haven't decided on title yet. Chap 1

Gypsim Eve
 
I was busy keeping myself out of the heat and watching Meadow attempting to make a basket out of leaves. The sun’s rays were beaming down on me making me sweat and all the leaves were dried out from lack of water. I had been trying to find some shade and finally succeeding only to find when I sat down that it was inhabited by a colony of ants. Having settled on a branch which kept every part of me except my head protected from the sun, I watched Meadow and the leaves just crumpling in her hands before she would be able to string them together. I suggested to her to just give up but Meadow, being extremely stubborn, kept trying and trying and I kept watching countless leaves crumple and break beneath her fingers. As the day whittled past I was keeping myself entertained by reading A Gypsy History which I had to finish for school and once I had finished that I made up some songs on my guitar, much to the entertainment of Meadow who would make up words to go with my tunes. I watched two dragonflies mating; I wondered if they would be successful as it was so late in the season. As the sun started to disappear under the trees meadow laid down her half down, fragile basket and looked up at me.
“You want to know something Cable; I don’t care what you say but you deserve a birthday party.”
I sighed as I got up, “I already told you that I don’t want one.”
“So I don’t care, I want you to have one.” Meadow told me getting up as well. “You need one.”
I laughed, “You just want an excuse to have a party.” I bent down and picked up my guitar and book.
“Maybe I do but there is nothing wrong with wanting to have some fun but not wanting to have some fun that is wrong.” Meadow said rather matter-of-factly.
“Just because I don’t want a party doesn’t mean there is something wrong with me.” I told her trying to balance on a branch. “I just don’t see the point in a party.”
“Oh please, please, please.” Meadow begged dancing around me as I walked away. “Just one itsy bitsy party, please, for me.”
“No, no party is that understood.” I shouted, rounding on her.
Meadow looked upset and shocked at my outburst.
“Come on,” I said with a smile, putting my arm around her shoulder, “let’s go get some food.”
At the sound of food Meadow perked up, shrugged her arm of and went to dance along in front of me. I smiled to myself as we climbed down the tree; Meadow’s one of my best friends and is so sweet and warm and lively but she is a bit wild and crazy and has this crazy as stubborn streak, so I had absolutely no doubt that I would have party whether I liked it or not. Meadow’s real name is Madeline but we call her Meadow because she was found in a Meadow when she was young. I landed with a thud on the ground to find Meadow running in front of me to Lily and Nat my two other friends. Lily has long brown and is very beautiful with big brown eyes that seem to look right through you. She’s extremely bright, very calm and logical. Nat on the other hand is more outgoing and a bit of a daredevil. He’s always getting in to trouble or getting hurt from some crazy stunt.
“Ah here he is.” Nat says as I stand next to them. “We thought you would never grace us with your presence.”
“I was tempted not to, don’t you worry.” I said to him.
“Well at least you haven’t gone and done something stupid like try and kill a bear or jumped off a cliff.”
“Nat!” Lily screamed at him. “Cable would never do something like that. Would you Cable?” she asked turning to me.
“No of course not.” I said quickly. I wouldn’t do something like that, even if I had considered it before, I wouldn’t now.
“I know he wouldn’t but people can do some stupid things when they aren’t quite themselves.” Nat told Lily.
“Still it isn’t funny to joke about it.”  Lily said angrily.
Meadow stepped forward and said, “come one let’s just get something to eat.”
We made our way to Meadow’s house because it was Sunday and we have a tradition of eating at her place on Sunday nights. It started a few years ago when Meadow bought a cook book and started cooking and found out that she really enjoys it, so she cooks for us every Sunday night.
 “You know a man named Leak once took his life when he was in a state of complete depression.”
“Oh Nat just drop it, okay.” Lily told him as she helped Nat set the table.
“So were where you two all day.” Meadow asked Nat and Lily. She was busy cutting up some carrots and had me on stirring duty.
Nat said, “I was abseiling with Marcus and Lily was helping out at the hospital.”
“All day?” Meadow asked, adding the carrots to the soup which I was stirring.
“Yeah.” Lily nodded, “I have to do a certain amount of volunteer hours if I want a paid job later on.”
Meadow nodded, “so how many do you have?”
“Fifty three.”
“How many do you need?”
“Hundred and twenty.”
Meadow carried the pot of soup over to the table and we all rushed around it smelling in the earthy aroma.
 Meadow turned to Nat. “So what about you? Where did you go abseiling?”
“Down at Point Blake. I wanted to go up to skull point but Marcus said no.” He said slurping up a big mouthful of soup.
“Probably for your own good.” Lily said.
Nat rolled his eyes. “Anyway it took us most of the morning to get up to point Blake and we had gone down and were about to make our way back up when someone came and told Marcus that there was some sort of emergency back here.”
“What type?” I asked looking up from my soup.
Nat shrugged. “Not lure exactly Marcus just told me that he had to go and to make my way straight back to the house.”
Marcus is Nat’s older brother and is in the security department, he’s deputy head, a big achievement for someone only twenty one years old.
“So you don’t know what is wrong?” Meadow asked.
“No I haven’t seen Marcus since then.” Nat replied.
“I don’t think it is anything to worry about.” Lily piped up. We all looked at her confused. “I mean if it is they would tell what is going on.”
“Maybe but if it is something really bad then they would want to try and sort it out first.” I tell her. “I mean the council aren’t always honest with us. Remember when people kept dying and it took five deaths for them to tell us that a psychotic murderer had escaped.”
“Yeah I guess but that was different.” Lily said.
“How?”
Lily sighed, “Well people were dying and the whole community was scared so the council didn’t want to make us more scared.”
“Look that happened years ago and it isn’t important.” Meadow said being diplomatic. “Besides what has happened, if anything, doesn’t concern us and is none of our business so let’s all forget about it and instead let’s talk about Gypsim eve.” And with that she went into a rant about what she was going to make and wear for our heritage night.
Gypsim eve is celebrated every year to mark the eve of the founding of the town and was happening the next night. We have a massive bon fire in the middle of the town; we sing, dance and tell all sorts of stories whilst eating yummy food. There was a holiday the day after called Gypsim day so everybody would party to dawn and sleep all the next day. It is the most anticipated night of the year and everybody was extremely excited about it.
 
