Aunt Bessie's Holiday (2 page)

The
guests all brought
food with them, and within half an hour Bessie’s small cottage was
filled to overflowing with friends from around the island.

“Honestly, you’d think we were moving away
or something,” she remarked to Doona as they both refilled their wine glasses
in the kitchen.

“Everyone was just looking for an excuse to
celebrate something,” Doona replied.
 
“Mid-October is a bit of a quiet time for
parties.”

Bessie couldn’t argue with that.
 
“Hop-tu-naa isn’t far off,” she did
point out.
 
“Although that’s more
for the little ones, I suppose.”

The night was cool, but dry, and Bessie soon
found herself in her favourite place in the world, standing on the beach behind
her home.
 
She breathed in the salty
sea air and sighed deeply.

“You’re going to miss this,” Hugh suggested
as he joined her.

“I will, but it’s only for a week,” Bessie
replied.
 
“And all of the cabins are
meant to be able to see at least one of the lakes on the property, so I’ll
still have a water view.”

“Doona was showing us all the brochure down
at the station.
 
Do you think it
would be a good honeymoon destination?” Hugh asked.

Bessie shook her head.
 
“Save it for when you have little ones,”
she said firmly.
 
“Take Grace to
Paris for your honeymoon.
 
It’s
known as one of the most romantic cities in the world for a reason.”

“I suppose you’re right,” he said with a
chuckle.

“And when are you going to ask her?” Bessie
demanded.

Hugh flushed.
 
“I was thinking Christmas,” he
muttered.
 
“I want it to be really
special, you know?”

“What you’re asking will make it special,”
Bessie told him.
 
“I wouldn’t wait
if I were you.
 
If you want to spend
the rest of your life with her, why not start right now?”

“I don’t know,” Hugh said with a shrug.
 
“I’ll think about it.”

Bessie sighed.
 
“Men,” she said, shaking her head.
 
She didn’t get to lecture Hugh any further,
though, as Grace joined them on the beach.

“It’s such a beautiful night,” she said.

“There’s a bit of a chill in the air,” Hugh
replied, looking at her with concern.
 
“Are you sure you’re warm enough?”

“I’m fine,” Grace told him, smiling
brightly.
 
“Although I’d probably be
better with your arm around me.”

Hugh grinned and slid his arm around
Grace.
 
Bessie smiled at the pair.

“I’m going to miss you two,” she said.

“It’s only a week away,” Hugh said.
 
“You’ll barely have time to miss
anyone.”

“I hope we’ll be too busy to miss anyone,”
Doona said.
 
Bessie hadn’t noticed
her friend’s approach, but now she turned and smiled.

“I feel like a small child,” Bessie
confessed.
 
“It’s silly how excited
I am about our holiday.”

“I know what you mean,” Doona agreed.
 
“I haven’t been away since my last
honeymoon and that doesn’t exactly bring back warm memories.”

“I can’t remember my last proper holiday,”
Bessie said thoughtfully.
 
“Although
as I’ve never worked and I live on the beach, I suppose my entire life has been
a holiday.”

Everyone laughed and then Bessie headed back
inside to spend some time with her other guests.
 
Quite a few of her friends from Manx
National Heritage and the Manx Museum had come to wish her well and she didn’t
want any of them to feel neglected.

Two hours later, the last of the guests were
leaving.
 
Bessie hugged everyone as
they left, grateful that they’d taken time out of their busy lives to celebrate
her upcoming trip.
 

“Well, that was fun,” she said to Doona as
she shut the door behind Hugh and Grace.
 
“And tiring.”

Doona nodded.
 
“It was at that,” she agreed.
 
“It’s a good thing we’re going on
holiday tomorrow.
 
We can get some
extra rest.”

“I thought you had us booked in for all
sorts of activities,” Bessie countered.
 
“Don’t tell me we’re just going to sit around all week.”

Doona laughed.
 
“I’ve signed us up for just about
everything that is only for adults,” she told Bessie.
 
“But we should still have plenty of time
to rest, relax and recover from tonight.”

“We should have had the party at my house,”
John said from his spot at the sink as he finished the last of the washing
up.
 
“I did offer.”

“But you’re trying to get packed up to
move,” Bessie replied.
 
“Besides,
it’s easier to park down here and this way guests could take walks on the beach
if they wanted to.”

“The only guests I saw walking on the beach
were Hugh and Grace,” Doona said.

John laughed.
 
“Ah, young love,” he said.
 
“I hope those two make it.
 
They seem perfect for each other.”

Doona and Bessie were quick to agree with
the man.
 
Everyone liked Grace and
thought she and Hugh were well suited.

“It would have been nice if Mary could have
come to the party,” Bessie said almost to herself.
 
Her friend, Mary Quayle, was still
across while
Mary’s husband, George, was being investigated
by the police
.
 
Bessie missed
the quiet and shy woman who had become a good friend.
 

“I think the investigation should be
finished some time next month,” John told her.
 
“But that’s all I’m prepared to say on
the subject.”

Bessie smiled at him.
 
“I’m glad it’s finally wrapping up,” she
said.
 
“Remember that I still have
that painting in my spare room.
 
I’d
love to know what I should do with it.”

John nodded.
 
“I haven’t forgotten,” he assured her.

