Page 20 of A Secret Cornish Wish
Contrary to what I expected, Rob isn’t confident and self-assured at all, but actually quite shy, and he definitely lacks confidence in himself and his abilities.
‘When you’re on stage, it’s not about whether you have the personality in real life, it’s whether you can pretend to have it long enough to convince your audience,’ I tell him.
Rob smiles at me. ‘You’re right, of course. But I’ve never done anything in front of an audience before – what if I’m rubbish? What if I freeze when I get up there?’
‘What if we all do? Luckily, the others will cover if one of us goes wrong. We’re not going solo. We all have each other.’
‘I know I said this the other day, but I really am so pleased to be a part of your little gang, Frankie. I’ve always been quite envious of you guys.’
‘Can I be honest?’ I ask.
‘Er . . . yes. I guess so.’
‘I was really surprised when you told me that.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you always seem so confident and at ease with everything. Like I said to you, it was me who was envious of you coming to the school and fitting in so quickly. I’ve grown up here and I still don’t feel like I fit in properly. You seemed to find it so easy.’
‘Maybe I’m better at pretending than I thought after all, then. Because that’s far from how it felt.’
‘Maybe you are. Perhaps you’ll surprise yourself when you get on that stage on Saturday night – you might even enjoy it!’
We stop at the little kiosk at the front of the café that sits at the top of the beach and buy a can of Diet Pepsi each. Then we make our way up to the cliffside hideaway where I sat and had my lunch on Saturday.
‘I’m so pleased Mum and Dad moved here to Cornwall,’ Rob says as we gaze out at the view. ‘I really like it here.’
‘Where did you live before?’ I ask.
‘Cambridgeshire. They ran a little country pub there. It was OK, but the scenery is so much lovelier here. Have you ever been to Cambridgeshire?’
I shake my head.
‘It’s very flat. The view here is much prettier.’
I turn to look at him and realise to my surprise he’s now looking at me, and not the view in front of us.
I don’t know what to do – apart from flush a ridiculous shade of red. Rob looks similarly uncomfortable, so I turn away, pretty certain my cheeks must be on fire, they’re that hot.
‘Whoa, what’s that?’ Rob’s sudden cry makes me turn back, and I see him looking down into the waves.
‘What?’ I ask, relieved the awkward moment has passed so quickly. ‘What did you see?’
‘It looked like a huge fish’s tail,’ he says, still staring at the sea. ‘What fish do you have here in Cornwall with tails that big? It definitely wasn’t a dolphin or a basking shark. It looked like . . . a huge goldfish tail. You know the sort – all soft and feathery.’
‘Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I saw something similar myself sitting here the other day.’And also when I was at Rose’s cottage. That’s three times the tail has been spotted in the last few days.
‘Did you? What do you know about it?’
‘Nothing. I’ve never seen it before either. It’s very odd, though. Like you said, it’s far too big to be a regular fish, but it’s not shaped like a dolphin or anything like that.’
‘Strange! We’ll have to do some investigating then and find out more about it.’
I like that he says ‘we’.
‘If you want to that is?’ he adds.
‘Yes, I’d like that. I like a bit of a mystery.’
