Page 60 of A Secret Cornish Wish
Rob and I both go to pick the item up, but I get there first.
How did a shell get into Claire’s bouquet?I briefly think as I quickly shove it into my bag to look at later. Maybe it was hidden in there as a lucky charm or something?
‘Frankie . . . ’ Rob calls out behind me as I begin to march purposefully down the driveway. ‘Let’s talk about this.’
But I don’t turn back; I continue to walk away from the hotel, and away from Rob. And as I do, I think I can actually feel my heart breaking.
Fifteen
Early April 2004
As I sit on the last part of my very long train journey down to Cornwall, watching the passing scenery gradually change into the landscape I know so well, I don’t feel the same joy I usually do as I approach St Felix.
Usually when I return home, it’s for a holiday or an event of some kind – something cheerful, something to look forward to. But this time is different. This time, I know it’s going to be anything but joyful.
I got the phone call about ten days ago. My mum called me one day when I was shopping for groceries – or messages as my Scottish friends and neighbours called them – in Glasgow city centre, before I went home to my flat.
Nothing unusual in that. Mum often rang me to pass on some local gossip, or to simply check how I am, even though I’m now thirty years old.
‘You’re still my little girl, Frankie,’ she’d say. ‘I still worry about you, especially since you still live so very far away from us.’
So there was nothing strange in Mum phoning – what was odd was she always rang on my home phone, never on my mobile.
‘Mum?’ I said with concern into my phone in the middle of the M&S food court. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Oh, Frankie,’ she said, sounding quite tearful. ‘Something dreadful has happened. You remember your friend Mandy?’
‘Yes . . . ’ I murmured quietly, immediately imagining the worst.
‘Oh, it’s awful, it is. That poor woman . . . ’
‘Mum!’ I snapped. ‘What’s happened? Tell me. Has something happened to Mandy?’
‘No, love, not Mandy. It’s her sister – Hetty.’
I stare out of the train window as rain begins to beat against the glass.
Great, that’s all I need, for it to be raining when I arrive.I’ll get soaked getting to Mum and Dad’s house.
But I quickly chastise myself; a little bit of rain and a damp arrival is nothing compared to what Mandy and her family are going through right now.
Mandy’s younger sister, Hetty, and her husband, David, had been killed in a skiing accident in the Swiss Alps when a freak avalanche happened as a result of a heavy snowstorm, and tomorrow was their funeral.
Even though Hetty and David lived in London with their young son, who thankfully wasn’t with them on the trip, they both originated from St Felix, so that is where their funeral service is being held, and where they are going to be buried, in the cemetery up on the hill.
As far as I’m aware, all the mermaids are coming back to pay their respects and to support Mandy at the funeral.
After Claire’s wedding it was difficult to keep in touch. We tried via a sort of chain-letter system for a while, where we’d all write one group letter, and then pass it on to another mermaid one by one until we all received and read it. Then it would be someone else’s turn to write. This worked for a while, but as people became busier and their lives changed, the letters became less and less until they petered out altogether.
Claire and I spoke on the phone fairly regularly and to begin with, Eddie, Suzy, Mandy and I all rang each other in an attempt to keep in touch, but eventually that faded out too, for the same reason as the letters – busy lives and not enough time.
There were a few attempts to physically get everyone together, but often someone would have to drop out at the last minute, and we’d all agree to reorganise for another time. But then something would crop up to prevent that happening, and in the end we gave up even trying to arrange anything.
However, it was the popularity of the internet and mainly email, which as Mandy correctly predicted, completely changed how we kept in touch with each other.
We all joined Friends Reunited to keep up with our fellow schoolmates, but most importantly we were now able to email each other privately, and, most often, all the mermaids at once in what was called a ‘group email’. We were even occasionally doing MSN Messenger, where we could all chat online together by typing messages to each other in real time. This completely revolutionised how we were able to keep in touch, and, instead of drift apart as I feared would happen, these days we spoke to each other using the internet more than at any time since we left school.
All except Rob, that was.
