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‘Me and Harry have decided we’ll come back to Elder Fell Farm next summer. We’re all going to stay in the campervan, though, because Amy’s tent was old, so it blew down in the storm and she had to sleep in bed with Dad.’
‘Did she now?’ Mrs. Thompson said with a warm laugh. ‘Well, I’m glad you’ve worked things out. Always good to see you young’uns get together. Knew you were right for each other the moment I set eyes on you together. I can always tell.’
‘We’re not a couple!’ Amy protested, conscious of the boys who were listening to every word. ‘That’s something for a long way in the future.’
‘Well, I don’t know about that. See you next summer, maybe?’
‘I hope so.’
‘Come on, Olly, you hop up into ‘Shooting Star’ and get your seatbelt on.’ Matt opened the passenger door of the campervan for Oliver to climb in.
‘Well, have a safe journey. See you next year!’ said Mrs. Thompson, raising a hand, as she set off up the field, slowly and surely, every step so well known that she barely had to look where she was putting her feet, and Jen plodded after her all the way.
For a moment she considered giving him a kiss goodbye — a modest peck on the cheek, nothing more — but seeing Oliver’s face at the window of the campervan, she thought better of it.
‘See you back in Saddleton!’ he said as he climbed into the driver’s seat, and with a cloud of petrol fumes, the little campervan bumped over the field to the farmyard and headed for the lane.
‘Come on then, Harry, let’s go home,’ she said as she climbed into the car, and followed the VW out of the campsite.
‘Mam?’ said Harry, as they passed through the village, Elder Fell Farm growing smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror.
‘Yes, Harry?’
‘You know … I wish Granny Jen could have been here with us. She’d have liked it, wouldn’t she?’
‘She would, Harry,’ Amy said softly, and after a short pause, tentatively: ‘Do you miss Granny Jen?’
She expected the usual silence and vehement head shaking Harry gave when she asked him questions like that, but he spoke quietly, so quietly she had to strain to hear him.
‘Yes. Every day,’ he admitted in little more than a whisper. ‘I wish she hadn’t died.’
‘I do too, Harry. It’s hard when you lose people you loved.’
‘That’s what Olly said. We talked about it last night in the pop-top. But it’s okay to be sad. It shows how much you loved them, he said. Like he loved his mum and we loved Granny Jen.’
‘As long as you and me have got each other, it’s going to be okay. Like it always was for me and Granny Jen when I was a little girl. I’ve got you and you’ve got me, whatever happens. You know that, don’t you?’
Harry nodded his head, vehemently, and Amy smiled, fighting back tears as she did so.
‘Roadtrip playlist?’
‘Yeah!’
She turned on the music, turning it up loud, and they both sang along, Harry bouncing to the music in the back seat, and Amy beating the rhythm on the steering wheel. They had only got half-way around Ullswater before Harry stopped singing and asked, ‘Mam?’
‘Yes, Harry?’
‘Are we nearly home yet?’
