Page 88 of A Secret Cornish Wish
‘Frankie?’ Mandy asks. ‘You sure you don’t want a beer?’
I shake my head.
‘Not pregnant, are you?’ She grins.
I stare at her. ‘No, of course not,’ I say quickly. ‘I’ve not felt great since I’ve been here, that’s all. I haven’t felt like drinking.’
I glance quickly at the others; they all seem happy with this explanation. But I can see Rob is thinking hard, so I turn away.
‘Did anyone else just see that?’ Mack says as he leans over the edge of the rockface as if he’s trying to see something.
‘See what?’ Suzy asks.
‘I don’t know. It looked like a giant fish’s tail flipping over in the waves.’
Rob and I glance at each other again.
‘Ooh, remember the last time we saw that in this bay?’ Eddie asks. ‘The night of the mermaid’s treasure.’
‘Mermaid’s treasure?’ Mack asks, sounding intrigued. ‘What’s that?’
Eddie, Suzy and Claire give Mack a quick rundown on what happened the night we threw the whisky barrel back into the sea – including the part when we all made wishes. Rob, Mandy and myself all remain silent.
‘Cool,’ Mack says when they’ve finished. ‘And have any of these wishes come true?’
‘Yeah, mine,’ Suzy says, holding up her hand.
‘Tell me more?’
‘I don’t know what the others wished for that night,’ Suzy says, sounding a tad embarrassed. ‘But I wished that I could make a difference in my life – and I feel like I’m already doing that by working in politics. We have our first Labour government after eighteen years of Tory rule, and, even though I work behind the scenes, I feel like I really helped to make that change.’
Mack nods. ‘Nice. What about the rest of you? Frankie?’
‘Nothing yet,’ I mumble.
‘Me neither.’ Rob reaches for another bottle of beer.
‘Claire?’
‘My wish sort of came true, I suppose,’ Claire says. ‘I wished I could have a family and a nice house of my own in St Felix. I have both of those things, even if there’s a few . . . issues with them at the moment. I . . . I don’t mean my children; they are perfect – everything I could and did indeed wish for. I think you all know what I’m referring to that’s not quite so perfect?’
We all nod.
‘But like I said before, that’s going to change!’ she says, lifting her beer again.
‘Eddie?’ Mack asks now. ‘How about you?’
‘Nope, not yet,’ Eddie says, grinning. ‘But then I did wish for something very specific. Something I can’t see will ever happen, to be honest. That’s why I did it – to really test the mermaid. Oh, it’s never going to happen so I might as well tell you—’
‘No!’ Rob and I both cry out at the same time.
I look at Rob, wondering if he’s thinking what I am. If Eddie reveals his un-granted wish, then we will have to reveal ours as well.
‘You mustn’t tell us, Eddie,’ Claire says quickly, glancing at me. ‘Or the wish won’t come true. Keep it a secret and maybe the next time we all see each other, it will have come to fruition.’
Eddie looks less confident about that than Claire, but he nods.
‘Mandy! Last but not least.’ Mack smiles at her. ‘Now tell us, did your wish come true?’
