Sooze and I were both thirteen. I wise beyond my years and she totally sassy. She had skinny legs and no boobs to speak of but man, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Masses of natural blonde hair and enormous blue almost violet eyes. Soozi claimed she was unique like a snowflake and that I, Jamie Darke would one day love her more than life itself. "Fuck off." I said grinning. "Me love you more than life? You with your skinny legs and hardly any boobs? I don't think so." "Fuck off yourself Jamie Darke." Soozi snapped back. She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm only thirteen and I'm not supposed to have big boobs yet." "Francesca Carbanel has big boobs." She gave me what I called "the look." It happened when her hair fell over one of her eyes and she liked looked through it at you. It was like a "what the fuck look." "Francesca Carbanel is fifteen dumb ass." This like put me in my place. She lived a few houses from me in the same street and we attend the same Middle School. I’d often seen her but oddly enough the first time I ever had a real conversation with her was when I was taking a short cut home thru a cemetery near my home. Well it was actually more like a large churchyard. I spotted her half running in my direction, zig-zagging between the gravestones. It was late afternoon, the sky was overcast and it was quite dark so I think she was actually pretty glad to see me. At the time I remember she was going thru her “Goth” phase – pale face with black eye liner, lipstick and nails … black short skirt, fishnet stockings, Doc Martens, the whole nine yards. I didn’t know at the time that she was a blonde as she had dyed her hair almost a blue black to go with her Gothic look. She approached and we said “hi” and “howzit” to each other then she goes: “I’ve seen you at school you’re in Hope Harrison's class I’m Soozi with a zee Carbanel and you’re Jamie Darke.” Like all in one breath so to speak. “Yep that’s me.” I said and offered to walk her home if she liked. She said: “Yes I’d like that. Thanks.” So we became friends and later boy and girlfriend. My name is Jamie Darke and I think I had just turned fourteen when I met Soozi Heaven Carbanel. She was a year younger and lived with her gran in a large, gloomy house a few streets from where I lived with my aunt Georgina, who insisted I only call her Georgie. Soozi and I are both orphans you see but that's about where the similarity between us ended. Our backgrounds are totally different. My parents were quite well off. My mother, due to a substantial inheritance from her parents, which included a large Victorian house in Chelsea, as well as several investment properties. My mother died in a motor car accident in Spain while we were on holiday and she in turn left everything she had inherited to me. My father, who called himself a business consultant, was quite wealthy in his own right but it wasn’t until he died from a heart attack not long after my mother’s untimely death, that I found out exactly what he did for a living. He found and purchased anything that the super mega rich wanted but were too busy or lazy to procure for themselves. He in turn sold these items to them at a tidy profit. He spent a great deal of time out of England and cheated on my mom probably, she once told Georgie, from the day they met. Soozi’s father was heir to a French perfume manufacturing company and when Soozi’s mom died giving birth to her, he married his private secretary a year later. This proved to be a serious and fatal mistake on his part because two years into their marriage she battered him to death with a marble bookend. She was sentenced to ten years in prison. Soozi came to London to stay with her gran. At the time I met her I knew nothing of her background and that her dad had been murdered. Soozi is free spirited teen with wide spread sparkling blue eyes and she totally exuded a charismatic charm that I found irresistible. She had long natural blonde hair that hung below her shoulders and had a delightful little backside that filled her blue jeans to perfection, leaving no room for anything except for my imagination. We had quite a large circle of friends, girls and guys and it was accepted among all of us that Soozi had invented her own past. According to her she lived with her gran because when she was still a baby, her folks disappeared without trace during a holiday in Egypt. Of course although we had our doubts about this, we never said a word of this to Soozi because best friend’s just didn’t do stuff like that to each other. I’d often seen her at school but oddly enough the first time ever had a real conversation with her was when I was taking a short cut home thru a cemetery near my home. Well it was actually more like a large churchyard. I spotted her half running in my direction, zigzagging between the gravestones and I think she was actually pretty glad to see me as it was late afternoon and the sky was overcast and it was quite dark. The first time Soozi invited me to the gloomy house to meet her gran was quite something. The old lady had dry, orange colored hair that stood out from either side of a middle parting and which clashed alarmingly with her long, purple dress. Her pale face shone and her thin lips were a scarlet slash above her pointed chin. She introduced herself as Virginia Somerset-William and peered