by Rachel Dove
‘When are we going home?’ She could hear her little voice now, remembered how her mother ignored her at first. Her back to her, facing the fading sun, head tilted up like a flower head. Her mother’s fists clenched when she asked again, her voice whinier, higher. It sounded at odds to the crashing of the waves, the laugh-like call of the birds ahead.
The clenched fists were only there a second, but April thought of her father and shrank back. Her mother turned, but her face was kind.
‘April, come here, petal.’ April went to her mother, and she turned them back to face the chalet park. Other families were in the chalets, or out on their patios. Playing cards, having a glass of wine. Laughing as the kids played. They passed them on the way to the shore, and the happy noises of life filtered down to the beach.
Hands on her daughter’s shoulders behind her, her mother spoke. Her voice sounded different. Louder, somehow.
‘You hear that?’ she asked, gentler now.
‘The sea?’
‘The people, April. You hear the people up there?’
April looked past the dunes, where the lights from the park could be seen. She could hear the sounds of people talking, laughing, kids screeching with joy as they played and ran about.
‘Yes,’ she said, her mouth curving into a smile.
‘That’s what life is supposed to be like, April. I want you to look around you, my girl, soak it in. I want this for you, all of this. We’re not going home, April. It’s just going to be me and you from now on, and we’ll be just fine.’ Her mother squeezed her shoulders, a loving gesture that warmed April through as the words washed over her like the waves behind her. ‘This is our second chance hotel, sweetheart. New life starts right here.’
*
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