The Lighthouse

Chapter Three

After a restless night's sleep, Holly and Kiwi awoke early. Holly felt terrible, but she wanted to check outside so she cautiously walked to her bedroom window, Kiwi let out a bark.

"SHHH Kiwi, mam and dad are still asleep" Holly said, unaware that her parents were already downstairs surveying the damage the storm had caused.

Kiwi retreated to the bed as Holly pulled open the curtains. A burst of sunshine filled the room. Dust particles could be seen floating about.

"Well that's a contrast" said Holly to herself as she opened the window to allow the fresh sea air in.

Holly peered out of her window, to see if there was any damage below, a light breeze blew the salt air into her face. Holly breathed it in. Then the seagulls began to squawk and fly about. Holly could hear the waves crashing in the distance as low tide was slowly approaching. She looked over to the lighthouse. It looked the same as it had done before. There was no new damage or debris that Holly could see. It was as if the storm had bypassed the lighthouse and had gone straight to the houses that lined the sea front.

Holly jumped when she heard a noise coming from downstairs.

"I guess mam and dad are up". She said to Kiwi.

She shut the window and grabbed her hoodie before going downstairs to see what her parents were up to.

SPLASH, SPLASH

Holly slightly opened the kitchen door, she could hear water being splashed about. Then she felt her slippers become soggy. Looking down at her feet, she could see she was now standing in a mucky puddle of water. Slowly pushing the kitchen door open further, she was met with pure devastation and her parents were right there, in the middle of it all.

"What the hell happened?" she asked

"It seems the storm didn't like us", joked her dad as he tried to shovel the muck out.

"We got flooded badly, the wind and rain must have been really ferocious last night", her mam said, wearily.

"We both slept heavily last night, so did not hear a thing, oh, your mother went and bought us some breakfast, it's in the living room with the old microwave and kettle", her dad said before returning to clearing the mess up.

"Do you guys need some help?" Holly asked

"Well after breakfast, you can go and clean up the branches and debris that have been blown into the garden", smiled her mother.

Holly nodded and shut the kitchen door. Her and Kiwi walked back into the living room to have their rare store bought breakfasts.

The street that Holly lived on still looked in immaculate condition. There did not seem to be any sign that a storm had hit the night before. However, all that changed when Holly walked around to the back of the houses. The narrow lane was full of tree branches, debris from the sea and rubbish that had been blown in.

Holly reached her garden gate. At first, she was having trouble opening it but after a few attempts, the gate swung open. At a glance, there did not look like there was much to clean up, except for the rubbish that was behind the gate, but as she walked closer, to just below her bedroom window, it became apparent that not all was what it seemed.

Branches were piled upon each other with multiple carrier bags caught on them, along with empty soft drink bottles, crisp packets, and empty cigarette packets. There were also some bird feathers and seaweed attached. Holly let out a huge sigh before she began to clear the mess. Kiwi came to join her and began to dig at a few of the twigs on the ground.