Summer Soap: A young girl takes in the sights of the city... alone (Episode 1)

Welcome to the Evening Echo’s annual feature — Summer Soap. Now in its third year, Summer Soap is a daily fictional serial run over 12 parts, which begins today and runs for a fortnight. Called Bright Lights, this story was written by M.F Whitney (right), of Montenotte, from the MA in Creative Writing Programme at UCC. In this first chapter, we meet Eve, one of the main characters of the story, as she experiences the sights of Cork city at sundown
Summer Soap: A young girl takes in the sights of the city... alone (Episode 1)

END OF THE DAY: “The sun was moving behind Shandon bells. The Goldie Fish silhouette always reminded her of the film ET.”

GREEN, saucer-like plants grew out of the high stone wall, and pink valerian swayed in the evening breeze. Eve raised her hands straight up over her head and grabbed the concrete top and, with her right foot in a crevice, she scurried upwards like a long-limbed gecko, did a sideways manoeuvre, and swung her legs over the wall. The time on the clock said 22:30. Katie would be here soon.

A few people were already huddled in the corner of the park, wafts of smoke and plastic bags surrounding the group.

The sun was moving behind Shandon bells. The Goldie Fish silhouette always reminded her of the film ET. If only it was that easy to cycle away, she thought. She’ll miss it if she doesn’t get here soon.

Eve looked around. She and Katie had gone there every Friday at about the same time to watch the sunset. It was the best summer in years; everyone said it. That, Eve was thankful for.

But where is Katie?

Lights began winking on in the three-storey houses opposite the park. Eve liked the house with the red door the most. It reminded her of something she had seen in a Christmas film. The woman who lived there moved behind pot plants and blinds that were never pulled.

Patrick Street had become a line of bright lights, and from up where she stood, the houses looked oddly small, like models. Shadows moved across the streets and the car lights stretched out like neon ribbons.

Perched atop the wall, Eve felt like a giant in a toy-town, but as she descended the steps on Patrick’s Hill, she grew smaller and smaller, even as everyone and everything seemed to grow around her.

It had been one of those swampy Cork summer days, an airless day. The Lee looked oily and rocky — a smell of briny seaweed hung by the river bank. If she closed her eyes, she was back in Spain on holiday — that couldn’t be five years ago?

She was overdressed for a night in town. It was her mother’s woollen jumper and she didn’t want to lose it. Katie looked down at her shoes. They were slightly too small, a hand-me-down. They gave her blisters on the balls of her feet. She took her shoes and socks off, feeling the cool and damp of the grass under her bare feet.

She would go to sleep early tonight and try to find time to call at the library in the morning. It was where she had first met Katie, her black hair falling over her face as she nicked the librarian’s chocolate biscuits, and there was something mischievous in the wry smile she gave Eve as she walked calmly past her.

The following day she had been there again. They had bumped into each other in the children’s book section. Katie had stuck her hand in her pocket and offered Eve a handful of biscuits, and then they both crept behind the CD shelf, nibbling away under the watchful eye of Beethoven.

Eve dried her feet on the leg of her jeans and bent to put on her shoes. Her stomach felt pinched in two. She’d have loved one of those biscuits right then. She’d better not stop, she should get going — she had stayed out long enough. Peter would be waiting to say goodnight. Everyone else called him ‘The Boy’. She had to get up early for work tomorrow too — so best not eat now, best to try and fall asleep quickly and forget her rumbling tum. Why didn’t Katie come?

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