An Ocean Apart (46 page)

“I'll take her!” Charlie said, reaching over the side of the car and ruffling Dodie's woolly fur. He turned and gave his elder sister a narrow look. “But only if I'm allowed to sit in the front.”

The bargain was struck, and once the remainder of the luggage was jammed into the small compartment behind the rear seat, they set off on their journey back to Leesport.

Once they reached the Southern State Parkway, the traffic eased considerably, and as they bumbled along eastwards, David decided that this was the perfect opportunity to teach them the words of “Dodie the Fun-Loving Poodle.” Three times through it, and Charlie and Harriet had picked it up completely, singing along with enthusiasm and rocking themselves side to side in time with the tune. Sophie, however, seemed reticent to participate, and as he accompanied his two youngest children through the verses, he eyed her in the rear-view mirror, as she sat leaning her elbow on the sill of the car and gazing absently at the passing scenery.

They eventually arrived at the traffic lights on Leesport's main street at exactly two-thirty, and thinking that Jasmine and Benji would have yet to complete their work on the welcoming banner, David pulled to a halt outside Helping Hands, giving the horn two quick beeps. He watched through the window of the shop as Clive and Dotti looked up from their desks and, on recognizing the car, both jumped to their feet.

“Why are we stopping here?” Charlie asked.

“I just want you to meet a couple of my friends.” With that, the door of the shop flew open, and Clive came rushing across the sidewalk to the car, followed closely by Dotti.

“Well, for heaven's sakes!” he said, putting a hand to his cheek and surveying the incredulous looks on the children's faces. “Oh, David, they are simply wonderful! All so good-looking!” He grinned, giving his shoulders a cosy shrug, before offering his hand to each of the children in turn. “Hi, my name is Clive. You are? Sophie—hello, Sophie, and—Charlie, and—Harriet. Well, I can't tell you how fantastic it is to meet you all! Oh, and by the way, this”—he turned and put an arm around his assistant, who smiled shyly, pushing up her spectacles onto her nose—“is Dotti.” He sighed, surveying the children with a look of sheer delight on his face. “So where are you off to now? Straight to the beach, I'd guess.”

David looked around at the children, who had not taken their eyes off Clive, riveted by his boisterous enthusiasm.

“Well, we'll go back to the house first and get the car unpacked, but then maybe a cool-down might be the order of the day.”

“I think that sounds like a great idea!” He leaned his hands on the side of the car. “Now, any time you kids want to drop into the shop, you're more than welcome. Dotti has already got some Coke in the refrigerator, so come soon, won't you?”

The children smiled, mumbling a thank-you, and David turned the key and started the engine.

“We'd better be off, Clive. We're meeting Jasmine and Benji at the house, so we'd better not be late.”

“Okay!” Clive said, jumping back from the car. “Remember now, any time you want, kids, just drop in!”

The white tip of the welcoming banner was clearly visible, fluttering high above the hedge, as David turned the car into Shore Street. He pulled to a halt outside the house, hearing immediately Benji's voice shout out excitedly from the garden.

“Jasmine, they're here!”

The gate flew open and he came running out onto the sidewalk. Then, stopping at a distance from the side of the car, he stood grinning and shifting his weight self-consciously from one foot to the other, as he was scrutinized by the new arrivals. David jumped out of the car and came round to the sidewalk.

“Right! Introductions!” He pointed to each of his children in turn. “Sophie—Charlie—Harriet. This is Benji.”

There were a few uncertain murmurings as they acknowledged one another's existence, and David watched the whole scene with quiet amusement as he leaned over the side of the car and pulled the trunk lever.

“All out and we'll get the cases inside. Where's Jasmine, Benji?”

“I'm here!” a voice called out from behind the hedge. She appeared through the gate, a hammer under her arm as she wiped her glistening forehead with the back of her hand. “My goodness, you nearly caught us nappin' there!” She scanned the children, and her face broke into a huge smile. “Hi, everybody, I'm Jasmine. Now, Benji, I heard you bein' introduced, so you can go ahead and tell me who everyone is.”

As the children clambered out of the car, Benji went through their names faultlessly, and Jasmine stepped forward to shake the hand of each in turn.

