I climbed out of the car. Mr. Derving shut his Challanger and told me to go round the cliff and climb up the stairs. He went somewhere else (probably to buy something). I walked round the cliff. I got a good view of the house this way. Apex was close by me. He once tried to climb the cliff but fell down. I picked him up and walked more. Once around, I saw stone staircase leading up to the front of the house. The stone was cracked and moss was growing out of it. After looking at it for long enough, I realised that the thing was not moss, it was a bunch of mushrooms growing all over the place. I felt that this was something which an Atlas should tell about. I climbed up the staircase. Apex jumped out of my hands.


    I noticed that the door was white and made of wood. I knocked the door. This was my first encounter with Jake Derving. He was a good looking boy, the same height as me. I wasn''t sure if he was my age. He had black hair and sharp eyes. He was wearing a shirt that said Pressure and heat makes diamonds.


    "Hello?"


    "Hello, I am Aiden Cormac."


    Jake looked behind into his house. He was probably nervous because when he turned back to face me he looked like that. He was fiddling with his fingers.


    "Myself Jake Derving....." Jake after saying this, went inside his house. After a minute or so, his mother came and was pretty happy to see me.


    "Hello Aiden, why don''t you come in?" Mrs. Derving was a tall woman and had brown hair. She had British accent as compared to Mr. Derving''s Scottish accent (and we are in Ireland). I entered the house. It felt like it was way more warmer inside but I didn''t see any fireplace inside. Mrs. Derving went to the kitchen while she told me to sit on the sofa. The room in which I was, was really big. It had some lime-green sofas in one corner while there was a large table in the middle. There were stairs by the other side leading up and down to the first floor and the basement respectively.


    There was an arc on the right side of the wall leading to the kitchen and the ceiling had no fans. The floor was made of stone for some reason. There was a navy blue carpet on the floor. Some red curtains on the windows in the back wall and a cabinet that had various things such as - a vase that had intricate art on it, a telescope (this was pretty big), a diamond (believe me) and a long spear. I had little interest in these things.


    Mrs. Derving came in with a jar of hot chocolate, and poured some in a glass and gave it to me. I thanked her and began gulping the drink. I was gazing outside through one of the windows. I felt lonely. As I thought this, a girl came running down the stairs. She resembled Jake and was a little shorter than him. She was Lilly Derving. She had brown hair like her mother but was not too tall, nor too short. "Hello!" she waved at me and went into the kitchen. She then returned with some hot chocolate and sat on the sofa in front of me. "You?"


    "Aiden Cormac"


    "I am Lilly. You are here for?" She was fast.


    "A documentary!"


    "I can help you with that!"


    I felt she was trying to show-off her studious abilities. Jake came in a little later and joined us. It was a cosy environment here. I kept my glass on the table after finishing it. The dogs outside were howling now.


    "You want more?" Jake asked. "Thank you!" He poured more into my glass. All this time, I had forgotten about Apex. I got up and began to look for him in the room. This is awkward as you can not go to someone''s house and start searching it for something they haven''t seen. "What are you searching?" Lilly asked.


    "My dog...." I said while still roaming around the house. When I stopped, I saw Jake look at Lilly. "I think Bruno ate him....." he said. "What??"


    I looked at Jake. My heart fell down a few inches. Who let Bruno have that piece of cake? Lilly laughed and said that they were joking. Jake then shouted "Bruno!". His voice was steady and his voice had become coarser when he said that. A wild dog thrice the size of Apex came running from the Kitchen. The dog barked and ran towards Jake. Jake cuddled with the dog. I felt like I was being ignored for a second but then both of them helped me find Apex. We found Apex outside the house munching on the mushrooms. I was informed that the mushrooms weren''t poisonous.


    I told Jake and Lilly more about my documentary. They said that they can certainly help me with that.


    "Our father supervises the coal mine up in the Western plateau." Lilly said as we sat on the sofas back again, Apex on my lap. "So do you really go through the forest and the Eastern plateau to go there?"


    "What?" Jake looked confused. "No, that is not a thing anymore. We have shafts!"


    "Oh..." I said. "Can we go up there?"


    "We don''t usually go there during monsoons but we can when it doesn''t rain. Our father goes there everyday."


    To this, we heard something outside. Rain. All three of us walked to the window. It was pouring cats and dogs. I hadn''t expected it to rain here. The flow in the river increased. I realised how fast time had went. It was evening. Mr. Derving returned back the moment it started to rain. I had seen the bottom part of the house. I was genuinely curious to go up.


    "Why don''t you kids go up?"


    All of us with the dogs went up. The stairs were creaking and I found myself in a corridor which had three doors. "We can sleep in the first room," Jake explained, "and your dog and our dog can sleep with Lilly in the second room. The third room is for observations. I will tell you more about it later."


    By the time I had seen our room and told Apex to behave properly with Bruno, it was extremely dark. We were called down for dinner after which we were back in our room. Jake told me how he and his sister are on a vacation too. He said that he is not that good at studies but his sister is excellent. I also found him to be the same age as mine.


    "We can go to the island if you want. We can stay there for an hour or two but we will have to return as the tides can be pretty rough. We can also go on walks on the beach."


