Clean Break (20 page)

I tried to copy what the dad was saying. He spotted me windmilling my arms and kicking my legs.

‘That's it, love! You've got it. You're a great little swimmer. Here, curve your fingers more, like this.'

He ended up teaching me while his little boy
Edward played ball with our Maxie. Neither of them could catch but they had a lot of fun running after each ball.

Edward's dad told Mum and Gran that I was a real little water baby and ought to have proper lessons. Mum gave me a hug and said she was proud of me. Gran asked straight out if Edward had a mum. She looked disappointed when she found out she'd just gone on a shopping trip.

‘That's such a shame,' said Gran. ‘I thought you'd do just fine for my daughter!'

‘Mum!' our mum hissed, mortified.

Mum and Gran had a little row about it later when we were all having ice creams.

‘Will you please stop trying to pair me up with someone! It's dead embarrassing. I'm not
interested
.'

‘It's no use wasting your life hoping Frankie will come back,' said Gran.

‘He
will
come back, he
will
come back, he
will
come back,' I mouthed at Vita.

She nodded and mouthed it back to me.

I counted the cherries in my ice-cream sundae. One – he
will
come back. Two – he won't. Three – he
will
come back. Four – he won't. Five – he
WILL
! I crammed all five cherries into my mouth at once and choked, so that Mum had to thump me on the back.

‘Stop being such a greedy-guts, Em. And how
many calories are in that ice cream? What about your diet?' said Gran.

‘Mum, give it a rest! She's on holiday!' said my mum.

‘All right, all right, it's just that it would be a shame to give up on it just as she's doing so well.'

‘What do you mean, Gran?' I asked.

‘You've lost a bit of weight, love,' said Mum.

‘
Have
I?' I said.

I peered down at myself. I still looked horribly blue-whaleish. Maybe there was just a
little
bit less of a tummy. Was this just because I'd stopped eating my secret snacks? How could going without one little chocolate bar – or two, or maybe even three – each day make so much difference? I'd carried on saving up all the money. I hadn't been able to take Mum on holiday but I
could
take her out for a special meal.

‘I'm going to take us all out for our dinner,' I announced proudly.

‘We don't need to go out,' said Gran. ‘We're getting dinner at the hotel. It's already paid for.'

‘I want to take us
out
for dinner,' I said. ‘I want to buy Mum a special meal for a holiday treat. Look, I've got money, heaps of it. I can change it into euros easy-peasy and pay for it myself.'

I delved into my school bag, scrabbled through my cardie and beach towel and flip-flops, my
Dancer notebook and my three favourite Jenna Williams books, and right at the bottom found the fat envelope chinking with gold coins. I shook it like a tambourine.

‘For pity's sake, Em, have you robbed a slot machine?' said Gran.

‘Oh lovie, you've saved all your treat money!
Months
of it!' said Mum, and she gave me a big hug. ‘OK then, my wonderful generous girl, you take us out for a meal tonight.'

We all changed into our best things after a day's sunbathing and swimming. I wore the only dress I like, a deep green silky shirt-dress that hangs loosely. Mum plaited the top of my hair and tied it with a green velvet ribbon. My emerald sparkled on my finger. Vita sparkled all over in her favourite rainbow disco outfit, and Dancer had pink ribbons tied around her antlers. Maxie wore his baseball cap back to front and wouldn't tuck his shirt into his shorts so he looked cool (well,
he
thought so). Mum wore her white dress with a silver chain belt and her special silver sandals.

Gran scoffed at all of us and said she wasn't going to bother changing, but at the last minute she rushed up to her room. She came down wearing a pink lacy top, pink strappy sandals just as high as Mum's, and the black jeans Dad bought for her at Christmas. She hadn't worn them since. We
hadn't known she'd even taken them on holiday.

‘What are you all staring at?' Gran said grumpily, but she couldn't help smiling a little bit. She had pink lipstick on too.

‘You look pretty, Gran!' said Vita.

‘You look like a
lady
!' said Maxie.

‘Oh, thanks very much, our Maxie. So I normally look like a
man
, do I?' said Gran, pretending to swat him.

