How lovely to stay in hotels which were so glamorous. The only times Fred and I had stayed anywhere it had been in a dreary budget chain, which he got at a discount through work. There everything was beige and over co-ordinated, and each one was identical to any other. Here things were very different.
Our room was on the first floor at the front of the building, and doors opened onto a little balcony which gave a fabulous view of the sea over the road. It was brilliant.
10
The promenade beneath our balcony wasn’t terribly busy, just a few people wandering about enjoying the afternoon, walking their dogs, and there were two children running around laughing with the sort of vitality that I envied.
Imagine having so much energy that you felt forced to run in order to get rid of some of it, and you still had some left to laugh and call your brother acaca boudin, which I thought was the same as poo head. And then the girl fell over but instead of lying there howling and asking for an ambulance, she bounced back up and carried on running. Ah, the vigour of youth.
I must have been like that once, filled with the joy of living, never thinking that as the years passed our youthful expectations would change into something different. And despite my regrets I didn’t feel as though my life had been wasted, it just made me realise that time is finite, and instead of dwelling on the past, I needed to make the most of what was left to me. Every lovely sunset, each kindness, every interesting opportunity and happy thought. Because after all, as someone wiser than I was once said, living well is the best revenge.
Then I noticed a man out there, standing in the shade of a palm tree. He was tall and rather elegant and he was taking some photographs of our hotel with a proper camera, something which was unusual these days when everyone had cameras on their phones. Perhaps he was a professional, or a journalist doing a piece for the local paper. He looked sort of familiar, and I tilted my head to one side and squinted a bit against the sun to try and see him better. Then he walked away, leisurely and relaxed. And I watched him until he disappeared from view behind an ice cream stand. I frowned, wondering if I had imagined it.
Meanwhile Harriet had selected the single bed furthest away from the window because she said it was safer. What she expected to happen was anyone’s guess. The front of the building to fall off? Randomvoleursto creep in and rifle through her suitcase looking for her snow globe of the great wall of China? Anyway, although she said her knee was greatly improved, she took a couple of painkillers and lay down.
‘I’m in need of a rest,’ she said in the same quavery voice she had used when we were hoping to get into our room early. Perhaps she had been convinced by her own acting skills.
Anna and I meanwhile raided the mini bar and selected a bottle of chilled sparkling wine, which I said I would pay for as she had covered the cost of the room and refused anything from us in return. I could tell she really was feeling guilty about the mix-up with the rooms in Hotel Gloria, but being Anna, it was unlikely she would admit it again.
The two of us went to sit out on the balcony and raised our glasses towards each other in a toast.
‘This worked out better than I thought,’ Anna said. ‘You couldn’t get a better view.’
‘Glorious,’ I agreed. ‘And now you can tell me what you have planned for later. This karaoke thing.’
Anna laughed. ‘You don’t need to worry. I have worked out our costumes and everything.’
‘Anna, we need to know what you want us to do. I don’t really mind making a fool of myself in front of a room full of strangers I will never see again, but I am not dressing up as Tina Turner to do so.’
‘Of course not.’ She chuckled.
‘So tell me. It’s not Shirley Bassey or Gloria Gaynor. I might know a bit of Spice Girls if I was forced.’
‘Nothing so awful. We just need to all wear jeans and a white T-shirt, and I know we all have those. Here.’
She went to fetch a small paper bag from her backpack.
‘Here are our costumes.’
‘You’re kidding?’
‘Just hear me out, we are going to be great.’
‘Ah what?’ I said, exasperated. ‘It’s not like this is a secret Santa. We have to know what we are supposed to do.’
Harriet appeared at the open doorway behind us, rubbing one hand over her face.
‘What are you doing? Why are you making so much noise? Why are you drinking prosecco without me?’
‘We thought you were asleep,’ I said.
‘Not much chance of that with you two yakking away, and I’m much better actually with this new knee support. What’s going on?’
I pulled up a chair for her to sit down and poured her a glass of prosecco.
‘Perhaps you shouldn’t be mixing this with medication?’
Harriet took a sip of her drink and sighed happily.
