Aunt Bessie's Holiday

by Diana Xarissa

  “Tomorrow I’ve signed us up for an early morning walk in the woods. Their specialist forest rangers do a number of different walking tours, but the early morning one is the only one that is exclusively for adults. He or she will be taking us through the forest and talking about conservation and wildlife protection and what they do at the park in both those areas.”

  “That sounds a little serious for a holiday, but at least we get to enjoy a walk in the woods,” Bessie commented.

  “The woman who took our booking said that it’s actually a really fun way to see the park and learn about the different things they do to make the park a good place for people and for the animals who live in the area. We could see badgers, squirrels, rabbits and any number of birds.”

  “How long is the walk?” Bessie asked.

  “It’s meant to take two hours, but guests are welcome to stop at any time if they decide it isn’t for them,” Doona told her. “The only real downside is that it starts at eight, which is awfully early for the first day of our holiday.”

  “I’ll be up,” Bessie said with a laugh. She woke up right around six every morning without an alarm. Her body clock paid no attention to things like weekends or holidays.

  “I thought you would be,” Doona said with a grin. “But I do plan to have some very lazy mornings while we’re there.”

  “Just not tomorrow morning.”

  “Yeah, just not tomorrow morning,” Doona agreed. “Anyway, that’s the only thing on the schedule for tomorrow. I thought we could explore the park and maybe try out the pools, if we get bored.”

  “Do we get busier then, later in the week?” Bessie asked.

  “We have at least one activity booked for just about every day,” Doona replied. “Tuesday afternoon we’re trying pencil sketching. On Wednesday we get to attempt watercolour painting. Thursday I’ve left free so we can splash in the pool or even try crazy golf. I thought by then we might need a break from everyone and everything. We could always go out and do some sightseeing around the Lake District, if you want.”

  “Let’s not plan anything now,” Bessie suggested. “Let’s see how we feel as the week goes on.”

  “Perfect,” Doona replied. “On Friday we’re doing the second half of the watercolour workshop in the afternoon and then, in the evening, we’re taking that tour of Torver Castle that we discussed.”

  “I’m glad we could fit that in,” Bessie said happily. “I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

  “I’ve booked us for something on Saturday that you don’t know about,” Doona said now. She flipped her notebook shut and sipped her tea.

  “Really? What?”

  “The woman I spoke to told me that they’ve just added a book club to their schedule, especially for adults.”

  “How on earth does that work?” Bessie asked.

  “Apparently, when we check in we’ll each be given the set of books, usually four or five titles. The book club doesn’t meet until Saturday, to give everyone time to read at least one of the books.”

  “What about the people who arrive later in the week?”

  “They only have check-in on Sundays and Fridays. The book club is only open to guests who come for an entire week, not shorter breaks. It runs on Saturdays for guests who arrived the previous Sunday and on Thursdays for guests who arrived on the previous Friday.”

  “It sounds complicated,” Bessie said.

  “They just started it a few weeks ago, and apparently it’s proving very successful. Some of the books are classics, so most guests will probably have already read at least one of the titles. She told me that Jane Austen is featured quite heavily, although they do try to include at least one book that is more modern, maybe a mystery or a romance.”

  “What if I don’t want to read any of the books?” Bessie had to ask.

  “You don’t have to go to the club,” Doona said promptly. “From what I was told, that hasn’t ever happened. Apparently the sorts of guests who are interested in attending are also the sorts of guests who love to read and will happily read and discuss just about anything.”

  Bessie laughed. “That sort of sounds like me,” she admitted. “Although as I’ve grown older I have less patience with books. I used to force myself to read all of every book I picked up. Now I’m quite happy to abandon a title after the first three chapters if it doesn’t interest me.”

  “I read everything Jane Austen wrote when I was a teenager. If at least one of the books is by her, I won’t have to read anything else,” Doona said.

  “I’m pretty sure I’ve read all of her books as well,” Bessie replied. “I hope they might be able to introduce me to someone new, though. I love discovering new authors.”

  “We’ll just have to wait and see,” Doona said. “Anyway, that’s our week. I’m hoping we can have a lovely and very fancy meal on Saturday night. Sunday we have to be out of our accommodation by midday if we’re going to make it back to the ferry on time.”

  Bessie nodded. “Let’s not talk about Sunday,” she said. “I don’t want to think about going home yet. We’ve not even gone very far away.”

  Doona stood up and looked out the porthole. “I can’t see the island anymore,” she said. “So we’ve gone some distance, anyway.”

  “But we still have at least three hours of sailing time,” Bessie pointed out. “You did bring a book, didn’t you?”

  Doona shook her head. “I didn’t think about the ferry journey,” she said sheepishly. “I knew we were going to get the books for the book club once we arrived at Lakeview, so I assumed I didn’t need to bring reading material. I think I’ll go down and grab a few magazines from the gift shop.”

  Bessie thought for a moment. “I’ll come as well,” she said as Doona swallowed the last of her tea. “I brought several books, but right now a magazine sounds good. Something that doesn’t require a great deal of mental effort.”

  “So a glossy celebrity gossip magazine,” Doona suggested.

