‘No, I don’t think there’s any fish here,’ I told Sarah to reassure her, because, in a way, Ant was right. ‘And if there are, I’m sure they’re tiny, friendly ones.’
‘There’s monsters, apparently,’ Ben said. ‘Like the Loch Ness monster. It’ll probably eat us all alive.’
Sarah looked up at me with a worried expression on her face, but a simple wink and a shake of the head was enough to reassure her that he was joking.
The water was clear but surprisingly chilly, so we soon returned to the beach, whereupon Ben and Lucy ran off into the distance to ‘find sticks’.
‘Don’t go too far!’ I shouted out, but they ignored me completely, and quite soon had all but vanished from view.
I made to stand in order to follow them, but Amy jumped up. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I’ll go. I fancy a wander, anyway.’
Saying, ‘I’ll come too,’ Ant then stood as well.
‘Really?’ Amy asked, glancing from Ant to me, worried, I think, that I might disapprove.
‘He can never sit still on a beach,’ I told her.
‘Oh, right,’ Amy said. ‘Well, me neither.’
Joe started to read on his Kindle but paused when Sarah began piling up stones. He jumped up, collected some nice flat ones for her to play with, and then lay back down beside me. ‘It’s like being on the moon,’ he said, looking out over the lake. ‘Amazing landscape.’
‘It is,’ I agreed. ‘It really could be a different planet.’
‘Mummy!’ Sarah said.
I leaned over and counted out loud the number of stones she’d piled up. ‘Seven!’ I said. ‘I bet you can get at least one more on there before it falls over. Try that one.’ I pointed to the flattest of her reserve stones.
‘No water on the moon, though,’ Joe said.
‘Isn’t there?’ I asked. ‘I thought they’d found some. I’m sure I read that somewhere.’
‘I think they found ice,’ Joe said. ‘So that is water, I guess.’
I scanned the sky in case it was possible to see the moon, because sometimes you can; sometimes you can see it in broad daylight. ‘It was a full moon last night, wasn’t it?’ I asked, that thought leading to this one.
‘I think so,’ Joe said.
‘How far did you walk?’ I asked.
‘I’m sorry?’ he asked distractedly. He was fiddling with his Kindle again.
‘I thought you went for a walk last night – after I fell asleep.’
‘Oh, no,’ Joe said. ‘Not me.’
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Ant did, and I just assumed . . .’
‘Nope,’ Joe said again. ‘No, I threw a blanket over you and crashed pretty early. They were out there chatting and drinking till late, I think.’
‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘It must have just been Ant and Amy, then.’
‘They were probably vampiring,’ Joe said.
‘Vampiring?’
He nodded. ‘Yeah, you know . . .’ He mimed having two pointy teeth and tipped his head sideways to bite an imaginary neck.
‘Oh, vampiring!’ I said. ‘Yes, I expect that’s exactly what they were up to. Those cute neighbours had better watch out.’
‘We’ll have to move soon,’ Joe said, glancing around. ‘There’s no shade.’
I scanned the horizon, but the only tree that provided any real protection had been taken by a family with a dog. ‘True,’ I said. ‘But I don’t mind. These stones aren’t that comfortable anyway. Plus, Ant can never sit still for long, so . . .’
‘Yes, I noticed that,’ Joe said. ‘But is he having a good holiday all the same? Despite the place being so isolated, and no Internet and everything?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Yes, I think so.’
‘And you?’ Joe asked, with a strange intensity.
I nodded again. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Yes, this is heaven. I’ve never been anywhere much, so this is all really exciting for me.’
‘Good,’ Joe said. ‘I’m glad.’
‘And you don’t mind having us?’ I asked. ‘We’re not getting on your nerves?’
‘Nope,’ Joe said. Then, with a cheeky grin, he added, ‘Not yet, anyway. But I’ll keep you posted.’
At the top of the hill, not far from where we’d left the car, was a hotel-restaurant called La Alcanacia, so when the heat got too much for us that’s where we went, lured by the shady tables beneath their vines.
Initially, we were intending to have drinks, but when we got a glimpse of the next table’s delicious-looking food order, this quickly morphed into lunch.
Amy ordered a selection of tapas dishes, which we all eagerly sampled. There was tortilla (such a big hit with the kids that we had to reorder it twice) and olives, cheese, calamari, aubergine caviar, mushroom croquettes and – a special request by Joe – octopus salad.
‘It’s naughty, I know,’ he said. ‘But I have this terrible weak spot for octopus.’
‘Why’s it naughty?’ I asked, thinking he must be meaning that it was fattening or something.
‘Well, it’s quite a long way from being vegan,’ Joe said, shooting an embarrassed glance at Amy.
‘It’s about as far from vegan as you can go,’ Amy said. ‘Octopi are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet.’
‘Oh, of course!’ I laughed. I’d actually forgotten that they were supposed to be vegan.
‘Hardly any of this is vegan,’ Amy said. ‘Maybe the aubergines, but otherwise . . . I wanted you to taste the local food, though. It would be a shame to come to Spain and not eat Spanish once.’
‘It would,’ I agreed, biting into one of the mushroom croquettes. ‘These have got to be vegan, haven’t they?’
‘They almost certainly have egg in them,’ Amy said. ‘Possibly a bit of cheese too.’
‘You know, it’s octopuses,’ Joe told Amy. ‘Everyone thinks it’s octopi, but it isn’t.’
‘Is that true?’ she said.
‘It is.’ Then, addressing me, he said, ‘You should try some.’
I wrinkled my nose and refused politely. ‘I’ve never much liked those sucker bits,’ I admitted.
‘I’ll have a taste,’ Ant said, shocking me by forking a lump of octopus.
‘These onion rings are nice,’ Lucy told me, and we all laughed.
‘They’re calamari rings,’ Ant told her, ‘not onion.’
‘What’s carr-alari?’ she asked.
‘It’s . . . never mind . . .’ Ant said. ‘Just enjoy it. It’s delicious. It’s all delicious, Amy, so well done. Good ordering there.’
Now,
