Chapter Two: Visions

         Sunlight broke through the blinds creating bright stripes on Charlie’s bed. He rolled over and inched his eyes open, surveying the room beyond him. Sitting up he stretched the muscles in his legs.

“’bout time you woke up,” Amber Lynn said as she turned around to face him.

She was wearing a simple Ramones tee and had her hair in a messy bun, but to Charlie, she was gorgeous. No, he couldn’t think of her like that. She was practically his cousin.

“Aunt Eloise left all the breakfast things out,” she told him, walking out the room.

Charlie rubbed the sleep from his eyes and slowly pulled the covers back. Pulling on a clean shirt he made his way downstairs. He passed Aunt Eloise sitting in the lounge with a cat curled up at her feet.
“I didn’t realise you had a cat,” he mentioned.
“I don’t,” Aunt Eloise replied.

“Okay?” Charlie shook his head and the cat quickly disappeared.

Again? He was getting somewhat sick of this.

 

         Amber Lynn sat out on the front step with a thick novel perched on her knees. She was just about to find out whether Penelope would accept the dashing Mr Yorker’s offer of marriage or not. That’s when it happened; suddenly she could see it before her. Penelope had long red hair and freckles dusted across her face. She was wearing a dress that made Amber Lynn immediately think of the 1800’s. Mr Yorker had on a tailored suit and was standing with Penelope’s gloved hand in his.

“I? Good sir, of the many woman in the village, you would so choose to ask of my hand?” Penelope gushed.
“Penny, I adore you, from the moment I saw you as a child, I knew that you would be Mrs. Henry Yorker.” Mr Yorker beamed.
“Oh Mr Yorker,” Penelope blushed.

“Henry,” Mr Yorker smiled.

“Oh Henry, of course I shall do you the honour of being your wife.” Penelope squealed.

The vision faded and Amber Lynn was left with a dizzy feeling.

She too was entirely over these visions. Although they were still very few, they were gradually growing closer, at some point, she was sure she would be experiencing multiple per day. The thought sickened her, not only were these visions frightening, they left her feeling nauseous and light-headed.

 

***

 

         After finishing his toast with vegemite, Charlie walked back out to Aunt Eloise. One of the conditions on his coming here was that he was to do the occasional odd job, making sure Aunt Eloise’s house still functioned well. Aunt Eloise was getting on fairly well, but in the last couple of years she had began to deteriorate. Charlie’s own grandmother, Eloise’s older sister Isabelle, was well into her early eighties. Although Eloise was the youngest, she seemed to be fading quickly. This was blamed by the death of her husband Charles McDonough. According to Eloise, they had always wanted children, she was great to them and had helped look after Charlie’s Mother and all his uncles and aunts and their other cousins. But when it came to children of her own, she was sadly unblessed. When she was twenty, she fell pregnant for the first time, she was so happy and excited but it ended in tragedy, their son Edwin was born, still birth. Eloise fell into a fit of depression that was only halted by another pregnancy. Which luckily went all the way, she was blessed with a beautiful baby girl, Mary. But before Mary had a chance to turn four, tragedy struck again, she grew sick and eventually died. After that, Eloise refused to try for more children, she believed she was cursed.

Charlie walked up to a reading Eloise.

“Got any jobs you want done?” he asked her.
“Let me rack my brains,” she laughed, “well the floor in the other room needs fixing, I need a couple of light globes replaced and a few other things, but all of that needs to be bought. Today I’ll let you start off easy. Can you go into town and bring me back some groceries? Spend all day in town if you wish, we’re just running a little short on a few things.”

“Yeah, okay. You got a list?” he asked.

“On the table, anything else you or Amber Lynn would like, don’t hesitate to get it. Oh why don’t you ask her to join you?” Eloise smiled.

“I might,” he said, walking out of the room.
“Thank you,” she called out behind him.

 

         He found Amber Lynn out on the front step with a book lying next to her. She had her head lying against a pole and her eyes squeezed shut.
“You okay?” Charlie asked her with genuine sincerity.
“I’m fine, just a tad light headed,” She said brushing it off.

“You sure?” he tried again.

He was a good listener; all his mates would dump all of their problems on him. Little Eve would always go to him for advice. He used to adore Eve, but lately even she was testing his patience.

“Oh, do you want to come into town with me?” he asked.

“Yes I’m sure, and I don’t see why not, when do you want to leave?” Amber Lynn replied.

“I need a shower still, so half an hour-ish?” he replied.

“Okay,” she nodded, grabbing her book and following him inside.

 

         While Charlie was in the bathroom, Amber Lynn let out her hair. It curled all the way down her back and fell into loose ringlets. She swapped her tee for a light summery dress and a pair of sandals.

