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'We’re ready now,’ Oliver said. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Today we’re going to a secret place. Once upon a time there was a hidden valley Mam and me used to go to when I was a little girl. We’re going to see if it’s still there.’
‘Well, it’s not like it’s going to have gone anywhere, is it?’ said Harry, as they walked along the track away from the campsite, up the Elderbeck Valley.
‘It might have done. It must be a long time ago, it might have all, like, crashed down.’ Oliver said.
‘Yeah, ‘cos Mam’s really old now.’
She didn’t feel old and yet at thirty-six she was, undeniably, not as young as she once had been. Amy was older than her mam had been when they’d come to the cottage and even now it was strange to think of her mam as a young woman. She’d never seemed anything other than the solid, reliable grown-up, though in those days she would only have been in her late twenties. Jen had become a mother before she was twenty-one and she’d remained resolutely single for the rest of her life, devoting herself to her daughter.
If only she’d talked more about it when she was still alive. Amy could have asked her more about her dad and his Caribbean heritage too, but no-one had expected to lose her so suddenly. So much had been left unsaid.
‘Is there a stream?’ Matt asked, his tone resolutely jolly.
‘Yes, there’s a stream.’
‘And it’s full of stones, isn’t it?’ Harry said.
‘Yes, there are stones. Why do you want to know?’ Amy smiled at him, glad he was sounding happier.
‘Because if you found it when you were a little girl it must be from the stone age!’ Harry quipped with a certain degree of relish.
‘No, Harry, that would only be if it was from when your dad and Laurie were little!’ she joked back, trying to make him laugh.
‘I’m going to tell them you said that!’
Oh God, what had she done? She should think harder about what she said to Harry She complained about him not thinking before he spoke but she was as bad herself.
‘No, Harry, you mustn’t. You might upset Laurie.’ James was ten years older than Amy, and the age difference had always been a joke between them, but Laurie, who was the same age as James, might not take it that way.
‘You mean you might upset Laurie. It was you that said it, not me. Oh, don’t make a fuss, Mam. They’re always upset about stuff you do. Like that time you told me I should be allowed to dig in the garden and I wasn’t, or the time —’
‘I think that’s probably enough, now, Harry.’ She didn’t want to know all the things James and Laurie thought she’d done wrong.
‘Oh. Right, so what are we going to do when we get to the stupid stone age valley? Look at the rocks?’
‘Perhaps we’ll be able to build a dam,’ Matt suggested cheerfully.
‘Yes, that’s a great idea. It’s a magical place.’
‘Will it be sunny?’ Harry asked.
‘Probably not.’
‘Then it’s not magical enough. I want it to stop raining now.’
‘We all do, Harry, but we have to make the best of it. We can have fun even when it’s not sunny,’ Amy said, going full Poppins.
‘It’s going to be sunny when Dad takes me to Florida,’ Harry said in a threatening tone.
‘If Dad takes you to Florida. You still have to behave until the end of the week, and there are still some gaps on that sticker chart.’
‘It rains even in Florida,’ said Matt. ‘I think this sounds like an adventure. A hidden, secret valley! Who knows what we’ll find?’
‘It’s going to be safe though, isn’t it?’ Oliver asked. ‘There isn’t going to be anything bad in there?’ His voice wavered.
‘Yeah, Oliver, there’s going to be something bad and scary in there!’ Harry shouted with enthusiasm and Oliver began to cry in earnest.
