The Applecombes

Chapter 2

It was a sleepy, sunny, Sunday afternoon in Sleeperstown the day the Applecombes arrived for the summer. They arrived in a red roadster with silver rims and mint coloured luggage towering high. They also arrived fighting. Try as they may the Applecombe's couldn't have a conversation without one or the other completely losing it. This time Marissa seemed to be complaining about Rick's lack of direction sense. With Sleepstone Manor being a couple of miles from Sleeperstown, one could not really blame Rick for having not found the well hidden, overgrown dirt road that took them there.

The towns people had all come out to check out the commotion. Mr Pierce was re-opening his convenience store right across from them and volunteered to take them all the way to the Manor. Brash and loud as they may seem, Marissa and Rick were good of heart. Sensing that Mr. Pierce would not take too kindly to repayment of any kind, they decided to purchase their stores from his store before heading to the Manor. The townspeople had wanted just that.

Marissa Applecombe was first to step out and she was a beauty. Her hair was the sort of colour that caught the sunlight. It shimmered and fell over her shoulders, all the way to her waist. For lack of a better description, her hair was the colour of rust, mixed with brick dust and a particularly brilliant African Serengeti sunset. She was of average height and her skin was tanned from all those trips to the beach. But unlike most women with tans, she was unfreckled. Her face provided the perfect canvas for her haunting grey eyes. People had always said that she could never lie because her eyes gave her away. They became cloudy when she was sad, clear and full of light when she was happy and darker when she was angry. She wore a coral, full sleeved dress that puffed at her shoulders and stopped at her knees. From the moment she walked out, everyone was entranced. Marissa Applecombe was by no means thin. Infact, she worried about her weight constantly. She wasn't fat either, she was rounded and looked all the better for it. She walked with the gait of a child, fast paced and almost skippy and chatted easily with Mr. Pierce about the ride into Sleeperstown.

For a moment, everyone had forgotten about Rick Applecombe. Until, he stepped out into the late afternoon sun. He looked like he had stepped out from a magazine. A magazine whose content talked of aristocrats, fashion and travel, for Rick brought to mind all those things. He was a tall, dark haired man with an almost sadistic glint to his eye. Eye's that were as black as tar and as dark as All Hallowe's Eve. He wore khaki trousers and a white shirt that was casually tucked in at one end. Where his wife just looked tanned, Rick's tan made him look like he came for a long lineage of strong Italian men. Italian or not, he did have an aristocratic lineage. His grandfather had been a nobleman and he had been given the best education money could provide. Much to his mother's horror, Rick had never confirmed to the stuffy ways of that education. He had taken off to back pack around the world, in search of adventures and new friends. In fact he had met Marissa during those travels and they had immediately taken to each other. He had a quiet confidence about him that made him stand out. Rick Applecombe was the sort of man who had never had to ask for someone's attention, his very presence demanded it.

He followed Marissa and Mr. Pierce quietly into the store with a genuinely sweet smile at his audience. As he disappeared into the store, the people of Sleeperstown stood dazzled.