Sporting a plate piled nicely with hot food, he joined hisfamily at the table. Even though he had less than half the amount the sisters hadtaken, it was still a sizeable feast. He looked to see if Debs was going tocast a disapproving look in his direction or make a comment, but she didn’tseem bothered. The kids seemed happy enough, both had toast, some yogurt andsome cereal as well as orange juice. Neither was complaining about the butteror lack of Marmite, but chatting excitedly about the day ahead.
The angel seemed to have done his homework picking out today,as it had definitely had a promising start – content wife, happy kids, plusfresh back bacon that the terrible twins hadn’t been able to monopolise. Mostof the mealtimes when the kids had been little had been a battleground. Theywere forever complaining about the food, refusing to use cutlery and wipingtheir hands on their clothes and the tablecloth. There was none of that today.
He had no idea which day of the holiday they were on, butdid it really matter? The whole family were looking pretty tanned so they musthave been here a few days already. He wondered what the day had in store. Hewas hoping for a pretty average day without venturing out anywhere. They didn’ttend to do much of that sort of thing on these trips, especially with the hotelbeing all-inclusive.
“Anything special planned for today?” he asked Debs.
“Just working on my tan,” she said, smiling. Her sunny dispositionwas a joy to behold. It made a nice change from what he usually had to put upwith at home. If sunbathing was all she wanted to do today then that suited himjust fine. He would just chill out with her around the pool and go with theflow.
An hour later, Kent, Debs and Jack were at the poolside,with Luke safely enrolled at the kids’ club. It wasn’t hugely busy at the pool sothey had no difficulty finding sunbeds. That was one of the many benefits ofcoming on holiday in May.
It had been more difficult as they children had got olderand they had needed to take their breaks during the school holidays. Kent rememberedreturning to this hotel in August a few years later when it was packed and theyhad no chance of finding four sunbeds together by the time they had finished breakfast.That August trip had also cost double the amount it had in May and it was also toobloody hot. Holidays out of season were definitely preferable.
As Debs settled down for the morning with her iPod, hecoated Jack generously in suncream, slipped his armbands on and the two of themheaded for the water.
“I’m going to go in the deep end today, Daddy!” said Jackexcitedly. “I can go really fast now!”
Kent recalled that this was the holiday when Jack had reallygained his confidence in the water. Sure enough, soon they were splashingaround and Jack didn’t even insist that Kent hold onto him like he had when he waslittle.
“Do the shark, do the shark!” urged Jack.
Ah, yes, the shark, thought Kent. Another thing he hadforgotten about with the passing of time. It was the little fun things like theshark that really brought home the joy of being a dad. All too soon the kidshad grown up and found such things childish, but now he was able to do it allover again.
He swam about ten yards away from Jack who was excitedlychanting, “Go, Daddy, go, Daddy, go, Daddy!” He turned around, dived underwaterand swam back to his son.
Just before he reached him, he leapt up out of the water,mouth wide open shouting, “RAAARRGHHH!” to Jack’s squeals of delight.
“Do it again!” insisted Jack. And he did. About eleventimes. His children never seemed to tire of these things. He could have done ita hundred times and they would still be asking for more.
After about an hour they headed back to the sunbeds to dryoff. As he was sitting on the bed he noticed Karl and Susie, two of theentertainment team coming around recruiting for the morning’s activities.
Kent liked the entertainers at the hotel; they were fun,lively and brilliant with the kids. Admittedly it was all very predictable andformulaic: various pub games and quizzes during the day, then kids’ disco,bingo and karaoke at night, but he didn’t mind. He didn’t want anything toointellectually challenging at the best of times and certainly not while he was onholiday.
“Are you up for a game of killer pool, Richard?” asked Karl,a fit young lad with short, fair hair and not a scrap of fat on him.
“Yeah, why not?” he replied. He wasn’t great at pool, as hisrecent game in The Railway Arms had reminded him, but it would be a laugh. Debscould watch Jack for a bit.
The pool table was over by the bar, underneath a loose bitof thatched roofing which did little to protect it from the elements. Despitethe weathered appearance of the blue baize, it was more than serviceable oncethey had removed all the leaves and twigs from it.
Kent looked around to see who else was playing. It was a mixof dads of various ages and a few young lads, about ten people in total.
His main opposition was two fat blokes in their mid-fortieswearing XXXL Chelsea football shirts, one with Terry on the back and one withLampard. Never had two men looked so out of place in these shirts as these two.It was not even midday yet, but both were sporting full pints of lager and lookedlike the kind of men who had spent their entire lives in the pub. They wouldcertainly know their way around a pool table.
Still, maybe they had been fit when they were younger. Kent couldn’treally criticise. He might have been in his thirty-year-old, 32-inch waist bodyright now, but he would be giving these two a run for their money in the beergut stakes within another decade.
Kent was relieved to see he
