Page 23 of Summer in Sunset Harbour
‘They have names, do they? And do they have addresses, places to live that aren’t in those trees? I’m a little nervous about it, and I can’t get anything done if they’re going to sabotage everything I do.’
‘Safe as houses,’ Nat said.
Robinson came into the small, cluttered living room from the even smaller kitchen next door. He handed Josie a cup of coffee and sat down on a wicker stool, setting his cup down on a round glass coffee table, pushing a couple of fishing magazines aside to make space. Josie, sitting on a plastic garden chair opposite Nathaniel, who occupied the only proper armchair in the room, glanced at Robinson for moral support.
‘Who are they, Dad? You know, don’t you? Are they old friends?’
Nat gave a wistful sigh. ‘Ah, those lads, they’s all that’s left of me tribe.’
‘Your tribe? So they are mates of yours.’
‘Disciples,’ Nat said. ‘Started a bit of a cult back in the late eighties,’ he said, as casually as though it was something people did every day. ‘Just felt like it, you know.’ He chuckled. ‘The old man, he had that old campsite down there, and I thought it was as good a place as any. Out of the way, like, not bothering no one, no campers about out of season. Made up some rules, picked one of them rocks out there in the sea as the sacred place, all that kind of stuff.’ He sipped his drink, a bit of pepper catching on his beard.
‘I remember Mum claiming you’d joined a cult,’ Robinson said.
‘No, boy. Didn’t join nothing. I was like the top dog. Made up the rules.’
‘And those people down there, they’re from your cult?’
‘Tis a funny old thing,’ Nat said. ‘They just started to show up. Soon we had fifty of them down there, living in the cabins, dancing around, making a mess, all that. They just started showing up. But you know, got bored, you see. Decided to wander off.’
‘You just wandered off?’
‘Yeah, and then it all kind of ended. Came back a year later, they’d all gone.’
‘But what about those guys down there in the treehouses?’ Josie asked. ‘Have they been living down there for the last thirty-five years?’
Nat threw back his head and cackled with laughter. ‘Good heavens, no, maid. They’ve only been down there since March. Someone from back in the old days was posting something on tinternet, then those boys showed up, asked if they could hang out down there, worship old Mike, ha. Get away from the rat race and all that. And I was like, why not? Got nothing else going on down there, have us?’
‘Who’s Mike?’
‘Ah, the god, see. Gotta have a god if you’re gonna have a cult. Saint Michael, him of the Mount down Mount’s Bay. Just round about sunset, you can see a bit of a face in the cliff there, across the cove. Looks like a lad peering out of the rocks. Tis St. Michael, so I said. ‘Mikey boy.’
‘That’s madness.’
Nat shrugged. ‘Weren’t me showing up, wanting to hang out.’
‘So, you said they could stay down there?’
‘Yeah, why not? Not doing no harm, are they? One of them’s a lad from the village. Perhaps you could have a word with ’e about keeping out of trouble.’
‘Do they all have names?’
‘Geoff, Lindsay, Dennis, and the lad from the village is Barney.’
‘All right,’ Josie said. ‘That’s a start.’
‘Not doing no harm,’ Nat said, sipping on his drink. ‘But if they don’t start behaving themselves, I’ll go and have a word.’
‘Thanks.’
13
Over the Wall
Josie setthe basket down on the ground at the base of the tree. ‘Right, you lot,’ she said. ‘Grub’s up. I have pasties, scones, and some Cornish shortbread. If you want it, though, you have to come down and get it.’
No sound came from the treehouses overhead, except for a little gentle creaking that could have been caused by the wind. Josie, hands on her hips, turned to look out at the cliffs as she waited, trying to see exactly what part of the distant headland looked like St. Michael. While the bay itself kind of looked like an old man with a moustache, even when she squinted or blurred her eyes, all the headland looked like was a jagged pile of rocks. Perhaps a little outcrop on the left could be perceived as a nose, perhaps a rounded upper section could be the forehead—
