Page 116 of Sunrise By the Sea

‘Well, he’s a very sensitive bear,’ she sighed. ‘Too sensitive. He’s still in love with his ex. Ballerina,’ she added.

‘Oof,’ said Polly. ‘Totalnightmare.’

‘I know,’ said Marisa. ‘Anyway. It doesn’t matter. I’m still feeling much better.’

‘Good,’ said Polly. ‘Maybe you can bag one of Reuben’s rich mates at the party.’

Marisa rolled her eyes. Oh God, Caius would probably be coming too. ‘How bigisthis thing?’ she asked, as Polly smirked.

Chapter Seventy-two

Marisa gasped when she saw the beach, as they lugged huge boxes of ingredients down a sandy path. It was absolutely perfect, like something out of a magazine. Young guys were going up and down, raking the sand. In the middle was an actual real life circus tent, next to an entire funfair, complete with big wheel, waltzers and, indeed, a candyfloss machine, if not technically a waterfall. The sun shone brightly down on everything.

‘Okay,’ said Polly. ‘This is going to be just fine.’

‘’Scuse me,’ said a cheerful voice, and two young women walked past them on the narrow pathway, carrying between them the longest snake Marisa had ever seen in her life. She jumped and nearly dropped the cake.

‘Not scared of a snake, are you?’ said the first woman quite aggressively.

‘Yes. A bit,’ said Marisa, as the first woman sniffed contemptuously. Polly, meanwhile, was looking on with horror.

‘Don’t listen to her, Janice.’

‘Aren’t they meant to be in a . . . cage or a box or a linen basket or something?’ said Polly trying not to look scared but sidling slightly to the side of the path nonetheless. Oh God. Poor Daisy.

‘Actually, we believe in freedom for animals? Not caging them?’ said the woman at the back end of the snake. ‘Janice is free range.’

Polly took out her phone and texted Huckle, telling him under no circumstances to let Neil come, however much he liked being in the sidecar. And then she told him not to tell Daisy, and to stay away from the animals’ tent. It would be fine. It would be fine. There were a million other things here to distract children, yes?

The girls marched on towards the circus tent, unabashed, even as the snake opened its vast jaws in something Marisa very much hoped was a yawn.

‘Daisy is not going to want to see this,’ said Polly.

‘As long as they don’t have any free-range tigers,’ said Marisa with feeling. ‘She’ll probably be all right. It looks like there’s plenty for them to do.’

Two men came by with a huge box labelled with several hazard warnings and a lot of exclamation points in Chinese writing.

‘What are those?’ said Marisa.

‘Definitely not fireworks,’ said the man in a low voice.

‘Sssh,’ said the other guy as they gingerly crept by.

‘Why can’t they have fireworks?’ wondered Marisa. ‘Is it the beach?’

‘Nope, it’s normally fine,’ said Polly. ‘Unless they’re some terribly vast military-grade illegal fireworks.’

‘Near a loose boa constrictor,’ said Marisa. ‘Absolutely nothing is going to go wrong at this party.’

Down in the main staging area, all was choreographed mayhem. People were running about with headsets barking serious orders into them like they were organising a war rather than a party for an unbelievably spoilt eight-year-old. The kitchens were superb – Reuben liked to cook too and used the beach kitchen all year round – and Polly was familiar with it, so she started to unpack the food.

‘I have to ask,’ said Marisa. ‘I get the pizza element but . . .’

She looked around. There was an entire old-fashioned sweet stand, and an ice cream van giving out free ice cream in every imaginable flavour. Marisa felt a sudden rush of pity for any other kid in Lowin’s class at school having a party after this. There was also a fish and chip van parked up, and a fancy-looking plating station.

‘Why are we doing smoked salmon canapés? Are kids different these days?’

‘Oh no,’ said Polly. ‘There’ll be a lot of grown-ups at this party.’

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