‘He means you look a total glamour puss,' said Mum. ‘Hey, this is
my
night out. What are you doing upstaging me? You don't look like my mum any more. You look like my sister.' Then Mum smiled at me. ‘And you look so gorgeous and grown up in your green dress that you look like my sister
too
, Em.'

It was so lovely to see Mum being all happy and bubbly with her white dress showing off her new tan. I felt thrilled to be giving her a real treat.

I did get a bit worried when we walked along the beach road into town and couldn't find a good place to eat. There were lots of burger and chip places with special menus in English but they were all a bit noisy and messy and Gran got sniffy about holidaymakers who didn't have the sense to sample the local cuisine.

When we got near the fish market there were lots more restaurants displaying plates of squid and
octopus with wriggly slimy tentacles, and huge weird slabs of fish with scary faces. Gran shut up sharpish, because this food was a bit
too
local for any of us.

We trudged on to the posh end of town and found a proper restaurant, all white linen tablecloths and flowers on the table and waiters in evening clothes.

‘This looks a lovely place, Mum!' I said, clutching her arm.

‘Hang on a tick. Let's look at the menu,' said Mum.

I peered round a fat man in a blue shirt and squinted at the menu. It was all in Spanish, but I could understand the prices. My heart started thudding. I'd thought I was so rich – but I didn't have enough to pay for
one
meal, let alone five.

‘I think it looks a horrible uncomfy snobby sort of place. I'd
hate
to go there,' Mum said quickly.

‘Well, where
are
we going to go?' said Gran. She looked at her watch. ‘We could rush back to the hotel. We've missed the starters but they'll probably still serve us the main course.'

‘I don't mind just having pudding,' said Vita.

‘Pudding!' said Maxie. ‘I want pudding!' He rubbed his tummy emphatically.

‘Ssh, kids, we're all going to have pudding,
and
a main course too – but this is my special night
out
,' said Mum, steering Vita and Maxie out of the
fat man's way. He smiled at Vita and rubbed his tummy back at Maxie.

‘We've just got to find somewhere nice to eat, that's all,' I said, trying to sound positive.

‘Well, we've been looking long enough,' said Gran. She wiggled her foot out of her pink strappy sandal and rubbed a sore toe, wincing. ‘It's obvious we're not going to stumble across somewhere cheap but decent by chance. If only we could speak a bit of Spanish, then we could ask someone.'

The fat man turned round to us and pointed at himself enquiringly. Gran was taken by surprise and wobbled on one foot. He caught her quickly by the elbow and steadied her.

‘Thank you!' she said. ‘Sorry –
gracias, señor
.'

‘You're very welcome,' said the fat man, his blue eyes twinkling.

‘You speak wonderful English,' said Gran, shoving her sandal back on.

‘I should hope so. I
am
English, though I've lived here for several years now. I was eavesdropping shamelessly. I think I know the perfect place for you all to have a lovely relaxed meal. It's a real family restaurant, and they'll make a big fuss of the children. It's only down the next alleyway and round the corner. Shall I show you?'

‘How very sweet of you. Yes please!' said Gran.

She started chatting away to him while we trooped
along behind. We heard Gran asking if his family all lived in Spain too. She made attentive cooing sounds of sympathy when he said his wife had died a year ago. Then she looked over her shoulder at Mum, giving her a wink. Mum looked appalled.

‘Oh God! She's matchmaking again!' Mum whispered. ‘What is she
like
?' She saw I was looking anxious. ‘Don't worry, Em, if this place of his looks out of our league we'll just say we don't fancy it. I've been thinking, I'd rather like to get fish and chips and eat them on the beach. Wouldn't that be fun?'

I knew Mum was just saying that because she was worried this fat man's recommended restaurant was going to be too expensive. But it turned out to be the perfect place, a small friendly very cheap restaurant crammed with local families. They were sitting on wooden benches, with red candles on the tables and red-and-white place mats. A red-cheeked lady in a red-and-white checked apron greeted us as if we were long-lost relatives. She made Vita twirl round to show off her outfit, she tickled Maxie under the chin, and she stroked my long hair. She said in Spanish that she thought my hair was beautiful, definitely my crowning glory. The fat man translated for me.