“Right!” David said, unloading the suitcases and putting them on the sidewalk. “Everyone grab something!”

Scooping up the two largest suitcases in an immediate test of individual strength, Charlie and Benji struggled with them through the gate into the garden.

“Hey, Sophie! Harriet! Come quickly!” Charlie's voice sounded out. “Come and have a look at
this!
”

The two girls picked up their haversacks and hurried through the gate to find Charlie standing in the middle of the garden, looking around in sheer wonderment.

“Isn't this great? Look, we're right by the beach! And look at the sign on the house! Benji says he made it himself!”

“You missed out the
E
in my name,” Harriet said, disappointed.

“Harry, don't be so tactless!” Sophie scolded her.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Benji said quietly, pushing his hands deep into the pockets of his shorts. “I sorta got mixed up with the spelling—but I did put it in at the end.”

Sophie smiled at him. “Well, I think it's great, Benji. It's really well done!”

Benji looked down at his feet, his face colouring with embarrassment.

“And I think so too!” Charlie said, grabbing Benji by the arm. “Come on, let's go and explore!” The two boys turned to run off together down to the jetty just as David came into the garden, carrying the last of the suitcases.

“Hang on, you two! Where are you heading off to?”

“We're going to explore, Dad!”

“Not just yet. We'll get the suitcases inside first, and I'll show you where you're sleeping.”

“Yesss!” Charlie shouted out in excitement, and he and Benji ran back across the lawn towards the house.

It turned out that Jasmine had not only busied herself in putting up the banner, but had also gone through the house plumping up the cushions on the sofa and clearing away the cups and plates that David had left to dry on the draining-board. Harriet and Charlie were delighted with their bedroom out on the screened porch, both throwing themselves onto their beds and looking around to see what views were afforded them from their supine positions. However, Sophie showed little emotion at what the house had to offer, having placed her suitcase on her bed in the sitting-room and begun to unpack it with quiet and methodical efficiency.

“Okay!” David said, clapping his hands to assemble the company in the sitting-room. “Let's forget about unpacking for now. What do you think, Jasmine? The ferry to Fire Island?”

There was a whoop of joy from Benji, immediately echoed by Charlie and Harriet, who hadn't a clue what or where Fire Island was, but if Benji thought it was a good idea
and
it needed a ferry to get to, then it must be an idea worth agreeing with.

“Looks like you've hit on a good plan there!” Jasmine said with a laugh.

“Okay! Fire Island it is! Let's get your swimming things out of the suitcases, and we'll be off!”

Charlie and Benji ran through to the porch and began tearing at the contents of his haversack, while Jasmine gave Harriet a hand to sort through her belongings to find her swim-suit. David went into his bedroom alcove and took a pair of trunks from the top of his chest of drawers, and came back to find that Sophie had made no move to find her own.

“Can't you find yours, darling?”

Sophie looked up at him, her mouth lifting into a light smile. “If you don't mind, Dad, I don't think I'll come.”

“Oh,” David said, disappointed, “do come, darling. It really will be good fun. It's a beautiful beach, and—”

“Dad, I just don't want to!” She picked up a shirt from her suitcase and threw it down on the bed. “Do you really mind
that
much?”

For a moment, David stood staring at her, taken aback by the razor tone in her voice. He was about to answer her when he felt a hand on his arm, and turned to find Jasmine and the other children standing silently behind him. She walked towards the door of the house, gesturing with her head for him to follow.

“Come on, you lot,” he said, waving his hand at the children. “Let's go out into the garden for a minute.”

As soon as they were all outside, Benji, Charlie and Harriet ran off down to the jetty, yelling with enthusiasm as they went.

“Do you want to stay here for a while?” Jasmine asked quietly.

“Yes, I think I'd better. Would you mind taking them off for a bit?”

“Not at all! Tell you what, I'll bring them up to the house to swim in the pool, and then you two can join us later. How about that?”

“That would be great, Jasmine.”

They walked down to the edge of the garden where Harriet stood watching Benji and Charlie competing with each other in a pebble-throwing contest off the jetty.

