That Summer was a blisteringly hot one, with no real rain until nearly March. As a consequence, a lot of our time was spent at the beach, but I noted one slight change in the dynamics, in that both of our offspring were spending their own chunks of that time away from us, or at least beside us but not actually with us. Each was building their own social circle, and I was pleased beyond words, especially for LC.

She still spoke to her bear, but the conversations were fundamentally different, in that she moved away from the slightly disturbing combination of parent and overseer that had been her initial style. Now, her chatter was filled with reports of the activities of other children.

She still slept with him cuddled to her, though.

Maz had surprised me in January, and I kicked myself for my absentmindedness.

“School holidays are in a week, darling. And”

“And what?”

“Our girl will be seven next month”

“Oh hell! I’d forgotten!”

She gave me a slightly twisted look:

“I hadn’t”

There was so much freight in those few words, but then she grinned, darkness blown away.

“Not only have I not forgotten, but I have sorted most of it”

“In what way?”

“Well, school holidays are a bad time to go anywhere, but Bobby knew some people and they had some strings. Said strings got pulled. And then Murdo had a few words”

“What have you done, love?”

“Not me so much as our ferry man, darling. Did you know that he’s on the board of RAC WA?”

“The car breakdown people?”

“The run-lots-of-resorts people, darling. They found a cabin for us”

“Where, love?”

“Espy. The RAC place at the eastern edge of the town”

She stepped forward to hug me, squeezing tightly.

“Our honeymoon, love. So, so long since we did the trip. There’s a shark cage there now, and the site has a pool, and there’s new barbie equipment…”

I hugged her back.

“And little blue penguins?”

“Might be”

“Then I need to book some more flights”

She pulled back so that she could stare me in the eye.

“What am I hearing that you haven’t said? ‘More’ flights?”

“It’s the boy’s birthday at the end of June, love”

“And what have you plotted?”

“Remember Tony and Sarah?”

“Of course”

“Well, they had a sort of pre-honeymoon in Australia. I got some addresses off them”

“Where?”

“Not telling you. Just like you kept this quiet. Oh, and I have something special booked for you on that trip”

“Tell!”

“Nope. Going to channel Elaine now”

“Uh?”

“Bring me my laptop, wife!”

She twigged immediately.

“Got your flight booking head on?”

A little rhyme started repeating in my mind as I searched: ‘Bish, bash, Suleiman’s cash’. I tried not to think of what I had already paid out for the other flights, but our boy would have the best birthday I could manage. It was, after all, only money, and this was family.

The day of our flight to Espy, I had to clamp down hard on my urge to laugh, for LC had clearly decided that she was now a seasoned globe-trotting jetsetter, and was almost back to her ‘overseer’ persona as she told her bear to make sure he was ready for security. Partway through the check-in, the little girl returned, as she asked me, quite simply, where we were going.

“It’s a surprise, love”

“Why?”

“Because it’s your birthday present”

“But Shan said I got them all when I was with the dogs”

“Not quite, love. That was for all the ones you missed. Now, you get new ones, a new one each year”

“Does Ishy get one?”

“Yes, love, and I have already booked it”

“Can I come then as well?”

I had the initial thought that she still had some way to go, but then sat it back down, as she had, for once, simply come out with a request. I bought us ice creams as we waited, and then her ‘status’ took over again.

“That’s a very little aeroplane, Dad. Is it big enough for all of us? And they didn’t check our passports!””

Try not to sneer at the flight crew, Carolyn.

We sat two and two, the girls taking the window seats, and this time, LC was fascinated, as Ish pointed out places that were now familiar to her. The airport at Espy was much the same as I remembered, our car was ready, LC was unhappy again re the dearth of passport checks and Maz knew the way to the site, or at least her phone did, as well as the short detour we needed to gather essentials at a supermarket. In common with so many places, they had a tensioned chain across the access road that needed a PIN, but check-in was extremely quick. Our cabin was one of a small collection just the other side of what looked like a decent pool, and just across the main road in front of us, and its associated cycle track, was the beach. I parked up, we dragged our suitcase out, and Ish started the kettle off. Sod it’ it was already afternoon. I looked at the other three as Maz poured tea, and simply said, “Pool?”

Maz replied, “Then walk up the road and let someone else cook?”

