Four happy hearts, one endless sea.
Around Again
On their second trip past the crooked coral, Pip waved to it.
“Do you know someone there?” asked Nell.
“No. But we’re getting quite familiar.”
Behind them, Toby slowed. The little lunch basket hanging from his foreflipper swung forward and touched his chin.
Fern came alongside him.
“Are we stopping?”
“I thought you were stopping.”
“I thought Nell was.”
Nell turned towards Pip.
Pip looked back at the crooked coral.
It leaned over a white stone, just as it had when they passed it before. He remembered thinking the stone looked like an egg.
It still did.
“We’ve been round twice,” he said.
Toby eased the basket onto the sand.
“The lunch has been round twice too.”
Following Whom?
They gathered above the basket, four green shells catching little pieces of gold from the light overhead.
“I was following Nell,” Pip said.
“You were ahead of me.”
“I kept looking back.”
Nell considered this. She had taken each turn because Pip had taken it. Beside her, Fern had been waiting for someone to point out the picnic place.
Toby had been watching all three of them and trying to keep the basket level.
“Did anyone choose somewhere?” Fern asked.
There was a small silence.
“I said a picnic would be nice,” Nell offered.
“It was an excellent beginning,” said Toby.
He lifted the basket lid a little, checked inside, and closed it again.
“Could we have a middle?”
Fern looked beyond the coral. A broad ledge cast a blue shadow across the sand.
“I’d like somewhere shady.”
“Somewhere I can see out,” Pip said.
“Sand underneath,” Nell added. “No little stones digging in.”
Toby rested his chin on the basket handle.
“Somewhere close.”
Three Out of Four
Beyond the ledge lay a small bay. Fern pointed towards it.
“There’s shade along that side.”
Nell went a little farther and looked down. Pale sand stretched across the bottom, smooth except for a few shallow ripples.
Pip rose above her.
From inside the bay, the ledge would block the view of the open sea. He could see a strip of blue through the entrance, but none of the long reef beyond it.
“The view’s mostly rock,” he said.
Fern looked at the ledge again.
“It is.”
“We could keep going,” Nell said. “Find somewhere more open.”
Toby lifted the basket. This time, he waited.
Pip looked from the shaded sand to the narrow entrance.
“Let’s eat there. I can go up for a look afterwards.”
“Shall we come?” Fern asked.
“If you like. After lunch.”
He swam towards the bay, then stopped before the others moved.
“The sand beside the ledge,” he said, pointing. “That’s where we’re going.”
Toby raised the basket clear of the bottom.
“A place with a name. Lovely.”
Here, At Last
They settled at the edge of the shade, where a warm patch of light reached Nell’s front flippers. Toby put the basket between them and opened it.
Fern passed round the sea grapes. Pip watched a small silver fish appear in the entrance, turn, and vanish behind the rock.
“Anything to report?” Nell asked.
“One visitor. Brief stay.”
She moved a little aside so Toby could stretch his flipper after carrying the basket. He reached for a bunch of grapes and let it rest.
For a while, all four were occupied with lunch.
Then Fern looked at the crooked coral, just visible beyond the mouth of the bay.
“We weren’t very far away.”
“No,” said Pip. “We passed the entrance twice.”
Toby looked up from the basket.
“Next time, what do we follow?”
Nell patted the sand beside her.
“Here.”
Toby put his chin down.
For once, the directions required no swimming.
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