Chapter 1.1 – The Beginning

Angel Falls was not Lily’s place of birth, but it was her birthright.  Her ancestors had founded Angel Falls over 300 years ago and though the family line had since left and returned to England, they still owned a plot of land on a cliff on east side of the island. 

Lily Seraphine’s parents had been killed in a car accident when she was five years old.  Her guardian became her grandmother who sent Lily straight to boarding school and ploughed all Lily’s inheritance into her school fees.  Thus when Lily graduated when she was 18, all she had to show from her parents was a necklace her mother had owned and a plot of land in Angel Falls.  With only $1,300 to her name, Lily set sail to the far away land to start a new legacy.

After climbing off the boat in Angel Falls, Lily grabbed a taxi and gave the address 10 Primrose Hill to the taxi driver.  Driving through the sweeping valleys of the new land made Lily nostalgic but also excited about the new life ahead of her.

The plot of land was larger than she could ever have imagined and with hardly any money in her pocket, she became overwhelmed by how she was ever going to afford to live here. 

To get herself started, she bought an old iron bed, a toilet, a fridge, a microwave and a basin to wash herself.  There were no walls and no comfort – luckily she loved the outdoors.

But all this expense had only left her with $13 in her pocket.  She had no idea how she was going to live or earn money.  So she decided to wonder into the town to see what opportunities lay out there for her.  She soon found herself in Central Park which was beautiful with cherry blossom trees everywhere and a huge lake.  Lily was starving and with not enough money to buy any food, she decided to try her hand at fishing. 

After fishing for 4 hours she finally netted herself the smallest fish she had ever seen, but she had no idea how to cook it.  So she gave up and headed back out into town to see what else she could find.

The first thing she saw was a gym with a big sign on the door saying: “ANGEL FALLS FITNESS AND ZEN – FREE MEMBERSHIP TO ALL ANGEL FALL RESIDENTS”.  I think I am going to like this place, Lily thought to herself while heading into the fitness centre.

She had always loved exercise, being on the girl’s soccer team at school and the captain of the cheerleading squad. Infact her lifetime wish was to one day be a superstar athlete, but since leaving school she had let her fitness dwindle and so knew she had start again from scratch.  She instantly jumped on one of the treadmills and set about training herself.

Luckily for Lily the gym had a fridge full of quick food.  After working out for two hours, she greedily tucked into a bowl of soup feeling like it was the best bowl of soup she had even eaten in her life.

Over the next few days, Lily did not go back to 10 Primrose Hill as the Angel Falls Fitness and Zen centre had everything she needed until she could get onto her feet.  She could eat here and shower.  And she even slept on the sun lounges in the garden.

During the day, she worked on her fitness on the treadmill and weights and swum lengths in the pool.

After 4 days of living at the gym and speaking to no-one, Lily found herself exercising next to a man.  Her fitness was still not great so it was very embarrassing when she fell over right in front of him.

The man ran over to her and helped her up, checking she was ok and introducing himself as Bernard Elsbry, the shop merchant on the east side of the island.

Lily had not realised how much she had missed human contact until she started chatting to Bernard.  He was a very nice man who had lived in Angel Falls for 10 years and had a wife and two children.  They chatted for the rest of the afternoon and Lily told Barnard all about needing to find a job but not know where to start. Bernard did not know of anything, but told Lily about the town library where you could use the computers for free to look up job availability in Angels Falls.  Lily headed straight there.

Angel Fall Library was an old red brick building, reminiscent of Victorian architecture, which seemed to be the way with lots of the buildings in the town.

Lily set straight to work on the computer and soon found what she was looking for. The Llama Memorial Stadium was advertising for a Rabid Fan to join their team.  The advert read:

“Do you love “your” team? Honest? Can you prove it? There’s a big difference between the rain or shine, win or lose, die hard fans and the fair-weather jerks that enter the stadium when it’s convenient. Grin and bear the losses along with the wins, and the team will take care of you. No experience necessary, but a love for fitness and sports is required.”

The pay was appalling, but Lily knew she had to start somewhere so she used what little money she had and hailed a taxi up to the stadium. 

Lily got the job on the spot.  The stadium’s management had loved Lily’s enthusiasm for sport and knew they could develop her into a real team player.  With no money to celebrate, Lily headed back to the library to read up on her new career for her first day tomorrow. It was here that she met her first real friend in Angel Falls. Her name was Charlie Long.  Lily and Charlie started chatting and hit it off straight away. 

Lily told Charlie all about her new job at the stadium and Charlie told Lily that she was a cop in Angel Falls and lived in the French quarter on the west side of the island.  The next day the girls met up before Lily’s first afternoon at work and Charlie took Lily out for lunch at the town’s bistro to celebrate.  It was the first real meal Lily had had in over a week!

Afterwards the two girls went for a walk in the park chatting about their hopes and dreams in life. It was almost time for Lily to go off for her new job and she turned to her friend and thanked her for making her feel at home in Angel Falls.  Charlie looked back at Lily and leaned forward, planting a kiss onto Lily’s lips.  Lily recoiled in horror, “what are you doing,” she yelped?

“I thought….” Charlie stammered.  “I thought you were into me too.”

“Only as a friend,” Lily replied.  “I am not into girls, sorry if I gave you the wrong impression.”

Charlie went bright red and said, “jeeze, I am so sorry Lily.  I totally got the wrong end of the stick.  Do you forgive me?”

“Of course I do, just don’t let that happen again.  It will never be that way between you and I ok?”

“Thank you so much,” Charlie squealed pulling Lily into a tight hug.  “Just friends I promise.”

Lily hugged Charlie back, but something had changed.  She suddenly felt uneasy and wondered whether Charlie was the best friend she was looking for after all.”