Harvesting Acorns Read Free Page B

yourself without a bed for the night.”
    Chloe was overwhelmed by her
kindness.
    “No
need for me to look anywhere else. I am very happy to stay here, until I am
able to sort myself out with accommodation that is more permanent. Assuming
this village is where I decide to stay. You have been so generous and have
taken a lot of the pressure off of me that I had been anticipating on arriving
without prior planning.” She glanced out the window, the little boy was slowly
walking away carrying his cooler box.
    “Are
you going to tell me what brought you here?” Phoebe asked with a bit of a
playful mannerism, knowing that she may be pushing for information that Chloe
was not ready to share yet, but trying her luck anyway.
    “Let
me just say that my life back home was not working out as I had planned and I
needed to leave before it affected me any more than it already had. I made a
decision to leave without any real goal or destination. I am just letting life
lead me,” Chloe said, trying to sound as optimistic about her decision as she
could. “I promise I will tell you the whole story soon, but today I just need
to go exploring. Thank you, Phoebe. For everything.”
    Chloe
packed her laptop away and helped Phoebe take the plates and mugs through to
the kitchen. As they walked through Phoebe asked:
    “Can
you at least tell me what it was you were doing, you know, as your career?”
    “I
am, er, I was a journalist. I am not anymore,” Chloe smiled, though it didn’t
reach her eyes.
    “Enough
said.” Phoebe smiled back compassionately.
    Chloe
got into her car and decided to drive past the park and then to drive through
the main part of the village towards the beach. Yes! That was exactly her plan
for the afternoon – a walk on the beach to centre herself and hopefully regain
a little of the balance she felt she had lost somewhere along her path. This
village she had stumbled upon was so quaint; she found it hard not to love it
already. Of course she had not met any of its inhabitants yet, but if Phoebe
and Jean Pierre were anything to go by, she reckoned she might just be in the
friendliest place she had ever been.
    She
parked her car and got out to start her walk, but noticed the charming little
shops across the street and decided to go and browse first. It was just after
midday and still quite hot out, even with the approaching colder season not far
off. The first was a bookshop; she decided to leave that for last on her way
back – she was an absolute bookworm and knew she would not get to see anything
else once she found herself in a bookstore.
    The
next shop was a clothing store. She decided to have a look; she needed some new
clothes anyway. She had been so engrossed in her career the last few years that
her wardrobe consisted mostly of suits in every colour and style; and evening
wear. All she wanted right now was a good pair of denims, comfortable sandals
and a practical, but still feminine, shirt. She didn’t find any of these in
this particular store. They sold the most exquisite vintage clothing; nothing
she could ever have imagined wearing before, but decided to try a few things on
anyway.
    In
the changing room she felt herself transported back to the nineteen fifties in
a gorgeous black lace dress. She scratched in her bag for some hair clips and
pinned her hair up in an elegant chignon and put on some lipstick. Oh how
elegant she felt. She decided she would not buy anything just yet. She would
first establish if she was staying and what sort of attire she would need most.
She had a feeling the jeans and tees would be most practical – for long walks
on the beach and in that splendid park.
    The
next shop was an antiques shop. Chloe loved antiques and so eagerly went inside
to see what she could rummage through and what thrown out treasures she could
find. She made her way past decades old furniture to the back where there
seemed to be a horde of interesting paraphernalia and the stuff that really
told