The jewel encrusted condors flying high above her were sparkling on the haze of the mid day sun, and the beach beckoned her many miles away on the horizon.
It was so calming to be out here among the swaying dunes and the occasional bird sweeping overhead, no hustle and bustle from the city, speed racers and noisy market vendors.
May was standing on a rocky outcrop and was looking towards the beach through her binoculars. The condors were further away now and just glint of red flashed in front of the sun.
May kept on walking towards the beach and by the time she got there and sat down on her towel she had sand everywhere, from in her boots to her hair, but it was worth it. The sun beat down on her like it was trying to cook her, bake her into submission, and her bikini was glowing bright blue, it almost matched the sky.
She felt good lying there in her bikini, her slim tall body made her look like an athlete and her long curly purple hair could be likened to a film stars.
The best bit about this particular beach is that it was completely private, no tourists or lifeguards running round with red trunks on, nothing to distract her, the only sound was the rippling of the waves on the shoreline. After a paddle and a few selfies, vain she knew, but she didn’t do it often, she headed back to the chalet, her back to the sea.
Some way away she could make out a vehicle of some type coming towards her at some speed, she quickly put on her shirt and tied her hair back before the occupiers of the craft saw her. It came into view closer, it was a dune hopper with 2 men inside it. People mainly used dune hoppers to shoot birds from or hover above the water and use it as a fishing boat.
They grinned as they pulled up beside her, they both had nice smiles, short hair and they were both wearing khakis and brandishing shot guns, big ones,
‘ Hi there’
one of them said with glistening blue eyes and a smooth caramel tone to his voice. She smiled back from underneath her sunglasses.
‘ Have you seen and condors or albatrosses in the area?’
he asked politely with a thousand watt smile.
‘No sorry’ she replied not wanting to admit that she had, she didn’t approve of the gunners, they mainly did it for the jewels and would leave the birds to rot.
‘ Never mind, maybe we’ll get lucky’
the other said with a smirk on his face looking her up and down, she wasn’t in the mood to flirt today and looked away.
‘ Thanks anyway’
one of them yelled as they sped away towards to the hazy blue line of the seashore.
May pressed on until she got back to her chalet, it was what she imagined when she turned up there a couple of days before, just an expensive looking hut on a beach, it had a balcony with a hammock and a thatched roof, good job it didn’t rain here much.
May unlocked the door and went inside, everything was exactly how she had left it except, maybe it was her imagination, but there was a lot more sand on the floor now than before she left, slightly puzzled but not too fazed by it she had a shower and put on the stove for dinner, looking outside the sun had set and the sky was navy blue, the stars twinkled like sequins on a dress. As far as she could tell the wind had not picked up and everything was still and calm, not a hint of anything but her in her cabin, drinking wine and cooking her fish.
After her dinner May went to check out the TV in the bedroom and eat her chocolate in bed, as she looked down at her feet more sand seemed to have accumulated on the floor beneath her, noticing the floor in every room was the same, it was in the sink and on the bed, unnerved a little bit by it she tried clawing it off the bed sheets, dusting it onto the floor, not noticing it piling up in mounds like ant hills on the wooden floor.
She had got most of it off the bed and relaxed into the bed watching TV and eating her chocolate.
By the morning there was nothing, no bed, no sink, no chalet, no May, like the waves the chalet and it’s contents had vanished with the tides, and had sank beneath the sand with no trace, all was still, all was calm.

As the gloomy grey clouds descended the garden looked dull and unloved, the once pride of the county roses looked like they were in mourning for the sun.
Lily as her name suggests was a pretty little girl, blonde, naïve and a little bit cheeky, She was 8 years old.
She lived at the manor house, with her mind, really old people, this would suggest that they were in their 90’s, but actually her aunt and uncle were in their mid 40’s and still had all their own teeth.
Lily loved the gardens, especially when they were in bloom and the pretty bright colours shone when the light hit them, and the smell was glorious.
Lily was sometimes curious and would forget where her parents were and why she lived with her aunt and uncle, and was always told the same thing, when your old enough we will tell you, that was all well and good, but when would that be?.
The manor house was something quite spectacular, it was situated in the Somerset levels somewhere near Taunton, but hidden away from prying eyes. It was more than a hop, skip and a jump away from a main road and had quite a few number of hectares of land, it comprised of a tennis court, stables, a croquet lawn and the infamous rose gardens, which stood proud and defiant against all weathers, and little girls who would try to pick them, they would fight back by having very pointy thorns on their storks, so she would cry if she tried.
There were all sorts of different types as well according to Reg the gardener, from damask to climbing roses, all looked different and with different aromas, the whole place came alive in the warm spring weather. But there was one in particular that was lily’s favourite, according to Reg it was a rambling rose called ‘the fairy’. It would normally be found decorating the archway into the garden and was gorgeously pale pink with a yellow centre, and looked very dainty and light, even though it was a ‘ vigorous grower’ according to Reg.
She wanted to remember all the different types of roses but she realised quite soon that her little brain couldn’t cope with too much information like that, plus she couldn’t pronounce the Latin names of them even if she tried.
Today was special, the annual county show people were coming round to inspect the roses before picking their favourites to exhibit for the show, a highly prestigious event that the adults loved, Lily didn’t care, they were just not taking her favourite.
After afternoon tea and a walk around the rest of the gardens the committee ended up at the rose garden, and were suitably impressed with what they saw, even though the weather today could have been nicer there was no drop of rain or a cool breeze, everything was still and warm for a spring afternoon.
The committee comprised of 3 women and 1 man, they looked around the same age as her family, all old of course. The women all wore pastel shades and flower brooches, they had soft features and they all had their hair tied back like in an old film, and the man wore a dickey bow and had a funny little moustache. They all sounded very posh.
