Mosquitoes of Summer (3 page)

“And the only one you eat!” mumbled Emily as she continued to stare out the window.

“What. Did. You.
SAY
?” Hannah’s eyes burned for a good fight.

“Nothing,” quipped Emily, looking sickeningly smug. “Actually, I said that Beanie is eating your food.”

Craning his neck beyond the point of looking good, Mr. Bean was indeed trying to steal some of Hannah’s cotton candy. “Up, up … hello Beanie butt!” screeched the green monster.

They were now on Highway 2 and heading towards Kensington, the town closest to their house, and about 10 minutes from Summerside.

“Are we stopping for gas?” asked Hannah.

“Because I need to go to the bathroom,” squeaked Emily with a painful look on her face.

“I need to go too,” added Mom. “Even though we are 15 minutes from the house, I don’t think I can make it.”

With a dramatic sigh, Dad pulled into the small Esso station where he always filled up. Chatting with the old-timer who manned the gas pumps, Dad caught up on local weather information. Mr. Bean could be heard chatting up a storm in the back seat of the car, not pleased to be left alone. Meanwhile the girls made their way to the bathroom. Although it still smelled of gas and oil, it was spotless, and even sported dainty curtains on a high window.

“This is what makes PEI so special,” sighed Hannah contentedly. “Even the public bathrooms are pretty.” Emily rolled her eyes at such gushy sentiment, but Mom laughed.

Once back in the car, it did not take long to drive down Route 20 towards historic Malpeque. Hannah could never figure out why the sign said historic. She’ll have to do some research on the town and find out why it’s so special. Near Malpeque the car came to a crossroads surrounded by two churches and the Malpeque Community Centre. Turning right, they continued along Route 20.

“I see the ocean … look, look!”

“The waves look small.”

“There’s a blue heron, sitting on a piece of wood in the bay.”

“There’s a boat going out.”

“Daddy, roll down the window. I want to smell the ocean.”

Five minutes later, they turned left on Lower Darnley Road and, after driving a couple of kilometers more, finally pulled into the driveway of their new house. But where was the house? All Hannah could see was grass. Grass, grass, grass. When she got out of the car, she was surrounded by it. A sea of grass!

“We need to call George to mow this,” said Dad. “Watch out for Emily. She might get lost in this jungle.” From far ahead and somewhere to the right came a faint voice. Emily had already cut a path to the front door and was jumping up and down, waiting for someone to open it. Mom and Dad quickly followed, eager to have a look inside.

“So much for getting lost,” mumbled Hannah to herself. Grabbing the Bean Mobile, Hannah trailed after her parents towards her new house.

CHAPTER THREE

HOME COMING

The house was blue! Totally!

“We’ll call it The Blue Lobster

“We’ll call it The Blue Lobster Cottage,” said Mom.

“It’s the brightest house on this road,” said Hannah. “What’s it made of?”

“Cedar shingles,” replied Dad as he searched his pockets for the house keys. “Two sides of the house are covered by the shingles, but the previous owners ran out of money and didn’t finish the rest of the house. The back and left side is covered by some kind of wood siding. We’ll have to paint it.”

“No kidding,” said Mom as she squinted against the glare of the sun that bounced off the offensive siding. Or was she just trying not to be sick? Hannah wasn’t too sure. “It’s a pukey turquoise and I can’t stand it. It’s quite an eyesore. Did we bring our paint brushes?”

Hannah rolled her eyes … again. That’s Mom. She needs to get things done now. No, more like yesterday! And they hadn’t even unpacked the car yet. Hannah strolled through the grassy jungle, looking up at the house. The house was a bungalow with a basement. The front had many windows, both large and small. There was one large picture window in the living room, two smaller bedroom windows beside it, a small octagonal opening in the mudroom, and another window in the kitchen.

From the outside it looked like an average size house, but when she stepped inside, Hannah was pleasantly surprised at how large and open it was.

“Wow, we can really move around in here,” she exclaimed as she made her way towards the back corner of the living room. “And here’s the TV, right next to Mr. Bean’s cage.” A moving van had already brought down the furniture for the house, as well as boxes filled with kitchen stuff, towels, toys and most importantly, Mr. Bean’s cage. What parrot had three homes? Talk about spoiled.