    "I was thinking about that. What do you play?"


    "Oh! We play golf and do some hiking."


    "Where do you play golf?"


    "In the grasslands."


    I looked outside the window. It had stopped raining. I saw some lights around the island. "Does anyone live on the island?"


    "Nah! It has been empty for hundreds of years. The old kings used to use it but literally no one uses it now. Anyone can visit it."


    I thought the lights were ship lights. Then I asked this "Do people boat at night?"


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    "Some maniacs who have no work do. However most of the population here works in the mine."


    "I saw a shop that was heavily crowded."


    "Must have been Hungry Bees''."


    "What do they sell?"


    "I will show you tomorrow in the evening. In the morning, you can record the rivers as well."


    "Thanks."


    We slept on the bunk beds. I slept on the top as I wanted to enjoy the wind from the windows. It was a cold night and I had a lot to do tomorrow.


    DAY 3


    I woke up before Jake. Lilly was however awoke before us. She said that Apex didn''t trouble her. "You can keep him..."


    "I will think about that!"


    I bathed and got cleaned up and went down stairs. Mr. Derving was having breakfast. Mrs. Derving brought in some potato mash and bread-butter for me. I was happy to realise that Lilly and Jake were vegetarians as well. Phew! I was amused by the amount of money the Dervings had. Mr. Derving was a supervisor and still earned a lot.


    "What will you be doing today?" he asked me. His Scottish accent was crazy.


    "Just going by the river for filming." I replied. "Learn from him..." Mr. Derving splattered while looking at Lilly and Jake. Jake had no literal reaction but Lilly seemed hurt. Everything went quiet. The only sound was of the two dogs fighting over the fishbone. I ate fast and ran upstairs. Lilly and Jake came afterwards. "Sorry..." I told Lilly in not so sorry tone. "It''s okay." She said. We left Apex and Bruno in the garden.


    "We should go to the observation room." Jake said. We walked into the room. It was dusty and sunlight flooded the room. This room contained the most unimportant things in it. It contained a large glass sphere inside which green light was flourishing. There was a tube holder which held several enclosed tubes. The tubes were radiating green light. "That''s Radium." Lilly told.


    "No way....." I said, "Isn''t it radioactive?"


    "It is enclosed in a special material called......" Lilly had said the name of something I don''t recall. "It stops the radioactive energy. That''s why it emits light."


    On the other side of the room was the sloping roof of the house. It had a large rectangular hole in it which was closed by a glass window. That was the only source of light in the room. Below it was another large telescope. "We use it during the night to gaze at stars. It is always good." At this point, I don''t even remember who said this.


    "I would love to look through it."


    There was a globe on the table with a crusty, old map below it. It was the map of a maze, or that''s what I thought. "It is the map of the coal mine. Only some parts of it had been explored." Jake said. Jake took out a pen from his pocket and circled an area below some tunnel. "It is believed there are diamonds here." He said. "No Aiden, that is a myth......" said Lilly.


    "Aiden, listen, it is believed that there are diamonds here due to the immense pressure........." Jake''s voice faded as Lilly started shouting.


    "He''s lying, it can''t be at this level, Aiden."


    Jake got off the map and went to Lilly. While pointing a finger at her face, he said, "You''re jealous because it is my theory."


    "It just is not true......"


    They continued to fight but I wasn''t busy in that. I was looking at the map closely. I thought it would be a good idea to keep the map with me so I folded it and kept it in my bag. They eventually stopped after Mr. Derving came up and scolded us for our loud voices. We went outside into the garden.


    Jake put his arm around my neck and said, "You believe me, right?"


    "Yeah..."


    Just a moment later, Lilly held my hand and said the same thing. I resorted to "Yeah..."


    Apex and Bruno had been enjoying themselves, barking at rabbits outside the garden. I sat with them and looked out at the sky. Lilly sat on my left and Jake on my right. It was a clear sky. Bruno licked my hand. That made me look at the other side. Then, I saw the river.


    "Let us shoot some clips for my documentary." I took my bag and along with the two dogs went outside. Jake and Lilly followed. As we walked to the river, I saw a shaft on the bay side of the plateau. I saw Mr. Derving use it.


    We walked close to the river and I felt the fishy smell of the water even though it was clean water. I told Jake to shoot me but Lilly looked left out so I told her to help me with my positions. She told me to stand at such an angle that the river would be behind me and the bay in the back with the east plateau visible on the side.


    I started with my Introductory speech and got some good shots.


    "Thank you so much!" I said to both of them. Bruno and Apex were now in the waters. We walked back home and sat on the sofas. I edited my video while Jake talked to his mother in the kitchen and Lilly played with the dogs. Jake came in.


    "Lilly..." He said, "mother called you."


    Lilly, without looking at him, went to the kitchen. The dogs followed her.


    "And we can have fun..." He said to me. This was the first time I really got excited in Beverton. "What?" I said jumping up the sofa. Jake went to the cabinet in the hall and took out the spear I had seen when I came here the first time.


    "We are supposed to plant it behind the house just below the plateau..."


    "What for?"


