I've Just Seen a Face - 32458 words,  23  chapters.

Early work- 'Learner' plates attached.

IJSAFace is from Kassandras view. Georges childhood friend that re- enters his life and is dragged along to India.

Love interest- Mainly John but a couple of small George 'moments'.

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Beach Holidays

When I was 9 my parents said we were going on a magical holiday. Any holiday in those days would be magical as this was not a yearly, bi-annual or even tri yearly event. I couldn't even remember if I had been on holiday ever before....

We lived in a large town in northern England, being post World War 2 the city was as depressed as the clouds that usually hung over it. Being an important port city the enemy had dropped many, many bombs on the town trying to shut the port and it's industrial hub.

My names Kasey not my birth name but the name I have loved and used since I can't remember when.

Kasandra Nicola Jennikins.

I live with my sister Emily who is 5 and my mum and dad Harold and Eliza.

"Now girls you must behave when we go to the holiday house, we are sharing it with another family so no banging, jumping or screaming, especially no screaming Emily!" my mother drilled into us as we motored towards the seaside town where the house was located.

"Is there any girls to play with mother?" I asked quietly, Emily was ok but she was still just a baby.

"Yes they have a girl called Louise, though she is older than you luv" Mum glanced around in her seat and smiled "They also have three boys, two older and one younger than you!"

I hoped Louise was someone I could hang around with, if not I would have to make my own fun.

As we travelled the narrow lanes getting ever closer to the village we would be staying at I noticed the green fields bound by stone-pitched fences which were many hundreds of years old perhaps. Herds of sheep grazed with tiny lambs close to their mothers. I pointed them out to Emily as she was now awake and becoming grumpy.

"Not long to go, pets!" Daddy chirped from the driver's seat glancing in the mirror at me begging me, I guess, to keep my grizzly sister amused.

***********

5 days down 2 weeks to go; a massive time to enjoy the endless beach and dip toes in the water but being off season there were not many other children around and unfortunately Louise was more into books and boys.

The books she read were very big and sometimes I think she was only pretending to read as I would see her eyes dart up if a boy went past. A few crouched down on the sand and chatted with her and that would be my hint to shove off if I happened to be reading anywhere nearby.

Her brothers where unbelievably pains in the bum; the older two would come in at all hours from going to a dance in the village. And the runt one was called George, he was 7 and would often sneak off after his big brothers if his parents weren't quick to pin him down.
If he couldn't go out he would ignore them and usually annoy me, hitting a ball against the house near my head or poking tongues at me behind my mother's back.

"I saw that!" I got up quickly to chase him down the back garden, he was so fast and gangly I never had a hope.

"Bet ya can't catch me" He was behind me now on the other side of the fence where he had to jump up and down for me to see him.

"Ignore the blighter, Kasey" Louise winked as she walked up the path from the beach, towel slung over her shoulder, book in her arms.

"OK" so I turned and started to re arrange the shells I had been collecting, this time though, I had 1 eye on George. I would be ready.

"Nah, Nah" He bounced next to me on one foot then the other ready to shoot off. I grabbed at his foot but he dragged himself away. Dashing through the gate towards the beach he looked back waggling his fingers beside his ears "Nah, Nah" I set off to run him down, the coarse sand at least would slow him somewhat.

I didn't catch him.

The next day dawned bright and clear and everyone enjoyed a barbeque on the beach. As the sun was setting and the last of the chairs, tables, blankets and heavy grill were stowed back up at the house George again teased me, egging me on to chase him down the beach again.

"Don't go too far, children!" Mrs Harrison yelled after us, busy shaking sand from the towels.

"George, George!!" I yelled after him as he galloped away further and further than we had been all week.

He paused then proceeded into the shallows. "Can't catch me now!" He moved further out the waves crashing about his legs the white foam pushing along the sand to my feet which were planted firmly in the sand.

"George come back! It's dangerous, it's almost dark!" I turned to leave thinking that would bring him out of the water if I wasn't chasing him. I had walked 10 or so metres when I heard a huge wave crash down close to shore.

"George?"

He's playing games again.

"George!?!...."

I spied George as I yelled the second time his head breaking up through the waves his arms flailing and mouth gasping open to get a gulp of air.

Looking at his face I knew he wasn't ok, the silent stare and googling eyes pleading with the surf as it started to push him down the shoreline and slightly further out to sea. Pounding and breaking waves pummelling him too.

A rip! I'd never actually seen the effects of a rip but we all had been told how they could sweep you hundreds of metres and make you so tired you just gave up and let the sea have her way.

"Hang on George!!" I might not be a good runner but I was a powerful swimmer having been age champion 3 years in row.

I quickly waded through the shallows and dove in, cutting a diagonal through the water out to George, there was no way he was mucking about, I lost sight of him for what seemed like minutes then his head popped up again.

He spotted me and began flailing around as I approached, another wave threatened to dump over me and I had to swim under and through, rising within metres of the boy I was intent on reaching. Getting closer to him I started yelling instructions.

"I'm coming. Don't grab all over me. I will grab you. I will turn you around and take you in. Understand? Understand!?!" My voice was mostly lost and I hoped he had heard most of my yelling.

I swam towards him the last few metres, his dark eyes trained on me. "Don't grab me or we are both dead, you hear? DEAD" He nodded as best he could and tread water as I approached another wave crashed and he was flailing about again. I whipped him around to face the sky, my arm over his chest, 'arms under, head over and out of the waves' I spoke to myself a mantra over and over trying to convince myself I had this, I could do it.

He was calm now, well calmer... but still he was a dead weight to me. I wasn't much bigger and I struggled to make shore.

As I dragged him the last of the way onto the beach the water ebbed away and only gently swirled around us as the end of the waves came meeting with the shore. We both lay wearied by the water.
I, sat up and checked him over- breathing, eyes open alert, I waited for a few minutes for the teasing to start again, it didn't. Then I spoke harshly to him like a mother would a wayward child..." Don't you ever, ever do something so stupid again"

I looked down the beach towards the house, no one was running to fetch us perhaps they thought we were building sand castles. I turned back to George to find him whimpering sitting up but head hanging down into his knees, his hair dripping and hanging limp. He was shivering from the shock but soon the cold would be ebbing into both our bones too.

"George. Hey its ok" I touched his shoulder and he shuddered. I didn't feel it yet because of the adrenalin coursing through me. I was still taking gulps of air and recovering my strength.

"Than. Thank. Thank-you" George struggled to get the words out.

"Hey. Look at me. I want to see you're ok" He looked up, his eyes big as saucers. He was ok. I stood up "Comin' let's get you home"

As we wandered down the beach I gave him a hug it was a time to forget our petty childish teasing we could do that again tomorrow.

"They will send me home, you know" George spoke surely and sadly to me. I started walking backwards to watch him.

"you think so ? .... really?!"

"yeah"

"well we best fix that then!" George's eyes looked at me in puzzlement.

*************

"Hello Kasey did you spot George coming in from the beach when you wandered up?" Mr Harrison met me at the top step of the porch. I had rounded the back of the house from the beach side but it wasn't where I had been the last few minutes. Having just finished depositing George quietly at the window of his room, helping climb in avoiding the grown-ups.

"Oh, he took off in to have a shower just a few minutes ago, Mr Harrison, probably tucked up in bed by now. I was just sorting my seashells again"

.....You owe me George Harrison.