“There you go Beanie.” After making sure Mr. Bean was settled in his new cage, Hannah and Emily looked around their new home. The kitchen, living room and dining area was one big open space. Mom loved that aspect of the house because it made entertaining much easier. Hannah thought that being able to see the living room TV from the kitchen and dining table was more critical!

Off the living room were two doors, each opening up to a bedroom. They were quite big and comfortable, but the walls were still bare and needed to be plastered and painted. And there were no beds for the girls. According to Dad, that was another project. Hannah didn’t think it was such a big deal since they were going to sleep in the tent trailer that they used to camp in at Twin Shores, just down the road. She just loved that. It would bring back fond memories of her long-ago childhood.

The bathroom opened up off the kitchen, and it was huge but ugly. Paint was peeling from the walls and ceiling, the sink cabinet was spray-painted a splotchy black, the plastic shower curtain was a map of the world (maybe Emily can learn something while taking a bath, sniggered Hannah under her breath), and worst of all, big black beetles lounged in the tub.

“No way am I taking a bath in there,” stated Emily, her lips curled in disgust.

“We’ll get rid of the bugs pronto,” said Mom, shivering as she quickly pulled the shower curtain closed. “Daniel, where’s the bug spray?” Funnily enough, she was one of those people who had no problems with snakes, mice or spiders, but she simply HATED bugs. Little did she know what was in store for her this summer.

Whoever owned this house before Hannah’s family really liked blue – a lot. The kitchen cabinets were blue, the kitchen floor was blue, the bedroom walls were painted blue, some of the dishes were blue, and the horizontal blinds were blue.

“And we brought blue sofas to match the house. We’re smart people, aren’t we?” quipped Emily as she ran around the bare uneven floors. “Look Mom, I can bounce on the floor. It’s like a trampoline! I love this house!”

“Stop running and no
bouncing
,” yelled Dad. “These floors need to be reinforced before we do any gymnastics.”

“I guess we have to finish the ceiling too,” said Mom as she looked up. “There’s a lot of work to be done here. Some of the walls look water damaged so I guess part of the roof leaked. There is also a big dip in the floor between the kitchen and the living room.”

“That was where they originally had the stairs going down to the basement,” said Dad as he bent to examine the floor more closely. “I checked the basement and we’ll need to jack up the floor beams at that point. Simple job. No worries.”

“What about the crack in the foundation?” asked Mom.

“We’ll have to fix that too.”

“And the leaking faucets?”

Dad did not look too pleased. Time for Hannah to leave….

“Can Emily and me ride our bikes down to the beach?” interrupted Hannah. “You said the movers left them in the shed. We want to see what the ocean is like. Please, please, please?”

Overjoyed that Mom and Dad gave in to their pleas rather quickly, Hannah and Emily made like bandits and pedaled down the busy road towards the beach. After about a kilometer, the girls arrived at their beloved Twin Shores campground. Riding through the front gates, they made their way down one of the two paved roads on site. Straight ahead they could see campers heading back from the beach, hurrying to make supper on camp stoves or open fire pits.

“First one down is the winner,” yelled Emily as she dropped her bike near the two racks by the beach cantina. “Hannah, hurry up! You don’t need to lock up the bikes here. We’re in PEI!”

After a year of being separated from her ocean view, Hannah’s first glimpse of the beach was always special, and she loved to savour the moment. Unlike her sister, she took her time to stroll down the boardwalk. She kicked off her bright yellow Crocs (still the rage), and lovingly dug her feet into the warm red sand. She closed her eyes and smiled.

“This is heaven,” she sighed and made her way down to the water’s edge.

“Let’s go in, Hannah,” cried Emily as she dashed over the first cresting wave and plunged under the water. “Ooohhh, this is amazing. The water’s so warm. It’s even warmer than the lake. And there’s no jelly fish. Come in Hannah! The waves aren’t bad. We should have brought our boards.”

PEI’s north shore opens out onto the unpredictable Gulf of St. Lawrence. Hannah fondly recalled the many days last summer when the waves were so big people were cautioned to stay out of the water. On wild surf days the noise of the waves could be deafening. Heedless of rip tide warnings from the National Parks Services, many people still spent hours riding the waves on their boogie boards.