That night a laid in bed thinking about the conversation and what had happened. I knew that I should have gotten a good sleep as I had to go to school the next day and that I would have a late night the next night because of Gypsim Eve but my head was filled with too many questions to get any rest. I wanted to know about everything. What was going on, why it was being kept from us and who was involved. I then started thinking about my dad and what he would make of the whole situation. I finally fell asleep to the chirping of crickets and Xavier humming to himself in the front room.
 
I woke up early the next morning keen to get school out of the way so that I had the afternoon for myself. If you are younger then fourteen then you have to go to school for the whole day but once you reach fourteen you only have to go for half a day. The rest of the day is suppose to be for you to do your apprenticeship but the majority of people that actually do it is very slim as you have to really good grades to do one before you leave school. I do not have one and am not sure if I want one, Lily though does, she works for the hospital. I met up with Lily, Nat and Meadow in our classroom. I was about to talk to Nat about last night but before I could get a word out our teacher walked in. He is old, fat and hates my guts although maybe not as much as he hates Nat’s. That may be due to the fact that Nat is a pain during his lessons by talking, sleeping and failing every single subject. We had history first and as I started taking my books from my bag Mr Waits started droning on in a dull monotone. I zoned out for the lecture occasionally taking notes but all in all thinking about what the night will bring, I was picturing yummy food, singing, dancing, Meadow wearing some crazy as costume and just having fun. After history we had English and then we were free.
“Are you guys ready to party?” Meadow shouted at us when we exited the school.
“You bet we are Meadow.” Nat told her with a huge smile.
“Great well Meadow is coming to mine to get ready so we will see you boys there.” Lily said grabbing Meadow’s hand and walking away.
Nat looked at me and shrugged, “Do you want to come to mine?”
“sure.” We headed off to Nat’s place which is in the lower branches of one of the north trees.
We group the trees in the direction that they are from the centre of the colony which is council hall.
 
