Yeovil Literary Prize
2008

Final Judging - Short Story Category
Title: Villa in the Sun
Reference: 10/EC02193/C00380/Z012
Decision:

  
  
Comments:

 

      

Villa in the Sun 
Ellie leant back luxuriously on the sun bed. She tipped her hat forward to keep the sun off her face. Eyes closed, she reached out to clasp Pauls hand as he lay on the sun bed next to her. He returned the pressure of her fingers without saying anything. She turned her head to look at him, lying there lost in music, the IPod white against his rapidly developing tan. His face already looked smoothed out from the deep furrows of the last few months. They had really needed this holiday, what with the redundancies at work and then all the problems with Linda and Ben.
Ben. Poor Ben. Ellie knew that she should feel sorry for the child. Linda had gone off to the States with her shiny new husband, blithely handing over full custody of the six year old to Paul, apparently with the same casual efficiency with which she had found a new home for the family dog. Really, it was no wonder he was so badly behaved. But sheҒd always had to work hard to conjure up any feelings of affection for him and it seemed even more of a struggle since hed come to live with them permanently. She would be washing up or warming SuzanneҒs bottle and become aware of him standing in the doorway staring at her; his dark liquid eyes big in his sallow face with its wide forehead. He looked nothing like either of his parents. She toyed with the idea that he was some sort of changeling. He looked spookily like that child in The Omen. 
He moved silently round the house, so that she often came upon him unexpectedly. She sometimes found him in Suzannes room, holding the sides of the cot and gazing down at the baby. She had tried to talk to Paul about it, but he just said that Ben needed to get used to his new half sister and Ellie should be pleased that he was taking an interest.
He certainly wasnҒt being silent now: mimicked engine noises told her that he was playing one of his interminable car games over the other side of the pool. She really ought to persuade him out of the full sun, but she couldnt face the battle of wills that ensued every time she asked him to do something. There had been a terrible scene in the restaurant last night when sheҒd tried to stop him banging his glass on the table and hed run screaming round and round the tables and thrown himself on the floor. Then earlier on today, sheҒd provoked another tantrum when shed told him not to get on to the small diving board at the end of the pool. Ridiculous, really, having a diving board in a family villa like this. But there was little else to complain about Җ the villa was lovely, cool and roomy. The bedrooms were even air-conditioned, a rare luxury in this type of holiday rental  but Ellie, who slept poorly in the heat, had selected it partly on this account and partly for the terrace, which was shaded by heavily scented jasmine trained over wooden arches. Eating outside was the best thing about a villa holiday. She had gazed at the photo in the brochure and pictured long lazy dinners and sharing a bottle of wine in a dusk thick with the whirring of cicadas. 
The evenings had been a bit of a disappointment, as it turned out: Paul didn֒t like to send Ben off to bed at a reasonable hour, saying that it was his holiday too. So lingering over a glass of wine in the warm dusk was not quite the relaxing experience shed anticipated. Never mind. This was a real family holiday and she was going to take every opportunity to improve her relationship with Ben. She planned an outing tomorrow, back to a beach that had a little funfair, with a model train and a roundabout with cars. It was probably her least favourite, but Ben had seemed to like it there. If he was enjoying himself she could relax a little and it might be easier to start bonding with him. The car noises seemed to have stopped for the moment. She opened her eyes and saw that Ben had gone over to the swing. At least that was in the shade. Perhaps she should go and tell him about the beach trip now, make a start. This was a good non-confrontational moment.
She went and sat on the chair over by the swing. Ben was sitting on the swing seat, twirling slowly round until the ropes were wound up above him, then letting it unwind violently, his feet kicking up the dust as he span.
ғI thought tomorrow wed go back to the beach we went to on Tuesday. You remember, the one with the model train and the roundabouts? We can all go on the model train Җ that was such fun, wasnt it? Җ and you built ever such a good sandcastleŔ she was babbling now, looking for a response.
WasnӒt a castle. Was a fort.
Same difference, thought Ellie childishly
ԓAnd the wall got washed away. That train didnt go anywhere either. Just up and down the road. Boring.Ҕ He started swinging back and forth, chanting Bor-ing bor-ing bor-ingӔ, in a loud, rude tone, nodding his head violently with each word while checking through his eyelashes that it wasnt loud enough to penetrate his fatherҒs music listening. He dragged the toes of his trainers in the dust as he swung, kicking up a cloud around himself.
Ellie got up and stood for a moment, hands clenched, eyes watering with the dust. She opened her mouth, then shut it again and walked slowly back to her sun-bed. She lay down and pulled her sunhat down over her face. At least now she couldnt see him, could pretend he wasnҒt there. If only it were that easy.
Ben had jumped abruptly off the swing and was back with his cars, circling ferociously and making harsh motor-revving and tyre-screeching noises. Ellie sighed. She looked over to Suzanne, where she lay gurgling in her playpen in the shade of the cypress, one fist trying to grasp the dapple of sunlight that fell through the green darkness. It was time for her feed, but Ellie felt glued to the sun bed in the afternoon heat. She closed her eyes again, trying to shut out the drone of Bens car revving imitations. Just a few minutes more. 
The revving noises grew in volume and then were replaced with police siren wails. Ben ran around the pool with two cars in his hands, being a car chase that culminated in him jumping into the pool with a huge splash, dousing them liberally with cold water. Paul opened his eyes and gave his usual ґsorry but its not worth making a fussҒ apologetic grin. Suzanne had started grizzling now, disturbed by the penetrating noise.
IӒll take her up now, I think said Ellie, making baby carrying and upstairs gestures.  Paul smiled sleepily and nodded, grasping the sense of the actions rather than hearing her words through the music.
Upstairs, she put Suzanne in her cot and gave her the bottle. SuzanneԒs eyes glazed over with the familiar inwardly focused feeding-baby look. Ellie wandered over to the window. Thinking her safely out of the way, Ben was surreptitiously making for the diving board again. She searched the unfamiliar window for the catch to open it and call out but then thought, sod it, I cant be on his back all the time and I canҒt face another scene like this morning.
She was just moving away. She didnt see exactly what happened but there was a blur of movement as Ben somehow slipped and fell face-first onto the board and then, very gradually, almost lazily, like someone rolling sleepily over in bed, slid sideways off the board and cleanly into the water. She stood stunned for a moment, palms flat against the glass. There was barely a ripple on the surface of the pool. It had been so quick, so quiet. Suzanne hadnҒt stirred and if Ellie had been over by the cot instead of by the window shed have known nothing. Ben reappeared, floating face down, arms at his sides, hands palm up.
Paul hadnҒt moved. He lay face to the sun, wrapped in his IPod world. She started to bang on the window but the flat sound barely disturbed the heavy afternoon air. She stopped abruptly, hands still raised to the glass. 
Then, slowly, she turned away from the window and crossed over to the cot. Her daughter gazed up at her, a light froth of milk on the down round her mouth. Ellie sat down and started to hum gently, a lullaby to rock her baby to sleep.
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Word count: 1,481