Page 30 of Summer in Sunset Harbour
‘Had a bit of a habit of wandering off,’ Nat said, just as Josie was preparing to make a break for freedom. The tone in his voice made her pause. ‘Couldn’t help meself, see?’ Nat continued. ‘Was born in the bow of me old man’s fishing boat, so they say, born with motion in me bones.’ He sighed. ‘The lad’s ma deserved a little better.’
‘I suppose things are how they are,’ Josie said, trying to be diplomatic.
‘When you ain’t got much catchment area, you’s tends to pick the plot of land that looks prime at the time,’ Nat continued, ‘thinking them harvest gonna be sweet for donkey’s years, then he goes and dries up after a couple.’
‘I—’
‘’Twas the lad’s ma,’ Nat said with a gentle, remorseful sigh. ‘Country girl like her should have done better than an old plot of land like me. Weren’t much use tilling after the first couple of years. I gave her the lad and the lass, but otherwise, didn’t give her jack but strife.’
‘I need to get back,’ Josie said. ‘Those weeds won’t pull themselves.’
‘Lad ain’t a bit like me,’ Nat said. ‘I mean, he goes wandering off up to the smoke from time to time, but he always comes back.’
After saying goodbye to Nat,then leaving him to continue lamenting the failures of his life, Josie headed back to the campsite. While Robinson seemed nice, and she had to admit to having been disappointed by his absence, the brutal divorce, her ex-husband’s ruthlessness, and even worse, the betrayal of her daughter, were wounds still too open for Josie to consider papering them over with a new relationship. Even if Robinson was interested—and if he saw the same person that she saw in the mirror every morning then she doubted it—they surely wouldn’t fit. He was an odd job man, up and down the country, and she was a—what was she even? The manager of a closed, abandoned campsite?
She had no money other than a few scraps left in her bank account. She had three de facto employees to which she had given empty promises, and no real idea of how she was going to pay them anything once the novelty of not having to sleep rough in a treehouse had worn off.
Her boots felt suddenly heavy, as though she were trying to walk through quicksand. When she closed her eyes, all she saw was a black tunnel with no light at the end.
Intending to stop in on Hilda before returning to the campsite, Josie walked up to the main road. She also wanted to check her phone for any messages, since the harbour, the campsite, and Nat’s place were all blackspots. Just as she exited the gate onto the road, however, her phone not only began to beep with missed notifications, but to buzz with an incoming call.
Josie pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the display. ‘Huh. Well I … hello?’
‘Mum? Mum, is that you?’ came a familiar and welcome but all too rarely heard voice. ‘I’ve been trying to call you for ages. That floozy old mare Evangeline, she fired me. Said I wasn’t fit for call centre work, let alone tour promotion. Mum, I—’
‘Tiffany, dear, it’s all right.’
‘I don’t know what to do, Mum. I just kind of ran out. I’m sleeping in the bus station waiting room. Can I come up to Bristol and stay with you?’
‘Ah, I’m not in Bristol anymore.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Um, kind of down on the coast. Porth Melynos.’
‘Did you get a holiday cottage?’
‘Something like that.’
‘I’m coming, Mum. I’ll be there in a couple of hours. I’ll give you a call when I get there. Thanks, Mum. I knew I could count on you.’
The call ended before Josie could say goodbye. Tiffany’s words rang in her ears.Count on you. Count on you. Count on you….
‘She’s my daughter,’ she said aloud, slamming the door on any kind of resentment.You took his side on everything. You quit the medical school I paid for to support him. You haven’t once asked me how I feel about everything.‘She’s my daughter.’
16
Threads Unravelling
Hilda winceda little as she got out of the chair to fetch the coffee filter. ‘I think it’s lovely,’ she said. ‘I can’t wait to meet her.’
‘I was just getting a hang of things, and now this,’ she said. ‘I mean, of course she’s my daughter, but she took Reid’s side in everything. She believed every manipulative lie he told her.’
‘And now’s your chance to reverse the damage. This should be a positive experience for you, Josie.’
‘I know, it’s just….’ Josie clenched her fists and wrung her hands. ‘Argh!’ She grinned. ‘It’s all so stressful.’
‘Shall we go down and get another slice of fudge cake after she arrives?’
