to notice that Alex was really good at soccer – he said it wasn’t his sport but he was clearly one of those people who are naturals at any sport they try. Jill even wondered if he was holding back. It looked so easy for him and he hardly even seemed to break a sweat. Later as the sun set everyone shared snacks and sat around in a circle. Anya volunteered to walk Simon home to Aunt Bert, and David went with her. She promised to be back soon, with some blankets and Aunt Bert’s guitar if she would lend it to them.
Alex chatted to the other guys for a while. Fezile and Ricardo, who were the oldest boys of the group at seventeen, surfed too, so they had something in common. Then he drifted over to where Jill was sitting with the other girls, and sat himself next to her. For a while they made small talk about school and home, and she discovered he went to a private all-boys school in Cape Town. She had heard of it when last year’s Matric results had come out and it was one of the top schools. He was in the same grade as she was, both about to start Matric, their last year of high school.
“How are you feeling about next year?” she asked.
“Fine,” he said. “The work will be okay, but fitting everything else in is going to be the hard part. I have a lot of other responsibilities at school and I need to get good marks to get into medical school.”
“Wow,” she said. “Medical school. What kind of doctor do you want to be?”
“I’m going to specialise in internal medicine and become a physician, and then study cardiology,” he said, without hesitation.
“Wow,” said Jill, again. “You have it all planned out.”
“Sixteen years until I get there.”
“Sixteen years?” Jill was amazed. “That’s nearly as long as you’ve been alive!”
“I know,” said Alex, shrugging. “But it’s what I want.”
“What about sport?” asked Jill. “I assume you play sport.”
“Of course,” said Alex, as if it was more than obvious. “I do swimming and rugby mostly. And I run, sometimes. I like running.” “First team rugby?”
He grinned, as if she had caught him out. “First team. Not in the scrum, though. I’m not heavy enough for that.”
“Let me guess,” said Jill, tapping her chin and pretending to be thinking hard. “First rugby team, you must be brainy for medicine, lots of responsibilities ... you’re a prefect? Maybe even head boy?”
“You got me. Head boy.”
“Wow. Your blazer must be pretty bling.”
He laughed. “It’s heavy, yes. They like loading on the stripes and the scrolls and badges. My mom had to do lots of sewing last year. But as I said, it all helps me get where I want to go. There’s no guarantee of my getting into med school. Every rugby game, every prefect meeting, it all helps. I have to get in.”
Jill was impressed. He was so driven and serious about his future. She glanced over at David and Josh, who were concentrating seriously on throwing popcorn into the air and catching it in their mouths, and doubted they had the same level of ambition. “So why did they pick you?” Jill asked. “For head boy, I mean. Our head girl is just the poor girl with the highest marks, and she is so not a natural leader or anything.” She felt a little cheeky for asking this question. Alex was good-looking, rich and talented, and she was wondering if he had the arrogance to match.
Alex looked at her, surprised. “I haven’t been asked that before,” he said. “I suppose they wanted someone who could handle his schoolwork, and that’s always pretty easy for me. And someone who hasn’t been in trouble. A good example and all that.”
“That’s probably half the guys at your school. Why you?”
He shrugged. “Because I’m good at sport? I get along with the other guys? I think I just fitted the profile. They knew I would behave myself and make them proud. And there wasn’t much of a choice. There are lots of losers in my year, to be honest.”
Hmm, thought Jill. Losers. She wondered what made someone a loser in Alex’s opinion. “So that’s what you’re going to do next year,” she said. “Behave yourself and make them proud? Show up the losers?”
“And get into medicine. That’s what it’s all for in the end.”
“To be a cardiologist. Doctor – what’s your surname?”
“Palmer.”
“Doctor Palmer. It sounds good.”
“It sounds brilliant to me,” said Alex. “What about you? How heavy is your blazer?”
“My blazer is well-balanced, thanks,” said Jill. “I fly under the radar.”
“Well-balanced? Come on, tell me what’s on it. You got a lot out of me.”
“Okay, fine. Cross country and academics. If you must know. And I have a slightly embarrassing badge shaped like a book that says I’m a librarian. I’m basically a nerd who runs fast.”
Alex laughed, and shook his head. “You don’t look like a nerd to me. What do you want to do after school?”
“I wish I was as certain as you are. I want to study Literature the most. But teaching doesn’t really appeal to me, and neither does journalism. So I can’t figure out how I’m going to make a living. And then there’s Simon. I wish I could live in the same town as him when I finish school, but there’s not much happening here. I really don’t know yet.”
“I know your Dad lives overseas. Do you have a mom?”
“My mom died when I was nine. She had cancer.” “That … sucks,” he said.
“It totally sucks,” she said. “I like that you said that instead of getting embarrassed and saying nothing at all. And your parents?”
“My parents are cool. Sometimes a little annoyingly too interested in my life, but cool. I can’t imagine not having them around.”
“Simon and I have Aunt Bert, and even though Dad isn’t around he supports us. Financially, I mean. Besides, we have our church, and James. We’re fine.”
“Is James your boyfriend?” asked Alex.
Jill couldn’t help a bit of a shrieky “No!” Then she laughed. “James is our cousin. Well, he’s a third cousin or something. He’s family. Aunt Bert is our great aunt, and his too. Whatever that makes him.”