  “Exactly,” Bessie said with a laugh. She rarely bought those sorts of magazines, but lately she’d found herself picking them up a bit more often. They were the perfect things to waste an afternoon with when her mind was preoccupied with other matters. Today she just felt like indulging herself by whiling away the long sailing by reading about the over the top wedding celebrations and extravagant parties that minor celebrities seemed to live for.

  The ship’s main deck was still cacophonously noisy and chaotic. The two women didn’t waste much time selecting a few titles each and heading for the tills. They waited patiently behind a harassed-looking couple who were each holding a small wailing child. The woman who joined the queue behind Doona and Bessie had a crying baby of her own. She also had a toddler who was covered in something sticky attached to her leg. The girl behind the till rang them up on autopilot, muttering meaninglessly at Bessie when Bessie tried to start a quick conversation. Back in their cabin, the two women couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Now I know why I never had children,” Doona said, wiping at the purplish mark the toddler had left on her trousers as he fell into her.

  “Is it jam?” Bessie asked.

  “I have no idea, but I’m hoping so,” Doona replied. “To think I actually applied for a job with the ferry company a few years back. I wouldn’t have lasted through my first sailing.”

  “School’s in session, so nearly all of the families who are travelling are the ones with very small children,” Bessie remarked. “Children are very noisy when they’re small.”

  “And sticky,” Doona added, shaking her head at the stain the little boy had made. “At least I was sensible enough to travel in old clothes,” she told Bessie.

  “I didn’t even think about it,” Bessie admitted. She’d worn a pair of trousers and a light jumper, nothing different from her normal attire.

  “I was a little bit worried about being seasick,” Doona told her. “I wanted to be as comfortable as possible.”

  “I didn’t think abo
ut that, either,” Bessie replied. “It’s been years since I went anywhere on the ferry, but I never used to get seasick. The idea never even crossed my mind.”

  “I took a tablet before we left this morning,” Doona said. “Although with all the waiting around we did before we boarded the ship, it’s probably worn off by now anyway.”

  “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Yeah,” Doona answered, sounding surprised. “Actually, I feel pretty good.”

  The pair curled up with their magazines for a while, trading titles back and forth as they went. The only sound was pages turning for some time and then, suddenly, Doona’s tummy rumbled loudly.

  “Oh, good heavens, I am sorry,” she exclaimed.

  “I’m surprised mine hasn’t replied in kind,” Bessie replied. “We were going to get breakfast when we boarded and we never did.”

  “I can’t believe I forgot about a meal,” Doona said, laughing. “Should we go and see what they do for lunch?”

  “Yes, let’s,” Bessie agreed quickly. “We still have over an hour of sailing time and I feel as if I’ll starve if I don’t eat until we dock.”

  Back down on the passenger deck, the pair wound their way through the crowd, heading to the small café in the back corner of the ship. There were only a few tables, and they were all full of large family groups.

  “Let’s take something back to the cabin,” Doona suggested, nearly shouting over the noise.

  “Definitely,” Bessie agreed.

  They studied the menu board for a moment and then Bessie shook her head. “Hot food sounds too heavy,” she told Doona. “I’m just going to get a sandwich and a bag of crisps for now.”

  “That works for me,” Doona replied.

  The pair walked over to the large cooler and each selected a sandwich. Bessie added an apple and a bag of crisps to her tray and then selected a cold bottle of fizzy drink. Doona opted for a banana, crisps and a bottle of apple juice. They paid for their selections and walked as quickly as they could back through the throng.

  The cabin felt blissfully quiet in spite of the noises of the ship’s engines that hummed constantly in the background. Once they’d finished eating, Doona decided to take a walk on the outside deck.

  “We aren’t that far from Heysham,” she told Bessie. “I want to see if I can see it yet.”

  While she was gone, Bessie tidied up the tea things from earlier, neatly stacking the dirty cups and spoons on one of the trays from the café. She set the tray outside their door, adding all of the rubbish from their lunch to it. Then she settled back in with her magazines.

  “I would have helped with the tidying up,” Doona told her when she returned a short time later.

  “It only took a minute,” Bessie said. “But what could you see?”

  “Nothing much yet,” Doona said with a sigh. “I’m starting to get bored.”

  Bessie laughed. “It is rather tedious,” she agreed. “Did you explore the whole ship?”

  “No, but I think I might if you don’t mind being on your own for a while longer,” she replied.

  “Oh no, you go,” Bessie said emphatically. She was quite used to entertaining herself and had plenty to keep herself busy with.

  This time Doona didn’t return until after an announcement had come over the tannoy.

  Ladies and gentlemen, we are approaching Heysham and should be docking in about ten minutes. At that time, we will ask all car passengers to make their way to the rear staircases and return to their vehicles for unloading. I repeat, we will be asking all car passengers to return to their vehicles in approximately ten minutes. All foot passengers are asked to remain in their seats in the passenger lounge until further notice. Our guests who are occupying cabins are asked to prepare to vacate them as soon as we dock. Thank you.

  Bessie was just gathering up all of her things when Doona opened the cabin door. She quickly packed up her own belongings and then sat down on her bunk opposite Bessie.

  “We only have a few minutes before we have to join the masses,” she said.

