Harry and Charlotte were skimming stones across the waves. They loved being at the seaside and always enjoyed every moment of their holidays with their Aunt and Uncle whose house overlooked the sea. It was a strange house as it was partly built into a cave! It had three windows to the right of the door and two on the left, on the second floor there were three windows at either side but best of all, it had a Turret! A winding stone staircase twisted its way from the ground floor to this turrett in which were two rooms. In one room Uncle kept his telescope which Harry and Charlotte loved as it made the ships out at sea look as if they were almost on the terrace which led directly on to the beach. In the second room there were two windows, one looking out over the sea and the other at the opposite side of the room overlooking the garden and the many paths at the top of the cliff. It also had two doors - one leading into the room itself and the other opening on to their cliff-top garden.
When the house was seen from the beach the turret looked ever so high. It was unbelievable to think that the cliff top entrance led right into it.
‘Which is the front door Uncle?’ Harry had asked on their first vist after seeing the cliff top and then the terrace entrance'.
‘It’s an “every-which-way” house Harry had giggled.
‘It’s a topsy-turvey” house Charlotte added.
‘Is it up on the cliff top or down on the beach?’
‘Ah!’ Uncle had answered. ‘As this is such a ‘special’ house, it’s wherever you want it to be.’
The children’s eyes had sparkled ‘wherever we want it to be’ they had whispered. So it was decided that if they went into the house one way then that was the front and if they went in the other way then that was the front!
The house had many rooms and Harry and Charlotte had explored each one tapping the walls, pushing the woodwork hoping and hoping to find a secret passage, or, better still, hidden treasure! But year after year they were disappointed. They felt sure that such a fascinating house must have some sort of mystery and were determined that one day they would find it.
Their was also a cellar but as this was both damp and dark the children hadn’t lingered there. They had taken torches to explore as there was no lights in the cellar, but when Charlotte thought she heard mice scurrying around and her face brushed against a clinging cobweb she had screamed and ran back up the stairs as quickly as she could.
Harry had laughed and called her a ‘baby’ but Charlotte hadn’t even heared. All she wanted to do was to get out of there as quickly as possible!
If there was one tiny disappointment it was that there was no-one to play with. Their Aunt and Uncle had no children and there was no other house nearby, but this never stopped them from having a wonderful time playing on the beach, paddling and swimming, looking for crabs, having picnics, exploring the caves and, of course, constantly searching for the treasure on rainy days.
The children continued skimming their stones until Charlotte began to get bored. Harry always won at this game so she put the rest of her stones down and stretched herself. ‘Harry’ she said ‘What shall we do now?’
‘Why don’t we go up on the cliffs?’ suggested her brother who enjoyed watching the birds as they wheeled and dived and then landed so gently on their nests with food for their chicks. Charlotte nodded, she didn’t mind bird-watching for a while then they could wander down the many pathways looking for rabbits and mice, and grasshoppers with their cheerful chirruping.
‘Should we go by the beach steps or the stairs?’ Charlotte asked.
‘The steps’ decided Harry ‘as we are on the beach’ so they made their way across the private cove which belonged to the house to the steep steps which led up to the cliff top.
They climbed steadily pausing only once to get their breath back.
At the top the view was almost as good as when they looked through the telescope.
‘If I had my binoculars I could make out the name of that ship I’m sure’ and Harry pointed out to the horizon where a large ship was ploughing its way through the waves. ‘I think I’ll go to sea when I leave school’ he added.
‘You’ve a long way to go yet’ Charlotte laughed at him. ‘I expect you’ll change your mind dozens of time before then.’
Harry smiled. He had ‘decided’ to do so many things, each one appearing exciting and interesting until the next one came along.
‘I expect so’ he agreed. ‘But I bet I’ll get to the nesting site before you’ and he sped off.
‘I won’ a triumphant Charlotte flung herself on the grass.
‘No you didn’t’ an argument was beginning. ‘You haven’t reached the site yet, it’s here.’
‘No it isn’t, we sit here!’.
Before the argument could develop, Harry was distracted when he saw two children standing at the top of the cliff steps. ‘Look, Charlotte’ and he pointed back.
As they watched they saw the children begin to descend the steps.
‘They shouldn’t really go down to the Cove’ Charlotte said, ‘it belongs to Uncle’.
‘Oh, that doesn’t matter’ Harry dismissed the idea of trespassing. ‘It’s someone to play with I’m sure Uncle wont mind.’
‘No, I don’t think he would’ Charlotte agreed. ‘He would be pleased we had found someone to do things with.’
‘Have you got your breath back?’ Harry asked. ‘Let’s go and meet them.’
‘Almost’ Charlotte answered ‘But I can’t run yet.’
‘That’s O.K. they will still be there when we get down’ and Harry got up and began to walk back towards the steps.
Taking a deep breath they started down eager to meet, what they had already decided were, their new friends. But how disappointed they were on reaching the beach to find that the children were nowhere in sight. They looked up and down the beach, scanned the water and searched the caves. No children!
‘They’ve gone round the headland to the other beach. Come on let’s follow them’ shouted Harry already making his way along the beach.
‘There isn’t time’ Charlotte shouted back. ‘It’s almost time to go in.’
At that moment Aunty came to the door. ‘Dinner’s ready’ she called. ‘Come in now.’
Harry stopped. ‘Just when we had the chance of meeting someone’ he grumbled.
‘We’ll look out for them tomorrow’ Charlotte promised. ‘There aren’t many places to go, we are sure to find them.’
‘Yes’ Harry cheered up immediately and as he ran back he thought of the exciting times they could have together, the four of them - maybe even find the hidden treasure, four pairs of eyes were better than two after all!

Elizabeth Aynsley 1995 ©