‘Don't you wish we could speak fluent Spanish, Julie?' said Gran. She gave the fat man a big lipsticky smile. ‘You're so clever. I don't suppose
you could translate the menu for us too? In fact, why don't you join us for supper? We'd love that, wouldn't we, Julie?'

‘Mum!' my mum hissed.

‘Now then, don't look so embarrassed. He can always say no,' said Gran.

‘But I'm going to say yes please!' he said. ‘I'm Eddie, by the way.'

‘I'm Ellen and this is Julie, my daughter. She's separated, on her own now. Julie, make room for Eddie. Em, mind out the way. Come and sit beside me.'

I glared at Gran. I didn't want to be stuck sitting beside her. I didn't want this Eddie muscling in on
my
special meal for Mum. I sighed meaningfully and started heaving myself up off the bench.

‘No, no, Em, you stay where you are. I'll sit next to your gran,' said Eddie, settling himself. ‘So, Ellen, are you single now too?'

‘Oh yes, I'm definitely single,' said Gran.

‘I'm single too,' Vita announced, knowing it would make them all chuckle. ‘I used to have this boyfriend Charlie right from when we started in Reception, but he wouldn't play in the little house with me so I chucked him, and then in Year One I had two boyfriends, Paul and Mikey, and they kept fighting each other and they wouldn't stop even though I kept telling them off, so I chucked them
both and then . . .' She went on and on and on. Eddie laughed obligingly, and then turned to me.

‘What about you, Em? Have you led a checkered love-life too?'

‘Em doesn't like boys, she just likes her boring old books,' said Vita, sighing at her sad sister.

‘I'm a total bookworm myself,' said Eddie. ‘So what do you like to read then, Em?'

‘I'm really into Jenna Williams,' I said.

‘What sort of books does she write?' Eddie asked, unbelievably. He'd never ever heard of Jenna Williams!

Before I had a chance to tell him all about her, Gran jumped in again.

‘Our Julie's a great reader too, always got her head in a book,' she said. ‘Isn't that right, Julie? She reads all sorts, even classics.'

‘I don't, Mum! I just had a go at
Pride and Prejudice
once, after it had been on the telly.'

‘She's so modest, my Julie. She was bright at school, could have gone on to university, but – well – she had other plans,' said Gran, shaking her head at me.

‘I didn't go to university myself. Left school at sixteen, did an apprenticeship, worked my way up the building trade, got my own business, did very nicely, thank you, then when the kids were off our hands I sold off the business and planned to sun
myself in Spain and live happily ever after.' Eddie shook his head sadly. ‘But then my wife got ill, and it didn't work out the way we wanted.'

‘How sad. Still, you never know what might be in the cards for the future,' said Gran. She smiled at him and passed him the menu. ‘Right, Eddie, we're in your hands. What shall we eat?'

I glared at Gran again. I'd wanted to show Mum the menu and tell her to choose whatever she fancied. Gran and this Eddie seemed to have taken over completely. Eddie felt we should sample a proper paella, all of us sharing. Gran said she thought this was a splendid idea, though she looked a little taken aback when this huge sizzling plateful arrived and she saw it was seafood and rice. It smelled marvellous but we all wondered if there were tentacles and slimy fishy bits hidden in its depths.

‘Fantastic!' Gran said determinedly.

Vita and Maxie weren't convinced.

‘I don't like it,' said Vita. ‘Can't I have chips?'

‘Chips!' said Maxie.

‘Now don't play up, you two,' said Mum.

‘Oh, let them have chips, if that's what they want!' said Gran, unbelievably. ‘Anything to keep them quiet!'

‘What about you, Em? Would you like some paella?' Mum asked. Underneath the table she reached for my hand and gave it a quick squeeze.

I ended up having a big plateful of paella
and
a huge portion of chips, and they were both delicious.

‘I like to see a child with a healthy appetite,' said Eddie.

‘That's our Em,' said Gran, not breathing a word about my diet.

I decided to make the most of things and ordered a big ice cream for pudding. So did Eddie. Vita and Maxie clamoured for ice cream too, but Mum asked the waitress if they could share one on two plates. Mum didn't want an ice cream herself, or any other kind of pudding, though I tried hard to persuade her.