  “But we’re here,” Bessie replied, feeling a bit silly for being so excited.

  “We are indeed,” Doona said. “It will be nice to be on dry land again.”

  “You aren’t feeling poorly, are you?” Bessie asked.

  “No, I’m fine,” Doona answered.

  “Did you have a chance to see the whole ship?”

  Doona flushed. “I saw the bridge,” she told Bessie. “Passengers are allowed to walk around the front of the ship, and from there you can see into the bridge.”

  “That sounds interesting. Maybe I’ll take a look on the way home.”

  “You should,” Doona replied.

  “Why are you blushing?” Bessie had to ask.

  “I met the captain,” Doona replied, not quite meeting Bessie’s eyes. “He was, well, a bit overwhelming.”

  “In what way?”

  “He’s Italian,” Doona said dryly.

  Bessie laughed. While she hated stereotypes, some of them were well deserved, and she often thought that Italian men took great pride in living up to the reputation they had around the world.

  “Did he show you around the bridge?” she asked her friend.

  “He did, and then he offered to show me the captain’s quarters,” Doona replied.

  Bessie laughed again. “That seems very direct.”

  “I think he was just being friendly,” Doona said. “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t actually a proposition.”

  “But you turned it down anyway.”

  “I would have, but we ran out of time,” Doona told her. “It was time to start the docking procedures and he had to get back to work.”

  “How fortuitous,” Bessie said.

  “He’s going to be captaining our return journey,” Doona told her. “He wants me to join him on the bridge once we’re underway.”

  “Well, you have an entire week to think about whether you want to do that or not,” Bessie told her. “For now, let’s get out of here and try to find your car.”

  Doona laughed. “Oh, I don’t have to think too hard,” she said. “The man is gorgeous and his accent is very sexy. I think I’ll happily let him flirt with me all the way home.”

  The two women were in the best of spirits as they dropped off the cabin keys at the customer service desk and made their way back to Doona’s car. Then they waited patiently while the long and slow process of unloading the ship began. Eventually it was their turn to drive carefully off the ferry and back onto dry land. Doona had given Bessie a map before they’d left; now Bessie did her best to follow it and direct her friend.

  The route wasn’t particularly difficult and once they’d reached the motorway the signs for the Lake District were easy to follow. They’d barely entered the Lake District when they saw their first sign for Lakeview Holiday Park.

  “According to the sign, we have about twenty miles to go on the motorway,” Bessie told Doona.

  Once they’d exited the motorway, there was a further sign for Lakeview. Bessie pointed it out to Doona as they waited at the roundabout at the exit.

  “So we go straight across here and then take the next right?” Doona checked.

  “That’s what their sign says,” Bessie told her.

  It was only about an hour after they’d left the ferry when they turned into the entrance road for the park. As they made their way into the woods, Doona had to brake suddenly as a squirrel dashed across the road. A moment later Bessie spotted two rabbits chasing one another through the trees.

  “How nice of the animals to come and greet us,” Bessie said with a laugh, as another squirrel seemed to try to race alongside them for a few yards.

  “I’m just worried about running something over,” Doona grumbled. “I’d feel terrible if I killed a rabbit or a squirrel.”

  They drove around a bend and suddenly found that they weren’t alone in the forest after all. Ahead of them a long queue of cars stretched for what looked like m
iles. Doona stopped at the end of the line and looked at Bessie.

  “I suppose we can’t run anything over if we aren’t moving,” she said.

  “But why are there so many cars on the road?” Bessie asked. “I was expecting to find a car park, actually.”

  “From what the brochure said, the check-in is a drive-through, much like the ferry was this morning. Check-in time is two o’clock and it isn’t much past that now, probably everyone has turned up at the same time.”

  Bessie dug into her bag and pulled out a small box of chocolate-covered biscuits. “As long as we’re waiting, we might as well have a little treat,” she told her friend.

  They moved forward more quickly than they had expected and it wasn’t long before they could see the long row of drive-through windows where people were being checked in. Several members of the park’s staff were busily directing people to each window, much like they’d seen at the ferry terminal earlier, but on a larger scale.

  A tall man in the holiday park’s uniform was walking along and chatting with each driver on the road. At one point he directed a car to leave the line and move to the front. Bessie and Doona exchanged glances.

  “VIPs?” Doona wondered.

  “It looks like an expensive car,” Bessie remarked. “So maybe they’ve paid extra to get through faster.”

  “I can’t blame them,” Doona said. “If I had small children in here, I think I’d be willing to pay just about anything to get through check-in and out of the car.”

  Bessie handed her another biscuit. “It shouldn’t be too long now,” she said encouragingly. “You’re next to talk to the man on foot anyway, even if we are still about thirty cars from check-in.”

  Doona grinned. “Maybe I can charm him into letting us move up,” she suggested.

  Before Bessie could reply, the man was tapping on Doona’s window. She lowered it and smiled.

  “Welcome to Lakeview Holiday Park,” he said cheerfully. “I’m Pete, a reservation specialist. Do you have your reservation letter handy?”

  Doona pulled the paperwork from her bag and handed it to the man. He scanned through it and then smiled at her.