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The wine had calmed Lucy, as she’d hoped it would. A bead of sweat ran down her face from her hairline and she put her hand to her arm to check she wasn’t burning. The sun on her skin felt good, healing somehow. The campsite at the bottom of the valley was already starting to fill up, more and more colourful tents popping up each day. Lucy could see a corner of the site from the bottom of her garden. She remembered the nights the four of them had spent camping there, the fun they’d had lighting a fire and drinking cheap wine into the night. Her parents had never caught her out on those secret nights away, when she’d told them she was staying at Nina’s house. There was no way they’d have allowed her to stay with Tom in a tent when she was sixteen, and for good reason, as it turned out. Lucy remembered her argument with Tom all over again, but this time the wine fuzzed the anger and she felt something more like sadness. She picked up her phone to text him.
Sorry, shouldn’t have said some of what I said. I was upset. I love you x
A car pulled up in the driveway at the front of the house. Lucy heard the gravel crunch and the car engine switch off. Her parents must be back, she thought, hoping her mum wouldn’t try and rope her into helping with dinner preparations. She hated how her mum used her like a kitchen porter, only delegating the worst jobs and getting all shouty like a professional chef from TV cookery shows. She would make an excuse, she thought, say she had plans with Tom. In fact, she would go and see Tom. She’d apologise. She was more likely to convince him to stay on at college by being nice to him about it. She should have thought of that earlier. He was so stubborn once he’d made a decision; the more she fought it the more he’d stand firm. She was going to have to be cleverer than that.
‘Lucy?’ an unfamiliar female voice sounded from a few feet away, walking towards her.
Lucy sat up and turned around to see a man and woman in smartish office clothes walking towards her. She’d never seen them before.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Can I help you?’
She felt suddenly self-conscious in her shorts and bikini top and reached for her t-shirt to pull across her stomach.
‘Lucy, is your sister here with you? Claire?’ they asked, faces unsmiling. Lucy began to feel uneasy.
‘No, she’s in Thailand. Why?’ she asked, her own voice sounding strange.
‘We need to talk to you, Lucy,’ the woman said, standing close to her now, looking like she might sit down on the lounger next to her. ‘But we need to talk to you with an adult present.’
‘Well my parents aren’t home,’ Lucy explained. ‘They’ll be back any minute, I guess, but I haven’t heard from them.’
The woman glanced across at the man next to her, with an expression Lucy couldn’t place.
‘What is it?’ Lucy said. ‘I’m sixteen. What is it? You’re scaring me now.’
The woman sat on the lounger next to Lucy and up close Lucy realised she was younger than she’d first thought. She could only be a few years older than Claire. Lucy studied her as she tucked a chunk of her short blonde crop behind her ear. Then the man, too, sat down awkwardly on the lounger.
‘I’m Geraldine Slade,’ the lady said, quietly but firmly, ‘I’m a police officer and – would you like to go inside, somewhere a little more private?’
‘This is private,’ Lucy said, confused; their garden was huge, walled and not overlooked from any angle. What an odd thing to say, she thought.
‘Your parents and your brother were sailing today, from Newquay,’
‘I know,’ Lucy said, as her mind raced. She felt suddenly that she might be sick.
‘We don’t know exactly what happened yet but there was an accident, Lucy, I’m so sorry – ‘
‘What?’ Lucy’s voice shook, fear creeping through her body. ‘What are you saying to me?’
‘It was a very serious accident, Lucy. They’re in the hospital now; they’re doing everything they can for them.’
‘What the fuck are you saying to me?’ Lucy said, standing, her body shaking. This was the craziest, sickest thing anyone had ever done to her. She had no idea what was going on.
‘It’s a lot to take in,’ Geraldine said calmly, ‘ And you need someone with you. Is there someone we can call? An adult?’
Lucy couldn’t think. Everything was failing her; she thought she might pass out.
‘My parents, my brother?’ she said, slowly. ‘Are they going to be okay?’ The words sounded ridiculous. Of course they would be okay. There was no other option. The whole scene felt like an evil joke.
‘I’m so very sorry. We’ll know more at the hospital,’ the man replied. ‘We’re here to help you in whatever way we can. But the first thing you need to do is call someone who can come and be with you here; someone you trust.’
‘I need to speak to Claire,’ Lucy said, numb, the words hollow in her mouth.
‘We can arrange that,’ Geraldine said, softly. ‘Have a think about who I can call for you now, to come over here and travel to the hospital with you, or take you somewhere else – whatever you want.’
Lucy scanned through her brain for an appropriate response and found nothing. There was nothing in her that could cope with this. She couldn’t even process it. The words kept repeating over and over and over. In the pit of her stomach a sense of doom settled; a fear that she was never, ever, going to be okay ever again. Nothing could ever be alright if something happened to her family. They just needed to come home, that’s all that could happen. She just needed her parents and Richie to come home, like normal, and she’d be so grateful and it would all be okay. How could an afternoon so beautiful become such a nightmare?
She felt a hand on her arm and the reality crushed her all over again; her legs folded and she collapsed back onto the lounger.
‘Call Tom’s mum,’ Lucy said, tears pouring from her eyes, her body stone-cold in the scorching heat, her heart threatening to stop beating all together. She just needed to get to the hospital and find out how they were going to make this all better.
‘Call Sarah.’
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