“Right, you lot! Slight change of plan! You're all going along to Benji's house to swim in the pool.”

Letting out yet more whoops of excitement, the two boys ran back up the steps and headed straight past them to the gate. Harriet's return journey to the garden, however, was more laborious, pushing on her knees to give herself extra leverage as she climbed the steps.

She stopped beside her father. “Aren't you and Sophie coming, Daddy?”

“Not just yet, darling.” He bent forward, his hands on his knees. “But if you go with Jasmine, Sophie and I will be with you very soon, okay?”

Harriet nodded and without a hint of shyness, slipped her hand into Jasmine's.

“Okay, Harriet!” Jasmine said, raising her eyebrows in delight and giving David a wink, “let's go catch up with the boys, then we'll have some fun!” They walked together across the garden and out through the gate, and as David headed towards the door of the house, he heard their voices on the other side of the hedge fading off down the street as they engaged each other in conversation.

David opened the door and walked back into the house. Sophie still stood beside the bed, unpacking her belongings. He picked up the kettle as he passed the sideboard and filled it up from the tap.

“Well, I'm going to have a cup of tea. How about you?”

Sophie shook her head without turning.

“No?”

She turned and flashed him a light smile. “No, thanks.”

David leaned against the sink, folding his arms. “When I spoke to Mr. Hunter, he said that you'd done really well in your GSCEs. They went all right, then?”

“I suppose so.”

Perplexed by the offhand reaction to his questions, David walked over to Sophie and put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you feeling all right, darling?”

She turned to him. “Not really,” she said quietly. “I've just got this really bad tummy pain.”

“Oh, darling, you should have said! Something you ate on the plane, d'you think?”

She raised her eyebrows at his misunderstanding of events. “No, Dad, not that kind! It's, well, you know—my time of the month.”

David was silent for a moment as the realization of what she was saying dawned on him.

“Oh, for heaven's sakes, of course. I'm sorry, Sophie, I should have understood. No wonder you're feeling mouldy. Have you got, well, everything you need?”

She smiled at him as she continued to unpack. “Yup, I do, thanks.” She stopped as she carefully laid a pair of trousers in the drawer. “It's just that, well … oh, never mind.”

“No, go on, darling—please.”

“Well, it's just that I'm still not very sure of myself, you know, dealing with all this, and sometimes I get panicky, and I find it difficult to cope—with swimming and things like that.” She glanced at her father and bit hard on her bottom lip, then let out a faltering laugh. “I don't suppose it's the kind of thing that a girl discusses with her father. It's just that I haven't got Mummy any m——”

It was as far as she got. In that brief moment, the vulnerability brought on both by nature and by the long flight's disruption to her own body's time-clock broke through her steely resolve, allowing her emotions to burst through to the surface.

“Oh, Dad, I miss Mummy
so
much.”

She ran towards him and circled her arms around his chest, her body heaving convulsively with shuddering sobs as she began to rid herself of the grief that she had been storing up deep within her for so long. For a moment, he held her in silence, kissing the top of her head over and over again, and feeling her tears slowly seep through the front of his shirt, wetting the skin beneath.

“I know you do, my darling, I know you do,” he said eventually, tears welling up in his own eyes as he rocked her gently against him, “and I do too—so much so that it hurts, and I don't think that it ever will stop hurting. There is not one second of the day goes by when I'm not thinking about her.” He pushed her gently away and, cupping his hand under her chin, he raised her face to look at him. “But listen, darling, I'm here for you now, I'm here for you all. Things were different for me back in Scotland, but they really have changed now, and they will keep changing—for the better, I promise you. I'm afraid we won't ever get Mummy back, no matter how much we wish and pray, but the most important thing is that we all have each other, as a family, and that's what Mummy would want—that we keep going and have more happy times, and laugh and joke just like we used to.” He paused and looked around the room. “Do you know, she's here right now. I know she is. Right here in the room, and she's saying to us, ‘That's it! Go ahead, you guys, do it for me! I'm cheering you on! Just keep laughing and joking and be happy, because if you're sad and downhearted, you won't be like me any more, and I want to leave you my wit and humour and love of life and—beauty.'”