Page 45 of A Secret Cornish Wish
‘Gosh, you’re all doing so much with your lives, while I’m still at art college,’ I say. ‘I feel a bit left behind.’
‘I’m still at uni too,’ Rob says, holding up his hand.
‘Even you’re at Cambridge University.’
‘But you’re at the Glasgow School of Art,’ Rob says. ‘Home of the famous Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I heard it’s a pretty big deal in the world of art colleges.’
I’m surprised he knows which college I’m at. I only talked tonight about being based in Glasgow.
‘Some say,’ I reply bashfully. ‘I like it there.’
‘I’m hardly flying high in the world of business.’ Mandy grimaces. ‘You should see where I live. My block of flats is pretty grim.’
‘Travelling the country with a small theatre company isn’t exactly glamorous,’ Eddie admits. ‘We stay in some dreadful digs. But it’s fun most of the time.’
‘And none of you think I should be getting married tomorrow,’ Claire pipes up. ‘I know you all think I’m far too young to be settling down – so I think that trumps all of you!’
There’s a chorus of ‘No’ and ‘Of course we don’t think that!’ around the table.
‘Come on.’ Claire is shaking her head. ‘Just be honest. I know Frankie thinks I’m too young – she told me so the other day.’
I feel my cheeks flush red as the others look at me. ‘No, I said I wouldn’t want to be doing it. But it’s clearly making you very happy – and that’s what matters, not what I think.’
Mandy nods. ‘Exactly. It wouldn’t be for everyone. But then we’re all different. We may have been friends at school, but our lives are clearly all taking very unique paths right now. Claire, your wedding has given us a reason to meet up again. If it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t be here now.’
There’s silence around the table as it dawns on all of us that this might never happen again. What reason would we all have to meet up again like this in the future?
‘Then we should enjoy what time we have together both this evening and tomorrow!’ Eddie says, raising his glass. ‘In case it’s our last time!’
‘No, don’t say that, Eddie,’ Claire says forlornly. ‘I like to think we’ll always have a reason to get together again in the future. Maybe not as often as we’d like, but we should at least try.’
‘She’s right,’ Suzy says. ‘I’d hate to think I’d lose touch with any of you. If only there was some way we could keep in touch without having to physically meet up. That would be great.’
‘The company I work for thinks within ten years or so everyone will have access to the internet,’ Mandy says. ‘You’ve heard of the internet, right?’
Rob nods. But the rest of us look blank.
‘It’s a new thing that’s going to work through computers,’ Rob says. ‘I have a mate at uni who’s into all this tech stuff. There’s going to be all sorts of pages you can look at and get information and stuff – like a massive great encyclopaedia.’
‘It’s to be called the World Wide Web,’ Mandy explains. ‘It’s going to be huge. It will launch officially later this year. But it’s already there if you know where to find it.’
‘It all sounds a bit likeWar Games,’ I say. ‘You know that movie with Matthew Broderick we all rented from the video shop one Saturday night, and you all came round to my house to watch it because my parents were away.’
‘Oh, yeah, about the guy that hacks into the Pentagon’s computer and nearly starts World War Three?’ Claire says. ‘I liked that one.’
‘You liked Matthew Broderick, you mean,’ I say, teasing her. ‘You got your brother to rentFerris Bueller’s Day Offafter that, and you insisted we all watched it at your house.’
‘We didn’t all have posters of rock stars on our wall when we were teenagers,’ Claire good-naturedly reminds me. ‘Anyway, I don’t remember any of you complaining too much? Especially Eddie – he made us play it again that night, if I remember rightly.’
Eddie nods. ‘I did. Matthew Broderick was very cute – still is, actually. But I thought that first movie was about a computer that developed its own personality and messed with its owner’s life?’
‘No, that wasElectric Dreams,’ Rob says. ‘I remember my older sisters renting that one and letting me watch it with them.’
‘Anyway,’ Mandy says, shaking her head. ‘When you’ve all finished your trip down memory lane . . . ’ She smiles. ‘The internet is what will let us keep in touch with each other in the future. There’s going to be something called email, where you can write and then send the equivalent of letters, but on a computer instead.’
‘But that would mean everyone having a computer,’ Eddie says. ‘They’ll have to be a lot cheaper than they are now for that to happen.’
‘The people at my company seem to think they will be,’ Mandy assures us.
