Kite Spirit by Sita Brahmachari Read Free Book Online Page B

her own life,
but then again, the thought had never crossed her mind that Dawn would consider such a thing either.
    Seth began strumming his guitar. He was playing her lullaby. The song that to thousands of other people was Seth Solomon’s ‘hit’ belonged in truth only to her.
    ‘It was your naming day that released the song writer in me,’ he never tired of telling her.
    She knew the words so well that she let them wash over her as she listened through the wall, the tune meandering through her thoughts.
    ‘How do you see the world, my love?
    Looking up at the sky
    Eyes bright
    Gazing into the blue
    My love
    Diamonds darting, lifting, floating . . .’
    Tomorrow, Kite thought, I will be sixteen and it should be Dawn’s turn to sit on my bed and wish me a happy birthday.
    ‘Looking up at the sky
    My love
    Eyes bright
    Hands unfolding, reaching out
    So much hope
    So much joy
    So much life.’
    Kite cast around the room, letting her eyes settle on the bright multicoloured diamonds of her birthday kites. There was no space for posters, or photos, or anything else apart
from her long mirror, her wardrobe and a few bookshelves – because the fifteen kites, one for every year of her life, dominated her horizon. Just as well that even Ruby would understand there
was no room now for any more kites after this year.
    The door swung open gently, wafting kite tails. For a moment Kite almost expected Dawn to be standing there, but it was Seth who hovered in the entrance, strumming away, as if asking permission
to enter. She nodded and he strolled around aimlessly; singing and playing, lost somewhere deep in his own thoughts.
    Gradually, note by note, she felt her body relax. The song took her to a faraway time in her own childhood. Eventually Seth’s voice trailed off. He placed his guitar by her bed and lay
beside her. Tiredness swam around her head, and her eyelids felt unnaturally heavy. Seth flicked his sandy silver-flecked hair over one eye and fidgeted with his collection of leather bracelets. He
had one from each of the many festivals he’d played at.
    ‘I’ve been thinking that you and I should go away for the summer. Get away from . . . well – just get away really.’
    When she didn’t respond he continued. ‘Sid from my record company’s got this idea about a new ballad album. He’s sending songwriters off to write about the places their
ancestors came from.’
    ‘Sheffield?’
    ‘Your grandpa was from there, and your grandma was brought up in a children’s home there, but it wasn’t where she was from originally.’ Kite nodded. She vaguely
remembered him saying something about that, but as her grandparents had died before she was born, she never really felt that connected to them.
    ‘Mum once told me that her maiden name, ‘Storey’, was from the Lake District or around that part of the world. When I was about your age I asked her why I didn’t have any
grandparents. She just said that her mum and dad had “given her up”, she didn’t know why and she didn’t want to dwell on it. It was obviously too painful for her, so I
stopped asking questions, but my finding out can’t do her any harm now, can it? Besides, I’ve always wanted to see the Lakes; it’s supposed to be beautiful up there.’
    Kite was only half listening to Seth’s ramblings, but she was grateful that he wasn’t trying to get her to talk about Dawn or, worse still, her birthday. She had told Ruby a hundred
times to cancel even the idea of it. She couldn’t stand the thought of stepping into her seventeenth year without Dawn.
    ‘Anyway I think it would be quite something for us to find out about my family’s roots together,’ Seth said in his soft, contemplative voice, still staring at the ceiling.
    Ruby had been so set on teaching Kite about the history of her family in the Caribbean that Kite had spent most of her preschool years in St Kitts back when Grandad Cyril was alive. She could
picture him holding on