“Hi Mrs Billow.” I said to Nat’s mum when we arrived.
“Oh hi Cable, dear.” She said turning away from a tray of muffins, “how are you? All excited for tonight?”
“Yep” I smiled.
Nat walked over to his mother giving her a peck on the check. “mmm these smell good.” He said going in to grab a muffin. Mrs Billow swatted her sons hand, “yes they do but they are for tonight now go and clear of, I still need to make some coleslaw.”
Nat’s room is round and small much like the houses around here which have wooden walls and floors and are shaped in way so that they want fall to the ground in a storm. We mucked about for a few hours; Nat was trying to race his snails, which he kept in a glass bowl, with not much prevail and ending up stepping on one of them.
“So do you have any more idea of what eh big emergency was last night?” I asked him once he had finished scraping his snail of from the floor.
“nup not a clue. Marcus came home quite late though so whatever it was must have kept him pretty bigger.” Nat replied.
“So I’m thinking it isn’t a broken water pipe.” I said remembering the time one broke and the council was convinced it was sabotage and had everybody looking for the culprit
Nat laughed, “No not exactly. But I seriously have no idea what it could have been. As I said Marcus got home late and he left really early this morning so I haven’t had a chance to ask him.”
I sighed, “Oh well. Look I better get back to mine Xavier will be getting worried and I need to get ready.”
“Yeah okay will meet you there.”
“Yup, bye.” I said walking out his door.
“See you Mrs Billow.” I said as I past her on my way out.
“Bye love, say hi to Xavier for me.” She called out after me.
“Yep will do.” I called back.
 
As I got to my place I found Xavier busy in his work shop carving something.
“What are you making?” I asked walking up to him.
Xavier turned to me, “hi, I am making a replacement table for the one that you broke last week.”
I smiled remembering how I had broken our dining table when me and Nat where playing with a ball inside. I looked around the room at all the things Xavier had made, there were dolls, cupboards, chairs, a chest board and heaps more stuff. I left Xavier and walked to my room to get changed. Xavier is my legal guardian even though we aren’t related. He had looked after me ever since I was eight and my dad died and my mum got so depressed that two years later she packed up and left in the middle of the night leaving me behind. Xavier was my dad’s best friend so he stepped up to look after me. He’s great, he is heaps of fun and really caring and nice, he is more of an older brother to me then a parent but I still respect him.
It’s been seven years since my dad died and five since my mum left, it is still hard without them but I get by. My dad was the best, we would go fishing and he would teach how to climb trees without any hands, he even taught me how to play the guitar. My mum was a great cook and really pretty, she would dance around the room with me as my dad played his guitar, she was a quiet woman but was also really determined and fierce well right up until dad died, after that she just packed into herself and didn’t say anything for two years. I pick up my guitar and shake my head trying to rid all thoughts of my parents. I don’t play it though; I just stare at it, stroking it gently. It used to be my dad’s but he gave it to me for my eight birthday right before he died.  I start strumming it absentmindedly. Mum and dad loved this time of year, when the sun was at its hottest and Gypsim eve is upon us. My dad would dance around the table as mum would be decorating a cake ready for that night and then we would all set out to the ground ready to celebrate. Dad would play and mum would dance then we would set of fireworks and throw our rubbish in the fire. A tear rolls down my face as I remember our last Gypsim eve as a family. Dad was sick so we carried him down and he sat by the fire the whole night singing with us in a quiet voice. I cried as I strummed on my guitar a tune that my dad had taught me. It’s about a man who goes off to war to fight leaving his wife at home with an unborn child, he comes back but he isn’t himself, he had been affected by what he had seen at war, he dies years later mad. It’s called a Soldiers Ballad.
I heard a knock on the door, “Cable, are you ready?” Xavier’s voice said through the door.
“yep.” I shouted quickly wiping away my tears and putting my guitar away. I open the door to a worried looking Xavier.
“Everything okay?” he asked me looking concerned.
“Absolutely okay.” I lied to him. “Shall we go?”
 
