《 WATTY'S SHORTLIST 2021 》━ ❝WELCOME TO HART'S BAY.❞ where opposites attract. featuring » » » an ex-varsity swimmer and a hockey player. a once-wealthy server and a surfer on exchange. a daytime cashier and her nighttime counterpart. | presenting...
Summer is an extraordinary time of the year. The days get longer but feel shorter, while the nights get shorter but feel longer. There is nothing to do, and at the same time, anything and everything.
This summer in Hart's, the most extraordinary event will be the very first meeting of polar-opposites and the forming of the unlikeliest of friendships. What will it take? Just bumping into each other at the ice cream store, the recreation centre, and the diner, right? After all, there are only so many neighbourhoods, schools, and stores to go to—only so many people to know—in this little black speck by the sea.
But it will take all that and more: a series of lucky coincidences or, as some might say, fate. It will change the lives of six ordinary individuals—although you would never guess it if you were there. . .
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It's a cloudy day in Hart's, one week after the red beanie appeared in Route 40. Although it's since been claimed, Cole's eyes stray over to the spot on the little shelf under the cash register: empty and untouched, as it usually is, but with a beanie-shaped outline in the middle of a thinner layer of dust.
Lately, he's become conscious of the fact that things behind the counter aren't left the way he leaves them. Coins are taken from the left corner of the cash drawer and deposited in the right—or worse, buried under bills. Extra napkins are piled precariously on top of the metal napkin box, and notepads that are intended for orders are covered in doodles—good ones, at that. Three days ago, after he recycled an abstract rendition of customers eating in the diner, there was a blank notepad with a small sad face that was left on top of the cash register and tiny print that read: "i guess i'll take this to-go."
That's when he really started to take notice. Now that the space behind the counter is shared, it seems to transform during the handful of hours between day and night. The only thing that remains certain is that, by the time he returns at night, things will be in disarray again. Not as he left them.
And the change unsettles him.
On this cloudy day in Hart's, there's a new puffy sticker on the side of the cash register and he can't seem to ignore it: the bright orange sun feels out of place. He barely takes notice of the fact that outside, the sky is starting to lighten—as much as it can on a cloudy day, that is.
"We're going now," is the only thing that makes him look up. Boyd is already moving towards the door, with a deep crease in his brow that hasn't gone away since midnight when he first discovered the car wouldn't start. Cole had wanted to take it in for repairs long ago, but his dad had refused until now. "Reggie is here. We'll be at the garage for a few hours. Could be longer if the parts are fickle."
Cole nods. "Right, a few hours. I'll be fine."
"Right, then." Boyd nods. He doesn't add his usual, "Good preparation, right?" Or, "That's my boy."