Bessie had been given a painting of Laxey
Beach by a man who was currently on the run from the police.
 
She’d been uncomfortable accepting it at
the time and now she felt strange about keeping it.
 
Once the police investigation into the
man’s business affairs was complete, she was hoping someone would advise her on
what she should do with the painting that she loved, but didn’t feel she should
keep.

Now the women joined in the clearing up and
they soon had Bessie’s cottage back to its normal spotless state.

“I hope you both have a wonderful time,”
John
said
as he stood on Bessie’s doorstep, ready to
leave.
 
“You know I’m only a phone
call away if you need anything.”

Bessie shook her head.
 
“We’re going to go and relax and maybe
paint a picture or two.
 
We won’t
need to bother you.”

“I hope not,” John told her.
 
He gave them each a quick hug and then
he drove away, leaving Bessie and Doona to head to bed.

“Thanks for suggesting I just stay here
tonight,” Doona said as she headed for the stairs.
 
“This will be much easier in the morning
and it means I can’t oversleep.”

Bessie laughed.
 
“You’re too excited to oversleep,” she
predicted.

At almost exactly six o’clock the next
morning Bessie opened her eyes and smiled to herself.
 
She felt like an eager five-year-old,
giddy with anticipation.
 
She went
to wake Doona and found her friend already awake and sitting up in bed reading
the holiday park brochure yet again.

“Have you memorised it yet?” she teased.

Doona laughed.
 
“Only the good parts,” she
retorted.
 
“I can name all of the
restaurants and tell you exactly which pools are only open to adults.
 
Those are the things that matter most to
me.”

Bessie nodded.
 
“I’ll let you be in charge of planning
our days.
 
I’m happy as long as I
can eat and take a walk every day.”

“Neither will be a problem,” Doona said
confidently.

But there was no time for a walk that
morning.
 
The two women took showers
and got dressed and then finished packing their bags.
 
Doona carried the bags down the stairs
and out to her car.
 
They didn’t
even bother with breakfast, agreeing that they would eat on the ferry
instead.
 

The drive into Douglas seemed short as the
pair chatted about their itinerary for the week.
 

“We’ll go over it properly on the ferry,”
Doona said eventually.
 
“I have a
complete list of everything I’ve signed us up for.
 
I tried to strike a balance between
keeping us busy and letting us relax.”

“That sounds just about right,” Bessie said
happily.

“Of course, we haven’t had to pay for
anything, so if we decide to skip things we’re signed up for, it doesn’t really
matter.”

“But we might be stopping other people from
doing that activity,” Bessie said with a frown.

“I doubt it,” Doona said.
 
“When I rang to make our bookings the
woman at the park said that we could probably have just waited and booked on
arrival.
 
Apparently the activities
for adults are never over-subscribed, especially in mid-October.”

 
“Maybe the park will be lovely and quiet,
then,” Bessie said.

“We’ll have to see,” Doona replied.
 
“First, though, we have to get there.”

They’d reached central Douglas and Doona
drove them to the Sea Terminal.
 
She
followed the signs for cars travelling on the ferry.
 
They turned around a corner and found a
long line of traffic in front of them.
 

“Oh dear, I didn’t expect this,” Bessie
said.

“I was warned,” Doona told her.
 
“I haven’t travelled by ferry in years,
but Hugh told me all about his trip in August.
 
Apparently there’s lots of queuing.”

“So I see.
 
No one seems to be going anywhere,
either,” Bessie replied.

“They haven’t started checking people in yet,”
Doona said, pointing to the two small booths at the front of the queue.
 
“Once they do, it’s supposed to go quite
quickly.”

A short time later they spotted several men
walking towards the booths.
 
It
wasn’t long after that the shutters on the booths were opened and the first
cars were being checked in.
 
Other
men spread out and began directing the traffic, sending cars to each booth as
the previous car pulled away.
 
When
it was finally Doona’s turn, she handed their ticket to the man in the
booth.
 
He entered some information
into the computer and then handed her a boarding card.

“Once you’re on board you can get your cabin
keys from the customer service desk,” he told her.
 
“Have a safe journey.”

“Cabin?” Bessie asked as Doona drove away,
following the slow-moving queue that was now snaking away from the check-in
area and towards the ferry.

“It was part of the prize,” Doona
replied.
 
“We get use of a cabin on
board for the journey, both out and return.”

“How very fancy,” Bessie said.
 
“I haven’t been on the ferry in many
years, but when I did travel across once in a while, I was always quite jealous
of the people who’d booked cabins.
 
In my imagination, the cabins were hugely better than the main seating
area with the squalling children and the huddled masses.”

“I’ve never been inside one,” Doona told
her.
 
“But at least it’s a bit of
private space and they are all en-suite as well.”

“What a nice surprise,” Bessie said.
 
“I didn’t think this holiday could get
any better, but it just has.”

They’d reached the end of the new line of
cars and Doona switched off her engine again.
 
“I suspect we’ll be here for a while,”
she told Bessie in response to the question she hadn’t yet asked.
 
“I’m told they load the freight on
first.”

For close to an hour the pair watched as
huge container lorries made their way into the belly of the ferry.
 
Some minutes later the front end of the
lorry would emerge, leaving its container behind.