Car top down, blasting Madonna's songs and my hair whipping me in the face, i made my journey to Appledore. Appledore was a little seaside town in Devon county.
My chevy was packed with a suitcase, my laptop and an essentials bag.
My mum had a summer home down here, which we do visit every year but since she fell sick and died, it had just been there rotting.
The last time we visited was seven years ago which we barely stayed two days, before the news of mum's cancer came and she had to start treatment immediately.
Turning right at the town square,I noticed that more shops has sprouted up. A bar,a cafe and pastries shop. The police station has been extended and newly repainted.
At the intersection,a fountain has been installed in the middle of it.
A bright blue colored shop caught my eyes.
"Hems'shoe clinic is still here" I observed.
There was an inside joke between me and a friend of mine then.
"I wonder if Pete is still here"
There was a certain chubby blue eyed ginger haired boy, whom I was joined at the hip with at every summer since we met.
I remembered being the one who was the protector of our little group, consisting of me,Pete and Martha his pet turtle. I was a early bloomer not in the breast or ass department but in the height, was tall and thin as a reed. Pete was a late bloomer, plump, timid and short. That made him the perfect target for the older local boys.
The first time I met him, he was cornered in the playground. His loud whimpering disturbed my avid perusal of adult reading,a raunchy novel about Viking marauders and their brides.The sounds of tussle brewed my annoyance and I left the hideout I was in to dispel it, so I can continue reading in peaceful silence.
Creeping out from the hideout which was underneath the playhouse,I saw a ginger haired boy on the floor, his toys and a overturn tortoise was beside him, standing over him were two lanky boys. The poor tortoise kept trying to upright her self.
"Hey!" I shouted, three pairs of eyes swung to my direction.
"Can you keep it down!" I waved my novel "someone is trying to read here"
Had he not spoken,we might never have become friends.
"Sorry to disturb your lovely reading,princess" a snarky voice replied.
"How dare you talk to her,You pig!" One of the boys kicked him and I saw red.
A broken arm coupled with a substantial amount of dna belonging to the boys underneath my teeth, Pete became glued to my side that summer and every other summer after that.
He might have been a timid person but once we became friends, I rubbed off on him. Underneath his timid facade, He was the initiator of the numerous shenanigans we got up to.
"Wondered if he later became a veterinarian" I wondered out loud, I knew It was a dream of his.
Reminiscing aside,I drove up to the driveway of our summer home. The ivy covered beach house still looked as it did back in my teens.
I killed the engine and got out of the car, went to the trunk and brought out my blue suitcase.
Walking on the stone pavement,I observed that Everything on the outside still looks the same,the garden gnomes are still there,the front porch still has the same wooden rocking chair.
Climbing the steps to the the porch,the key cup was still there.I took the keys from there and unlocked the door. It swung open and nostalgia hits me with an heavy punch. The pastel colored living room might have had a fresh coat during the years but nothing else had changed.
Abandoning my suitcase at the entrance,old habits of removing my shoes kicked in. The knitted sofa blanket is still sitting pretty beside the pillows on the sofa.
The pictures on the wall still carry the frozen smiles of me,my mum and dad's face.
Me on my birthdays,the picture of our dog,some pictures of Pete and i. A picture of grand father in military uniform with his face set in stern lines was also on the wall.
One thing my mum shared with her father apart from the eyes and hard head,is their love for books. The dwarf shelf is still crammed with books my mom loved reading while seated on her rocking chair.
The figurine of an hippo is still beside the plastic fern plant. I trailed my hand on it,it was clean.
I turned back expecting to see my mom with her rubber gloves on and a duster in her hands. I only saw my suitcase sitting in the empty door way.
I sighed.
"This is going to be a long summer"