On they went together. Rose and this strange boy and his dog. It felt like a pilgrimmage somehow, but no one had a notion why they had decided to take this path or where for that matter they were going.
‘Blame me’, Rose remarked to the boy. ‘I have never learnt to spell surprise properly. In fact those who know me tell me that everyone who fails to spell surprise correctly is in for a rough ride. ‘
The boy said nothing,about this fact, but the dog turned up one ear and looked at her suspiciously then set his face forward to the beach. It was getting windy and Rose tasted salt. The boy cleared his throat and started to laugh again.
‘If you can’t spell something does that mean it can’t happen to you? OR he said dramatically, if you don’t EVER say a word out aloud or EVEN dream it, then how can that word ever happen? …I even have a book of banished words and that is where I put all the words that are no longer helpful for me. It’s a red book’, he added finally and kicked at a stone.
They were now climbing down some grass steps to the beach and could smell cooking. Onions and red meat. Some smoke swirling around and shrouding a figure just beneath them by the side of some tall rocks.
The smoke cleared a little as they descended to the beach.
‘How do you spell surprise then?’ asked the boy looking across at the figure.
For the figure turning the meat and humming Stevie Wonder was a huge German Shepherd Dog who glanced up and introduced himself as ‘Alfred ‘in the clearest, deepest tones .