“It’s not so easy, is it?” she said, wiping the sand away and catching her breath. “I think that’s enough for now.”
The three of us sat sunning ourselves on the edge of the rock pool. Sandwiched between me and Jack, Anna gently stroked our legs with her fingertips. “Look at you both. My beautiful bronzed boys.”
I smiled at Anna, as we watched Jack making spiral patterns with his toes in the sand.
“Although I’m putting sunscreen on both of you, the minute we get back to our towels,” Anna added.
I didn’t know how long we sat there, staring out across the azure sea, the mountains looming in the haze. The only sounds we could hear were the shouts and cries of children playing, the distant whir of Jet Skis. What we had, what we so nearly lost, suddenly crushed me, as if someone was standing on my chest. I took a deep breath and looked at them both, Anna counting out seashells into Jack’s palm. The life we had now was sacred. I could never let myself forget that.
* * *
Anna was reading and Jack was napping on the sofa, so I sat outside on the terrace and went through the email on my phone.
Subject: Hello again
Sent: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:16 pm
From: Nev
To: Rob
Hi, Rob. It’s Nev from Hope’s Place. I messaged you a few weeks ago. Don’t worry, I’m not here to bug you about Dr. Sladkovsky’s clinic. I just wanted to ask how Jack’s operation went. I know what a horrible time that can be and sometimes friends and family don’t get it, so if you ever want to talk... I hope everything went well.
Take care,
Nev
Nev, the crank from Hope’s Place, who was promoting the shady clinic. I was just about to swipe and delete his email, but for some reason I hit Reply. Perhaps I had misjudged him. At least he had made the effort to ask about Jack.
Subject: Re: Hello again
Sent: Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:26 pm
From: Rob
To: Nev
Hi Nev, thanks for the note and for getting in touch. Very kind of you. Actually, some very good news. Jack had his operation about a month ago now and had a complete total resection. The neurosurgeon managed to get it all and no further treatment is needed. He will obviously have to have it monitored but for now the news is good. We’re actually on holiday in Greece at the moment. Thanks again for being in touch and I wish you and your son well.
Sent from my iPhone.
Nev’s reply was almost instant.
Subject: Re: Hello again
Sent: Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:27 pm
From: Rob
To: Nev
Hi Rob,
That’s so great to hear. Big congrats from me, I’m sure it’s a huge relief. Have a great holiday.
Cheers,
Nev
Jack had fallen asleep holding his camera and it looked like it was about to fall to the floor, so I crept into his room, pried it out of his hands and took it outside. I sat down and began to scroll through his photos. His first shots from the holiday were pictures of the seahorse-patterned floor tiles, his little sofa bed, his Spider-Man suitcase. Then the choppy sea, the beach at night, and an abandoned ice cream covered in sand.
It was fascinating to see how Jack saw the world. A picture of a plant, but not the flowers or the stem, but the soil, the cracks on the pot. A garbage can on the heath he thought looked like R2-D2. A picture in a magazine of a cow sitting down.
As I scrolled on, I saw some pictures Jack had taken from our terrace here in Greece. At first I thought they were simply repeats of the same shot, as if the camera was stuck on burst. But then, when I looked closer, I saw that each shot was taken from a slightly different angle.
I clicked through them, and then I saw what Jack was trying to do. Standing on a chair, he had rotated himself like a tripod, methodically going around 360 degrees, capturing the sea, the sky, the mountains rimmed with wisps of cloud. Shot after shot—endless photos of the sky. I smiled, a little awestruck. Jack was making a panorama.
* * *
Jack had woken, and Anna was sitting by his side, stroking his hair.
“Hello, sleepy,” I said.
“Hello,” Jack said drowsily. “Is the holiday finished?”
“No, not at all. We’ve got five more days.”
Jack perked up, wiping the sleep from his eyes.
“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Five days,” he said, counting on his fingers.
“Exactly,” I said, sitting down next to him on the sofa. “I saw your photos, by the way, on your camera. All the ones you took of the sky outside. They’re really good. Do you want to take some more with me? I can show you how to use my big camera.”
Jack nodded solemnly. “I was trying to make a circle, like a circle of photos.” He suddenly looked very sheepish. “And I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“Why are you sorry, Jack?”
He bit his lip. “Because I stood on the chair when I was taking the photos, and you and Mommy told me I shouldn’t stand on the chair.”
I ruffled his hair. “That’s okay, you don’t have to be sorry. But next time you do it when we’re there. So do you want to try to do a panorama with the big camera?”
“What’s a panorama?”
“A panorama is what you were doing, taking lots of photos in a circle.”
Jack sat up and smiled. “Can we do it now?”
I went to get my camera and tripod, and we all went up the spiral staircase to the roof terrace. It was siesta time and the sun was relentless, only softened by occasional gasps of breeze.
I extended the tripod and Jack watched me, carefully noting each step, the methodical way his brain worked.
“That’s the tripod, Jack. Now we just need to attach the camera. Can you