intently at me over her gold rimmed causing me more than a little discomfort and embarrassment. Soozi later explained to me that a fortune teller had once warned her gran and she believed, that she would be attacked by a man with only one eyebrow and a bouquet of gladioli tattooed on his neck. Despite her appearance and distinctly Bohemian lifestyle Ginny, as she insisted I call her, was a Cordon Bleu chef and I was very often invited to the gloomy house for lunch, supper and even sometimes for breakfast. I think part of the reason for this was because I ate like a horse while Soozi usually just pushed her food around the plate, sometimes prodding at a Sole to see if it was really dead. During and after such meals, Ginny would entertain us with tales about her own childhood and upbringing. She was raised in a home where children were for the most parted looked upon as ungrateful, miniature adults. Her folks repeatedly traveled to India or Mexico or some other exotic destination leaving their offspring in the care of one or other family member. As a result their lives were nor exactly filled with love or warmth and she loathed both her mother and father. When her mother died quite suddenly and her father blew his head off with a shotgun, she wasn’t “unduly fussed” as she put it. “Both my parents were wealthy barbarians.” She observed. According to Ginny, she and her two sisters were left quite a lot of money and she was “adopted” by her late father’s eccentric sister Sarah Leale. Then when she turned twenty five and gained control over her inheritance, she said she married a man with the unlikely name of Bibby Plott who was six years her junior and as she put it; “brimming over with charm.” It turned out that Bibby, whom Ginny described as “most beautiful” wasn’t able to consummate their marriage which was consequently annulled. It turned out, she explained, that he was actually a pretty toy boy who had been passed back and forth among the god-mothers of the local gay community. The gloomy house was itself quite a fascinating place. In the hallway facing you as you entered the front door, was the largest mirror I seen to this day. Bevelled and mounted in a thick, carved Mahogany frame, it practically covered the entire wall. Soozi said that when she was a kid the mirror frightened her. She claimed that when she stood in front of it the reflection she saw was not her own, but that of another girl about her own age who continually beckoned to her. Two large cane seagulls hung from the high out of reach hallway ceiling. From one angle they looked like birds and from another like Spitfire fighter planes and when the front door was opened the breeze made them move, so that they looked like they wanted to fly away to some distant rattan beach or airport runway.During the time we were together Soozi herself told me some pretty amazing things. Like one Saturday afternoon when we were discussing some really like deep stuff and she goes: “I’m the third twin J … did I ever tell you that before?” And I go: “No. What is it?” “The third twin is the star-child and the keeper of the key-link.” She answered. Now I know what I said about Soozi inventing her own past but by this time she’d finished with the Goth trip so she was just like any regular teen of the time. So when she spoke about this stuff I never once cracked a joke or laughed or kidded her. I listened and asked questions … like: “How do you know you’re the star-child?” “I know.” She said confidently. “And what is a star-child?” I wanted to know. “Want me to explain it all to you J? Okay then. It all started when the First Ones traveled across the universe coming up for seven millennia ago.” “The who?” “No, not the Who,” she replied with a wide grin, “they a rock band. Now if you don’t stop interrupting me I’ll never finish. It’s a long story J.” “Sorry Soozi.” “Okay, Now probably because at that time most of earth was inhabited by dumb asses, they chose Egypt as their base. The north and south were still separate Kingdoms, it was that long ago. The First Ones were made up of not one, but two inter-stellar peoples who had for many years waged war against each other. They had only recently ceased hostilities and the mission to earth was a joint venture to cement their peace treaty. You still with me J?” One hundred percent enthralled Soozi.” “Good. And so began the colonization of Egypt. The First Ones actually wanted to use the earth as a sort of inter-galactic base from which they could launch exploratory missions even further into the universe. Well what happened next totally shafted that idea. Opposing factions within the alliance fell out apparently because there was a suggestion from some members to use earth as a place from which they could harvest slaves. Thankfully the enlightened among The First Ones managed to overthrow the rebels and all except their leader were put to death. He was put into some sort of cryogenic sleep in a pyramid they hastily built.” She paused then continued: “I know what you wanna know J … why didn’t they just kill him too? Right?” I nodded. “Right Soozi.” “Sorry but I don’t know either. Anyway when they eventually left earth, the First Ones left many of their people behind. The first God-King of Egypt who united the two lands as well as the first High Priest and Commanders of the military, were all from the Enlightened Ones …”