We climbed down to the ground and instantly got swept up in a rush of people all heading to the town centre. I looked in the tried for Nat or Meadow or Lily but didn’t have much luck. The bon fire was lit and the flames were soaring away in the night ten metres high. There was music coming from a band and dancers were twirling around the fire. There was two long table of food brought out from the dining hall with every inch of them covered in food. Xavier placed a plate of cookies, which I highly doubt he made, on to one of them. I continued to scan the crown for a sign of my friends but still couldn’t find them, so I went to sit down on a chair next to Xavier who was chatting with his sister.
“hiya Cable.” Xavier’s sister, Maggie said.
“hey Maggie.” Maggie is a fair bit younger then Xavier and is what I picture Meadow will be like in fifteen years, all bubbly and happy.
“I saw Nat with his parents over on the other side of the fire near the band if you are wondering.” Maggie told me.
I walked around the fire saying hello to people as I go. The community is small and I know a fair few people. I finally reached the band and saw Nat eating a pie with his brother.
“hi.” I said
“Ahhh Cable we were wondering where you were.” Nat said.
“You are always wondering where I am.” I tell him.
“To true.” Nat replied taking a bite from his pie.
Marcus turned to me, “hi Cable.” He said sticking out his hand.
“Hi,” I said shaking it. “Have you seen Lily and Meadow?” I asked turning back to Nat.
“I have,” Said a voice from behind me which I recognised as Lily’s. I turned to see her and Meadow coming towards us. As I laid eyes on them I became stunned. They both looked beautiful. Meadow with her short, cropped, blond hair was wearing a red and gold summer dress with a necklace which although looked like she made it herself was amazing. It had red, blue and gold beads (the colours of our flag) all strung together. Lily was wearing a plain red dress that come down to her ankles and suited her really well, she or maybe her mum had done her hair up in a braid and she had on a silver necklace which went with her bracelet.
 “So how are you two?” Meadow asked.
When neither of us replied Lily sighed and said, “Once you two have put your eyes back in their sockets we could go and dance but right now I would like some food.”
She headed off to the food and Meadow followed.
“Wow.” Nat said once the girls had left.
“I’d say.” I said, “I had no idea they were so hot.”
Nat laughed, “Yeah same. Come on let’s eat. I’m starving” He exclaimed.
 “You just had a pie.” I told him as we headed over to the food.
“So I am still hungry.”
I shook my head even though I was starving too. As we piled our plates up we sat down to watch the dancing and singing. I ate the best meal I had had since the same time last year. It was filled with sugar and meat and butter and everything else nice. This is always the best meal you would have all year as the farmers save their best produce for it. Once we had finished the girls come over and forced us to dance. I generally am not a big fan of dancing but I did enjoy myself. I danced for ages and ages until I could barely breathe. I went to sit with Lily as Nat and Meadow continued to dance. Lily and I talked for awhile about insignificant things like the life cycle of a beetle, he fathers crazy inventions, how Mr Marry (the baker) wanted to expand his shop and about the best way drink Tulip juice. We sat in silence as the night wore on. I leaned back in my chair and watched the fire flickering away, casting shadows on the people still dancing. There is something so peaceful yet dangerous about fire. Maybe it is the way that it lights things up which makes it peaceful and the way that it dances about with a complete mind of it’s with no way of choreographing it that makes it seem dangerous. Fire isn’t always dangerous though, I mean you can cook with it and it can keep you warm but it can also kill you or seriously hurt you if it gets out of control. I guess that’s the way of nature. You can only get so much out of it until it turns on you. Maybe that is why you have to respect it because if you don then it won’t respect you.
I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn’t notice the music stop but I did notice when Mr Spalinch got up to talk. Mr Spalinch is an elder and highly respected.
Every year he gets up and tells the story of the towns founding and for some reason it never gets boring because he tells it so well.
“My dear friends I do hope you have enjoyed the night so far and that you continue to do so, but I also hope that you don’t forget the reason why we are here. So let us all cast our minds back to a day hundreds of years ago when the first settlers arrived on this plot of land seeking refuge from tyrants who wished that they were dead simply because they were different.”
He went on to talk about the colony and its first pioneers and how it use to be a refuge for the poor and homeless, and how it still is in the sense that anybody can rock up and make a home for themselves. It is true.