There was something else going on behind the breeziness, but I let it go, yet again. We supped our tea, changed into our swimmers (ye gods, I was going steadily more sandgroper) and strolled across to the waiting coolness. We’d put LC into her flotation vest, but the pool had a wide set of steps in the shallow end, and the depth there was well within her abilities. It was almost like being back in Singapore.

We spent a couple of hours in the delightful water, LC more than a little manic, while Ish just lay back in the water, head on the side of the pool, eyes closed, which left me wondering how much of his notional bedtime was being spent on internet video calls. While I also realised how loose Maz’s own costume was on her. Nothing extreme; just a reminder of how much weight she had lost. There were also a few other signs of how things had changed, as a number of other holidaymakers pointed at the lad and whispered to each other, and they were mostly wearing bikinis.

Shower and dress, and then off to the place she had spotted, which turned out to be a sort-of-Thai attached to a pub. That actually set the boy laughing, and I gave him the hairy eyeball.

“Nothing really, Dad, but it’s like that place near Steph Woodruff’s, the pub with the Nepalese attached. Is it some sort of law? Run a pub, must have an Asian eatery attached?”

Maz was smiling again, much more naturally.

“And what about the Cow, son?”

“Well, Dwr y Mynydd’s just down the road!”

“Oh, son, how spoilt you are. When I were a lad, ‘appen it were all elephant’s leg shops after pub”

“Sorry?”

“Doner kebabs, son. Notionally wrapped in a pitta and covered in salad and sauces”

Maz was pulling a face in clear disgust, so I smiled at her.

“They’re odd things, love. I think it might have been Tony, back in England, who summed it up: you can’t face eating one unless you’re drunk, but once you ARE drunk, you can’t resist them”

A little voice piped up.

“What happens to the elephants, Dad?”

“Yellow-throated miner!”

Nice timing, wife.

The place was attached to a typical Aussie pub, a low and sprawling building with a ‘Thirsty Camel bottle shop’ drive-through next door. They had room, Maz drawing a particular smile, and I realised why when our hostess said something I couldn’t understand. My wife laughed, shaking her head, and simply said, “No, Malay!”

“Sorry, sorry! We get Thai girls here, many, and from Vietnam, but no many from Malaysia. You know our food?”

Ish pointed at a menu.

“Most of it, but happy to try new stuff. Dad?”

“I do believe I will be sticking to a Pad Thai, son. You’re the one who likes tentacles”

Once again, that little voice.

“Do they have legs from elephants, dad?”

That took a few minutes of explanation, but they had a children’s menu, and we settled down to a real mix of dishes. Salt and pepper squid joined spring rolls and tempura prawns, before we tucked into our mains, which included a rather hot duck curry that left Ish sweating, silly boy. LC had satay chicken on chicken fried rice, in the absence of pachyderms. A stop at the bottle shop set us up for the rest of the evening, and we took a walk onto the beach to listen to the gentle waves and watch the kids skip a few stones as two of us sat on a little patch of turf..

“Maz?”

“Yes, darling?”

“What was up earlier? You seemed a little off”

She shuffled even closer to me.

“Just thoughts, love. I mean, I booked this all up for Carolyn, but, well… We haven’t been here since our honeymoon, and that was special”

“You want another trip to that island?”

“Of course, but that’s not the point. It’s… Oh, we had all that time in Britain, and it was wonderful. Being free, being… Being surprised by things like Stonehenge, man of mine. So many wonderful places, and people, but it was all new, all fresh, like a dream. This: this is a circle, closing. I’m not unhappy, darling, just a mixture of counting my blessings, while realising how much we all lost thanks to those bastards”

She drew in a long breath, then looked up into my eyes.

“It’s the fear, my love, as well. That this is all a nice dream, and I’ll wake up from it, and… but then, well. You are so, so far from being my dream man, you know”

“Sorry?”

She grinned, that darkness lifting once again.

“Oh, it’s been said so many times, darling! Why would I want to have someone from a dream when I have a real one, so much nicer, and here with me?”

She kissed my cheek.

“And who never gave up on me. Shush! I said it to you ages ago, that there is a difference between recognising a situation and surrendering to it. Now, I do not intend to get squiffy tonight, but I do intend to uphold tradition”

“Which one?”

“Second honeymoon, my love. Or, in plain English, to get you naked as soon as possible and close that circle properly”