    "You see that we don''t use this spear and we need a landmark to our house. Whenever a postman comes, he is never able to find our house. We can use this spear and hang a paper on it specifying our address."


    "Then we should plant it in the front."


    "Nah, these townsmen are offensive."


    "I hope it works."


    We went outside and dug a small hole behind the house. We planted the spear there. Lilly was looking at us through the window in the kitchen. I waved at her. She waved and showed me some vegetables. I thought I was going to have some good food that day.


    We hung a paper on the spear on which was written Birds fall when they are high. It felt dramatic to do so. Sort of a warning for the high-flying birds here. Ironically, only owls were to be seen at this time in Beverton.


    We also hung a white paper just so that the postmen can find the house by looking at the spear with the white paper.


    The spear was pointed upwards. It felt a little scary. By the time we had completed planting the spear, it was evening and super cold. I went inside the house and wore a fur coat. It was brown and great looking. Jake wore a black hoodie while Lilly was wearing a white scarf. We were getting ready for Hungry Bees''.


    I don''t know how the weather works. Does it snow first or does it rain  first? This is something I wondered as a day before it was raining and now in the evening it started to snow. There were no winds and there was light snowfall. Slowly the snow covered the ground. Apex and Bruno were both jumping excitedly trying to eat the snow. We stepped outside. As I released some carbon dioxide from my mouth, I saw smoke (I know it isn''t smoke) come out of my mouth. All of us were wearing leather boots. Luxury.


    We walked towards a shop that was now not that crowded at the moment. Though I recognized it as the shop that was crowded a lot the day I came. It was a large shop. It would be sort of an insult to even call it a mere shop. It was more of a cafe. It was made of baked bricks that had been painted Coffee-brown. It had glass sliding doors. There was a chimney on the top out of which nothing was coming. The snow had extinguished the fire. There were still lights shining out of the window. The shop had chairs outside but one could also sit inside.


    We reached Hungry Bees'' and I realised that it was a beer and other non-alcoholic drinks shop.


    "But it also sells other things on its exclusive menu." Jake told.


    "And those things are fun..." Lilly added. The dogs walked beside her. I felt like I should''ve not brought that piece of cake to Beverton.


    As we approached the shop, the doors flung open on their own. We entered and it was warm inside the shop. Only a couple were to be seen in one of the corners of the shop. They seemed to be enjoying the weather.


    A bartender stood behind the counter who was listening to songs. "Evening Herbert!" said Lilly.


    "Evening guys!" He said.


    We went and sat on a table. Herbert shouted, "Regular?"


    "Yeah...wait." Jake replied.


    "What do you want?" he asked me. "Anything non-alcoholic. " I replied. Lilly looked at me and closed in. Then she spoke, "What do you think we drink here? Alcohol?"


    I looked at her. Her sharp eyes shreded my mind. "Sorry..." I blabbered.


    "What are you guys talking about?" Jake asked. He seemed to have not heard our conversation.


    "Nothing..." Lilly replied.


    "Yeah... we want three regulars." she shouted at the bartender. Her soft voice was still crazy sharp.


    We sat there for a minute or so. The dogs were sitting there with their heads down. Herbert came in with three large glasses of what I thought was a mixture of a few drinks. I drank it and it felt funny. My vision started to distort and.............. I believe I fainted at this moment because the next thing I know, I was sitting on the same chair but was being given a large chunk of chocolate to munch on.


    "What happened?" I said. I felt a lot fresh however. "That''s what happens when you drink this for the first time." Herbert told me. "I told you not to give me alcohol!" I shouted. The couple looked at our side. I probably ruined their date. "Shhh!" Lilly whispered, "It was not alcohol. You just had dopamine overload."


    "Sorry!" I said.


    "It has never really happened but okay..." Jake assured me…..sort of.


    I stuffed my mouth with the chocolate. I saw that a piece of cake was on my lap. I petted him. Herbert took a chair and sat with us. "Where did you come from?" he asked.


    "Southern Ireland."


    "Weak men... hmmmm..." I got offended at this but I let it go. "I will show you something better I got this morning." Herbert said and got up.


    "Let''s go." Said Lilly. We followed him behind the counter. I saw that there was a trapdoor there. Herbert opened it and climbed down using a ladder. We followed. The basement had a weird smell to it. I almost tripped on something. Herbert went towards a cabinet and took out a gun. He pointed that towards me and shot. Nothing happened but a few sparks of fire emerged. "It doesn''t work and has no bullets." He said.


    "Then what use is this?" I asked.


    "Nothing...it would work though with some bullets in it."


    "I will take it." Lilly said. She took the gun and kept it with her.


    "Herbert?" Someone shouted.


    "Customers." Said Herbert and we sprinted back up. We exited the shop and with the dogs walking in the front, we reached home.


    When we reached home, Mr. Derving was happy for some reason. He said that he was happy with the work Jake and I had done. That day, I had some good dinner. Even though my stomach was a little upset with what I had drank, I felt that those vegetables chopped by Lilly were magical. Never mind, I am just exaggerating. After eating, we went to bed because I thought that if I would be awake for long, I would get more nauseous.


    The night was cold and it snowed more. I gazed outside for an hour after which I finally slept.