Over an hour later, two exhausted and wet girls dragged themselves out of the water. Long blades of brown sea grass clung to their legs and hair, and their eyes were rimmed red from the salty water. Emily sported a bright pink welt on her upper thigh where a jelly fish’s tentacles had brushed up against her skin. Rubbing wet sand on the wound helped a bit, but the sting was still unpleasant.

“I’m starving,” panted Emily as she pedaled home, her short legs pumping twice as fast as Hannah’s while covering the same distance. In the best of times she was a bottomless pit when it came to food. Hannah could not understand how her sister could shovel so much food into that teeny tiny body and not get fat. And she ate everything! Fruits and vegetables too. Yuck! Hannah had no interest in such things. They were much too good for her.

“I hope we go to Pizza Delight tonight for supper,” she yelled back to Emily who was steadily falling behind.

“Course we will. It’s tradition,” huffed a breathless Emily. “We always go on our first night in PEI.”

Hannah agreed that tradition had to be maintained, at any cost! The first leg of the ride home was on a red dirt road. After a heavy rain PEI public works usually scraped it down smooth, getting rid of the “washboard” surface that made for a bumpy ride. However, they also added a lot more gravel. Cars loved it, but the bikes did not and today the gravel was super fresh and made for a difficult ride home.

“Hannah, I see another car in the driveway,” stuttered Emily as she thankfully eased her bike off the gravel and onto the paved and smooth part of Lower Darnley Road.

Arriving in record-slow time, both bikes skidded to a stop in the grass-lined driveway. The tent trailer was already opened up behind a stand of pines, sheltering it from the gusting winds that regularly ripped through the north shore.

As soon as the girls freed their kickstands, the front door opened and a pretty blond girl ran out to greet them.

“LUCY!” yelled Emily as she ran towards the tall 13-year-old. “It’s been ages since we saw you. The last time was in March during the sugaring off season. Where’s Meg?”

Just at that moment, a black and white border collie came bounding around from the back of the house, a stick already clamped tightly in her mouth.

“Meg!” Hannah went up to the dog and gave it a quick hug. Not having much time for girly affection, Meg got down to business and dropped the stick at the girls’ feet. Tilting her head to the right, she gazed up at them with intelligent eyes and wondered who would throw the stick.

“We’re going to Pizza Delight,” gushed Lucy. “Your parents asked me to come along too. I just love that place. And we have so much to catch up on.”

The girls screamed with joy and the dog barked impatiently (the stick was still sitting in the grass). Finally, after saying quick hellos to Lucy’s parents, everyone piled into their cars and left the house.

“Wait till you hear what happened in French River this year,” said Lucy as she settled into the middle of the back seat. Hemmed in on both sides by Emily and Hannah, she had a hard time not giving in to their relentless demands. “It’s really exciting. And Hannah, we might even have a mystery to solve, just like in your favourite Nancy Drew books.”

Hannah was drooling. Lucy was one of her best friends, even though she lived in far-away Vermont, USA. She was super smart, funny, and sweet. What more could you want? And she usually came down to PEI at the same time as Hannah. Lucy loved all the same things that Hannah and Emily did, which included picking seashells, boogie-boarding, collecting bottles, and reading mysteries. The girls were inseparable.

“This was turning out to be a really amazing and wonderful summer,” thought Hannah. She could hardly wait to hear more.

CHAPTER FOUR

SECRETS REVEALED

Pizza Delight was filled to capacity this Saturday evening. Nestled in between Cows Ice Cream and Roots Canada, delicious smells of garlic and baked bread escaped from its front door. A tourist hotspot, it was located on the popular Cavendish Boardwalk and was minutes away from the heart of PEI tourism.

“When are we going to eat?” demanded Emily, impatiently waiting in line to be seated at one of the wooden booths.

As soon as they were all seated and the grown-ups were studying the menus, Hannah turned to Lucy. “So, what’s going on in French River?”

Sitting forward and leaning across the table, Lucy started whispering her news to a rapt audience of two. “In the spring PEI was hit by some big storms. There was snow, rain and very heavy winds. The sea was really crazy. There was one particular storm in April that was a doozy. After two days of scary winds, something washed up on the shore at Arrowhead Beach.”