Cliffhanger
()
About this ebook
Heike Braun is 17 years old and from Germany. She comes to spend the summer holidays with her aunt and cousins who live on a farm in North Wales. She meets a young man, Peter Wetherby, who begins to show an interest in her. He lives in a big old house with his parents, two elderly hippies who love to party and to smoke marijuana. But is that the only drug they use? And what is Peter's big secret?
This short reader is intended for foreign learners of English and has a restricted and carefully chosen vocabulary, but it can be read with equal enjoyment by teenage native English speakers, too.
Philip Hewitt
Born 28 November 1945 in Bicester, Oxfordshire, England. Grew up in Croydon, South London (at that time in the county of Surrey). Educated at Selhurst Grammar School and Lincoln College, Oxford University. Taught first German and French to kids at the Royal Merchant Navy School in Wokingham, Berkshire, then English to German adults in Stuttgart, Germany. Published many readers and grammar books for learners of English. Now back in the UK and living in the ex-Post Office (which I ran until 2008 until it was closed down) in the small village of Tanygrisiau, North Wales. Busy learning Welsh so I can understand and communicate with the locals! Unmarried - any takers??
Read more from Philip Hewitt
Ned Kelly Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSudden Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPennies for the Gas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPollution Busters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn a Former Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Cliffhanger
Related ebooks
Mari, Our Little Norwegian Cousin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Darkness of Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPollution Busters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Two Story Mittens and the Little Play Mittens Being the Fourth Book of the Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon't Look Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mari, Our Little Norwegian Cousin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYoung Renny Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Treasure of the Swiss Alps: Adventure novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLocket of Atara Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Runaway Settlers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walker Pride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tree of Heaven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Nowhere and Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boys and Girls of Colonial Days Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Soldier's Daughter: The gripping historical novel from AnneMarie Brear Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoni the Goat Boy and Other Stories: Moni the Goahout a Friend; The Little Runaway Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life and Death of Harriett Frean Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Sudden Sun Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife and Death of Harriett Frean: “Because—I wanted to see what it would feel like” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Runaway Orphans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poisonings of Horpington Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeter and Pauline at Hollyhock Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gate of the Giant Scissors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelcome Home! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Irish Girl Ann Riley: The Irish Girl Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Time of Roses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThorn Hill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuardians of the Gates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhost of the Mill House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Action & Adventure Fiction For You
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust: Book Three of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Postman Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prodigal Summer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swamp Story: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We, the Drowned Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlawed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn German! Lerne Englisch! ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND: In German and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Billy Summers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grace of Kings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Italian! Impara l'Inglese! ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND: In Italian and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count of Monte Cristo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Most Dangerous Game Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bean Trees: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Huckleberry Finn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Golden Notebook: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James Patterson's Alex Cross Series Best Reading Order with Checklist and Summaries Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5River God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Cliffhanger
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Cliffhanger - Philip Hewitt
Cliffhanger
by
Philip Hewitt
Cliffhanger
Philip Hewitt
Published by Philip Hewitt at Smashwords
Copyright 2013 Philip Hewitt
Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author
Other books by Philip Hewitt published by smashwords.com which you may enjoy:
Sudden Death
In a Former Life
Pennies for the Gas
Chapter 1 – Arrival
When Heike Braun got off the train at Porthlew station in North Wales early one warm July evening, her Welsh cousins Catrin and Marc Morgan were waiting on the platform to meet her.
Hello, Heike!
called Marc. Welcome to Wales! Did you have a good trip?
It was a bit long, but I got here in the end,
said Heike with a smile.
She had not seen her cousins since their visit to Germany two years before. Marc, who was nearly two years older than her, had grown. He was quite a young man now. He had left school and would be going to college in the autumn. Catrin was the same age as Heike: sixteen. Catrin and Marc’s mother had a farm in the hills above Trelew, a small town six or seven miles away from Porthlew, which was on the coast.
This was Heike’s first visit to Wales and she was surprised that her Aunt Megan was not there in the car to meet her. Her suitcase was quite heavy, and she knew that it must be quite a long way to the farm.
Perhaps they would take a taxi.
Give me your suitcase,
Marc offered. I’ve got my car outside. Mum couldn’t come with us to meet you. She’s milking the cows.
You’ve got a car?
asked Heike in surprise. I didn’t know you were old enough to drive, Marc?
I passed my driving test on my seventeenth birthday last year,
he replied proudly. And I’ve been driving farm tractors since I was thirteen!
Heike had forgotten that young people could take their driving test for a car at the age of seventeen in Britain.
The car which was waiting outside was not, of course, the family car but an old Mini which Marc’s mother had bought him to practise on. Heike had come to stay for three weeks, so her big suitcase only just fitted into the boot of the little car.
They got in, and Marc drove off down the village street.
Heike was happy to be in Britain again. She had been born in Germany, but her mother – Aunt Megan’s sister – was a British woman who had married a German and moved to Germany twenty years before. Heike had been to England several times and spoke very good English but, as her mum had often told her, the biggest ‘room’ in the world was the ‘room for improvement’. So here she was back in Britain again but without her parents for the first time and in a part of the country she had never visited, spending the first three weeks of her summer holidays with her aunt and cousins, improving her English.
The Brauns lived in Essen, and although Heike was a ‘townie’, she loved the countryside. The road from the coast up into the hills was narrow and twisting, with stone walls on both sides. Marc drove carefully here. Heike was pleased that he did not drive as fast as her brother Christof, who had had his driving licence for a year now. She looked out of the window at the rough, hilly countryside of North Wales. Even the highest mountains were nowhere near as high as the Alps, of course, but they were much higher than anything in Heike’s part of Germany, and she looked forward to discovering the countryside if the weather stayed fine.
Are you hungry, Heike?
asked Catrin. Mum’s cooking something special this evening: lamb!
Lovely!
cried Heike. They didn’t often eat lamb at home, and she liked it. She looked through the window at the sheep on the hillsides around her and thought that it was a shame to eat one of them. Especially something as sweet as a little lamb. In Essen, of course, they bought their meat at the butcher’s. They never saw it running around on four legs!
We’re nearly there now,
said Marc after a couple of minutes. You can see the house from here.
Heike looked out of the car window and saw, down by the river, a very large building behind some trees.
Gosh!
she cried in amazement. Is that it? It looks huge!
You’re looking in the wrong direction,
said Catrin. That’s Glan-yr-Afon Hall down by the river. Our house is up the hillside on your left, but it’s behind the hill now. You’ll see it again when we drive up the lane. Hold on tight! It’s a bit bumpy.
She was right. The private lane to the farm was narrow and uneven. It was OK for a tractor or a Land Rover, but Marc’s little Mini bounced up and down like a yo-yo, and Heike’s head even hit the roof once or twice.
She could see the farmyard and buildings now. The house was a long, low white building with a grey roof, and the farm buildings were on two of the other sides of the yard. The hillside rose steeply up behind the house, which faced south towards the