The Cazalee Star

Sophie sat out in the garden under the big oak tree. It was early evening and the sun had just sunk behind the trees across the lake. She thought she must have been sitting there for at least an hour or so, and started to wonder if she should walk back to the house. She slowly raised to her feet and felt the warm summer breeze brush across her face. It was the loveliest summers evening they had had so far and Sophie was quite content to have stayed sitting under the oak until the cover of darkness had well and truly fallen, but thought better of it. She knew her aunt Faye would be busy cleaning up the kitchen after the dinner they had held for there guests, and she knew it was about time to go in and help. She quickly made her way up the garden path and entered the kitchen through the back door.
‘Where have you been?’, asked an attractive woman with curly blonde hair, as she turned from the sink to look at Sophie.
‘Sorry aunt Faye, I kinda lost track of the time out there, it’s a beautiful night. The breeze is still quite warm and the sun hasn’t quite set yet’, replied Sophie as she smiled and walked over to the sink where her aunt was standing. Aunt Faye was tall and slim, had a kind face and an even kinder heart. Sophie felt very close to her even although they had only met for the first time three weeks ago. Sophie had come to live with her aunt as the result of a terrible accident that involved her mother and a drunken bus driver. What started as a normal walk home from work for her mother ended in tragedy and Sophie hadn’t really had time to process it all when, before she knew it, she had been put on a train and sent up to Brentwood to live with a woman who she had only heard about from her mothers childhood stories. But Sophie felt comfortable here, more so than she would ever have thought and was extremely grateful that her aunt had welcomed her so graciously into her home from which she ran a Bed and Breakfast that she had built up over the last seven years or so. The B and B was her aunts pride and joy and she took the running of it very seriously.
‘ Yes it does look like a lovely night, perhaps we could take a walk later if its not too late’, aunt Faye said as she turned back to the sink to finish off washing the rest of the dishes. Sophie moved to stand beside her aunt and started to dry the clean dishes with the tea towel that was neatly folded on the bench top.