“Okay,” said Alex. “Just wanted to ask.”
“What about you?” asked Jill. “You must have a girlfriend. Head
girl of your sister school?”
Alex shook his head. She had meant it as a joke, but he wasn’t laughing. “No,” he said. “No girlfriend. Not at the moment.”
Just then Anya and David returned with an armful of old blankets and quilts, and Aunt Bert’s guitar. It was getting dark now, the clear sky slowly turning navy blue.
“Got it!” Anya waved the guitar around above her head, then handed it to James. Soon he was tuning it up. Anna came up to Alex and Jill as they spread a threadbare patchwork quilt on the sand, a worried look on her face.
“Are we going to join arms and sing Kumbaya?” asked Anna. “Alex, you know this is pretty much a church youth group. James actually works for the church.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Alex. He turned to Jill. “We’re not really churchy people.”
“But your school is a church school, isn’t it?”
“Oh yes,” said Alex. “We have chapel and stuff. We have carol services, and a chaplain who is supposed to give us ‘spiritual guidance’. But our family doesn’t go to church.”
“That’s okay,” said Jill. “This isn’t a church event, we’re just a group of friends who mostly go to the same youth group.”
“But you actually go to church, like on a Sunday?” said Anna. “James says he preaches sometimes. Seriously Alex, he’s only a few years older than I am!”
“Chill, Anna,” said Alex. “It’s just church.”
“Well, I go,” said Jill. “And most of these kids do. James is pretty good when he preaches. You should come and visit on Sunday. The church is just a few minutes away from here.” She wanted to smile at the looks on their faces. Alex seemed amused and Anna looked stressed. Oh dear, thought Jill, that made her uncomfortable. She clearly had no desire to go to church but didn’t want to be rude.
“Why don’t you go up to your house and change quickly?” asked Jill, changing the subject for Anna’s sake. “It won’t be easy to sit on the sand in your dress.”
Anna shrugged again, but headed up the hill, returning in a few minutes in jeans and a sweatshirt just as James called for everyone to come and join him on the blankets. Poor Anna, thought Jill. If an invitation to church made her nervous then this was going to be rough! But she and Alex gamely joined the circle. A beach sing-song was a favourite of the Marshall Bay Community Church teens, and they did it at least a couple of times a year. Soon James was playing the old guitar and David was leading them in an enthusiastic Xhosa song. That loosened Anna up a little. Then they moved on to a version of “The Lord’s My Shepherd”, with different parts for the guys and the girls. Jill thought it sounded beautiful, especially with Anya’s strong voice in the harmony. After that they sang a few worship songs. James loved these, and for some of them he closed his eyes when he sang. Jill enjoyed it too. She loved to think about God while she was on the beach at night, under the stars. It reminded her of how infinitely huge he was and how wonderful it was that he loved her. It was getting quite dark by the time the mood changed and they were belting out “Yellow Submarine”. Things started getting crazy when Anya got up and did her Taylor Swift “I Knew You Were Trouble” thing, even throwing herself on the sand at the “lying on the cold hard floor” part, and by the end of that, everyone, including Alex and Anna, was laughing tears. Then David and Tristan led everyone in their famous rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and by the end of that Jill’s stomach was hurting from laughing so much.
Eventually the hilarity faded. It was after nine and James rounded everyone up to go home.
“Don’t everyone’s parents mind that you guys are on the beach at night?” Alex asked Jill, as they got up to leave.
“They don’t mind if we’re with James,” said Jill. “He always makes sure everyone gets home okay.”
“Come, Alex,” said Anna. “The show is over. We should get back.”
“Tell Simon thanks for inviting us, will you?” asked Alex, as he handed Jill the corners of the quilt they had folded.
“Sure,” said Jill, tucking it under her arm. “I’ll tell him.”
The two waved good-bye and walked together up the path back to the big house, and the others moved off in a group towards the parking lot. One or two cars were there; parents coming to pick up their kids. Bianca had messaged her mom to pick her, Hayley and Tristan up, and Anya’s dad was there too in his old VW kombi. After David, Fez and Josh had piled in for a lift home, James and Jill were left to walk back to their street.
“That was fun, James, thanks,” said Jill, opening the outside gate for him after he had helped to bring the blankets and guitar inside.
“Yeah, it was,” said James. “So Simon has found you some new friends?”
“I suppose,” she said. “I don’t know them much yet, though.” “I saw you talking to Alex quite a lot,” he teased.
Jill gave him a playful slap on the arm. “Come on James. I hardly know him. And boys like him …”
“Make girls’ knees go weak?”
“That is not what I was going to say!”
“Sorry Jill. I forgot about your no dating thing. I had to explain it all again to Josh Kramer. He seems to have given up hope for now.”
“Good,” said Jill. “At least he was acting more normally today. And don’t tease me about it, please James!”
“All right, Jill. Sorry. I think it’s a good principle, I’m just not so sure how it can work out in reality.”
“I was going to say that boys like him don’t usually stick around for long. I would be surprised if he didn’t have a new set of friends by tomorrow. But I saw you look more than twice at his pretty sister.”
“She’s not pretty,” said James. “She’s beautiful.”
“Oh boy,” said Jill. “Well, I invited them to church and she nearly passed out.”
“Maybe she’ll come.” James grinned, and Jill laughed at his face.