They talked softly, almost a whisper, she could hear lots of oohs and aahs and a lot of nodding heads and pointing fingers towards the different variety of roses, they were smiling and everything seemed to be going well.
As the roses were being picked by Reg for the purposes of making a display for the show, Lily noticed a little squeaky noise when they were cut, like a tiny scream, it unnerved her a little and she asked Reg what the noise was,
‘Why it’s a soul of an angel of course’
he said with a smirk on his face, Lily wasn’t sure what to make of this, in a way it was nice to know that there were angels all around, but why were they in the flowers?. Reg explained that when someone good lives in the house that dies their souls get transferred into the flowers by magic, and that randomly her favourite flowers on the archway were her parents, he then laughed and went back to his pruning. She thought that it could have been a silly joke, he did have a weird sense of humour, but suppose it was true, Lily shuddered a little as she heard more ‘screaming’ from a distance.

She looked up at the imposing building, the eye sore of the area.
The block of flats was a good 7 storeys high which looked not in the best state of repair, the moss was seeping from between the concrete infrastructure and the corners under the balconies were slowly crumbling away, but it was cheap and she could afford it.
It reminded her of a great battle ship, built of sturdy stuff, lots of small windows, and that horrible grey colour that merges in with the colour of the grey skies above. It was cold too, not the nicest day to see it in, but hopefully her mobile would get some decent photos, even in the low light.
Beth felt the idea of living up 4 flights of this cement block quite daunting. Then she remembered why she was seeing it, she wanted a flat she could call her own, she could do what she liked with it and a mortgage would be so much cheaper than staying renting.
The stair way was large and efficient, painted white with a black hand rail, but with good wide steps, at least they weren’t steep, 4 flights of the latter would kill her, quiet quickly.
After a lot of huffing and puffing, she was catching her breath when her future neighbour came out of her door looking Beth up and down.
‘ You’ll be wanting the key to see around then’
she said as deadpan as you can get, Beth could see her being a challenge, with her hair still in curlers and the smell of a sweet sickly perfume, it haloed her like a ring of smoke.
‘Thanks’
Beth said taking the key from her and giving her a half smile.
Inside the flat was dusty and smelt of a second hand bookshop. The layout was nice, a large area of kitchen and living/dining room at the rear with an arch between the two, a good double bedroom to the right at the front, with a bathroom between the bedroom and kitchen and a room slightly bigger than a box room with a single bed and wardrobe in it on the left side as you came in, despite the aesthetics it was a nice flat, good size and a nice view on the balcony off the kitchen. The town never looked so pretty, and at least she had this space to sit out and sit in the sun.
The décor was a lot to be desired, unless you liked proper vintage it wasn’t for you, certain pieces were nice, the furniture was looked as sturdy as the building did and in high gloss mahogany with short stumpy legs, that was most of the pieces explained. She figured the furniture was built around the same time as the building, in the 1970’s. The walls would take some steaming as most of the flat was wallpaper of an orange and brown nature in funky patterns on most of the walls, and the kitchen was full of out dated white goods, it was definitely do-able.
A noise behind her made her jump, the record player had jumped into life, ‘you are my sunshine’ sprung up loud and filled the quiet space. She looked towards the window as the mist in the light mixed with the dust in the air, she thought of gold confetti at a wedding in the sun, a whoosh of memory flooded her head, memories of getting married outside all saints church, family all around and the sun streaming in her eyes, so all she could see was the confetti floating in the air before crashing onto the path, it missed falling on her completely, it was such a beautiful memory, it’s a shame it wasn’t hers.
Beth slightly taken aback turned and went to look in the bedroom and turned off the record player on the way. The bedroom was nice and big with a king size bed, a chest of drawers and wardrobe, all in good condition and mahogany, again. Beth felt a tingling feeling whilst sitting on the bed and had a whoosh again, her head was spinning, as she looked around she could see children laughing and running in and out of rooms and bunting was attached to the tops of the door frames. The room had come alive, it was no longer dusty but bright and clean, not a cobweb in sight and the flat felt alive with joy and happiness, a warm feeling flooded her body, she just felt so happy and contented.
Beth closed her eyes again and woke up in the dusty version once more, feeling sad, she wanted to feel that happy again. Getting up she walked into the box room and sat down on the pink shiny blanket that covered it, the next whoosh she got was sad, it wasn’t the happiness and joy from the other bedroom she felt, it was loss and sadness, looking down she realised she was crying with no idea why, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know, the overwhelming sense of pain and anger was too much for her and she closed her eyes hoping it would go away, and she would be back in the present. It worked and she took a huge sigh of relief and shaked off the moment wiping her eyes.
Beth realised that despite the emotions of that room the others were of joy and it would feel nice to live here, she felt as if she had made the right choice.
She stepped outside the flat and turned to post the key back next door when it opened on her ‘ Have the key back, I’ve made my mind up’
She said to the young woman standing there, not the stern looking old woman from earlier but a younger woman with softer features, freckles and smile.
‘Good I’m glad someone new will be moving in, the people that lived there before were nice too, at least until the little girl got ill, it went a bit down hill from there, it was a shame’
‘It does feel very nice in there, mostly calm, I like it, although the walls might need some paint, when did all this happen’
‘Last month’
‘That recent?!’
‘Yes, why, oh and the local painter and decorator did that about 2 years ago, you know to keep up to date with current trends’
‘Current, what year is this building in’
Beth said with half a smile
‘1976 of course, we have always been slightly behind everyone else I know, but what can you do about that’. ‘Nice to meet you, good luck with flat stuff’
Walking away Beth wondered if she had bought that place, signed on the dotted line, that she would’ve been stuck in 1976 too, what a thought she quietly said to herself, as she checked her internet connection on her phone.