“Yo, Amber Lynn you coming?” Charlie called out from downstairs.

She grabbed her bag and made her way downstairs. Charlie stood at the bottom of the stairs in amazement, it was the exact vision he’d had before, only this time he could tell it was real.

Great, he thought to himself, not only am I seeing the past anymore, I can see the future to. I don’t think it’s a vivid imagination anymore…

“Charlie, are you okay?” Amber Lynn asked, “You’ve gone all pale.”

“I just need some fresh air.” He muttered in return as they stepped outside.

 

         Aunt Eloise’s shack was only a fifteen-minute walk into town. Pembroke was a quaint seaside town with a few shops. All though there weren’t many businesses, the stock they had was varied and of great quality. Amber Lynn remembered her mother always would take her into the flower shop down the road and buy her a yellow rose, every time they came to visit Aunt Eloise. She shared the love of yellow roses with her mother, if it was to be the only thing left, Amber Lynn had to try it. Clara Rose, Amber Lynn’s mother, had died when Amber Lynn turned eleven. That was five years ago. It never got any easier for her; she was an only child and had no one to share the burden with. Her father had buried himself in his work and she had barely seen a peep from him since, in those five long years. She missed him, sure she had been much closer to her mother, but every Friday night they would order a pizza and get a movie and spend the night together with light hearted family fun. After her mother was gone, the Friday nights slowly dwindled away.

 

         Amber Lynn had grabbed her camera last minute, her own grandmother, Clarice had been an avid photographer she had bought her a toy camera when she was a toddler. Amber Lynn had cherished the thing and was so excited when her father bought her a digital camera for her eleventh birthday. This year she had saved all of her money up for a DSLR with interchangeable lenses, it was now her pride and joy. She walked along beside Charlie snapping pictures of the quaint shops. Sneaking a picture of him here and there. His eyes were so blue in the late morning light. He looked at her like he could see something in behind her eyes. A smile spread across her face and her cheeks reddened, quickly she looked away and hid behind her viewfinder pretending to focus on a park bench. Charlie jumped onto the seat and grinned cheekily,

“Oh, come on, I know you’ve been taking my picture,”

“So what if I have?” she asked in reply

“You’ll make loads of money selling them,” He laughed as she snapped the picture.

“You wish Charles,” she said turning away,

“It’s Charlie!” Charlie replied defensively

“Sorry,” she murmured.

 

         The pair stopped first at the corner store and found the groceries that were on Aunt Eloise’s list. They then made their way next door, a bookstore that seemed only to stock either the ancient or the prehistoric books. Not that Amber Lynn minded, she had a passion for older books, just like her photography, it was something she shared with her grandmother, even her mother had had a soft spot for classics. She took in the musty old book smell and ran her fingers along the dusty shelves, reading title after title. After a while of exploration she found a few books that tickled her fancy. Charlie had seated himself on a lonely stool, in the window, that faced out towards the street. Quietly she took a few images. Smiling to herself she placed the books on the counter and payed the sad looking teenager, who was not much older than herself, with acne scattered across his chin and braces, despite this he wasn’t to bad looking.

“Into classics?” he smiled

“Can’t get away from them,” she replied

“Me either,” he joked, referring to his job, “I’m Jonathon,”

“Amber Lynn,” she nodded

“Beautiful name for a beautiful girl. You staying here for the holidays?” Jonathon asked.

“Yes with my great Aunt, Eloise McDonough, know of her?”

“She’s lovely, used to babysit me and my brother,” Jonathon nodded

“Amber Lynn?” Charlie asked

“Coming,” she replied

“He your boyfriend?” Jonathon asked, looking a little down

“Oh no,” she quickly blurted out

“Good, come to the fair tomorrow night with my friends and I? You can bring him along too if you want,” he said, nodding in Charlies direction.

“I’ll think about it,” Amber Lynn replied, leaving the store with a handful of books tucked under her arm.

 

         “I’m Jonathon,” Charlie mimicked.

Amber Lynn nudged him with her free arm.

“What?” he asked innocently

“You’re just jealous that you don’t have a date for the fair, and I do,” she smiled.

“Jealous of you? Unlikely,” he joked.

 

***

 

         Amber Lynn dragged Charlie into every shop in town and by the end of the afternoon, after a lunch of hot chips and aching feet both of them had purchased something.

“What’s with the bear?” Amber Lynn asked

“It’s for Eve, I promised Evie I’d bring her something back.” He replied

“Oh,” she whispered

The rest of the walk home was silent, with only the sound of Amber Lynn’s shutter occasionally going off.