Chapter 7

It’s getting late and my tummy starts to rumble. Leaving Penelope snoozing in the living room, the children and I head out to find the local shops. Although it’s October the air feels warm, I can smell the salty sea air and hear the waves crashing in the background.

There’s a store called Applejacks that seems to sell everything and will be perfect for us to stock up on what we need for the week, but a wave of delicious smelling chips wafts our way, and we head straight for the local chip shop. As we enter, we’re welcomed with warm smiles by the owners, it looks as though it’s run by one big happy family, working in harmony. The shop is full of expectant customers, which I see as a good sign of a decent chip shop. We order our food and walk down to the beach. Sitting on the sand with our food wrapped in paper, we dig in and it tastes incredible. The children are making yummy sounds as they eat their hot chips smothered in salt and vinegar and in this moment, life feels perfect.

“Can we go and play?” asks Joshua

“Of course, you can honey” and the three of them jump up and start running around the beach. We must bring Penelope here tomorrow I think to myself and I’m sure there was a sign at the store saying, ‘Dogs welcome’. You can’t take dogs in any shops back in Suffolk, this is a wonderful place to be.

“Come and play Mummy” shouts Rosie. I take my shoes and socks off and jump up. Running towards the children I can feel the soft sand beneath me, getting closer to the Ocean the sand turns wet and cold, we all hold hands as a tiny wave comes towards us, and we jump over it into the freezing sea.

“Nope, just no, too cold” I yell, and we all run away from the water.

We play on the beach until the sun starts to set, sinking below the horizon far away in the distance.

“Come on guys, we need to get to the shop before it closes” I call out. Gathering up our things we head back up to the store, thankfully it’s still open. As I walk through the labyrinth of the shop layout I can smell the fresh local produce. I would love to have this as my local store, there’s isles of fresh fruit, meat from the local butcher, fish that is caught daily from a little port a few miles away and an array of freshly baked goods. We manage to stock up on a few bits to see us through, but we’ll definitely be back!

*

Back at the cottage, Penelope is excited to see us, I let her out into the garden for a run around and sit at the table just outside the kitchen door. The air has a chill to it now and I pull my cardigan tighter around me. I start to think about all the shit we’ve had to endure recently, and I get a pain in my heart. I hope this doesn’t affect the children too badly, I’m still incredibly mad at Dylan for acting that way in front of them, I never thought he could do such a thing. Then my mind turns to Daniel, those ocean blue eyes and sweet smile, he is absolutely delicious! But, also probably very taken too. I need to get him out of my head, at least until I know if he does have a partner.

Joshua sticks his little head out the door,

“Are you okay Mummy”

“Yes, my darling”, Joshua starts to rub his eyes. “Let’s get you guys ready for bed”.

It doesn’t take long before all three children are fast asleep, Joshua on the top bunk, Rosie and Harry snuggled together on the double bottom bunk. Penelope has found her favourite spot in the living room again. Feeling tired from the long day I too lay down to rest my eyes for a bit, however, I must have been more tired than I realised as when I awoke the warm sun was beaming through the bedroom window onto my face.

*

The next few days go by too fast. We visited Newquay Zoo, Joshua held hands with Harry and helped him find the tigers that were camouflaged into their surroundings, watching him interact with his little brother I realise how grown up Joshua is now, he pulled faces at the monkeys to make Harry and Rosie laugh and we spent about half an hour watching the penguins sliding down their rocks into the pool. Penguins are my favourite animals; I love how the male penguin will walk up and down the beach searching for a perfect pebble to present to the one he loves, and they will mate for life.

We had lots of picnics on the beach made up from the delicious food we bought from Applejacks, built sandcastles with huge moats surrounding them and the children thought it would be fun to bury my legs under the sand to make me look like a mermaid. Hearing their happy carefree laughs and seeing their beautiful smiling faces has been exactly what I needed to start to heal.

We all tried bodyboarding, which was hilarious, especially when I had to squish myself into a wetsuit after eating far too many cream teas, but no one makes them better than the Cornish, I couldn’t help myself.

We also visited Tintagel to view the Camelot Castle ruins, walking high up on the cliffs you can see for miles and the views were amazing, the old walls had tiny spaces that looked like windows for elves, the children stuff their faces in and posed for photos. Looking out to sea, there’s a cliff side that looks as though there is a giants face carved into the side of it. And at the very top we had our photo taken with a statue of King Arthur. After climbing down the oldest, most rickety wooden stairs we eventually arrived at the beach and discovered Merlin’s cave. This was definitely my favourite part of the holiday. The cave felt ethereal, I sat there for a while feeling at peace while the children shouted “Hello” and waited for their echoes to reply. I can’t believe we have to go back to normality tomorrow, but right now I’m going to soak up all these lovely memories.

Penelope is running in and out of the sea, she’s made friends with another labrador who looks just like her, jet black and lanky legs. The other dog’s owner and I have laughed together multiple times watching our fur babies enjoying themselves. The people here seem much more friendly than those back up in Suffolk, every day someone has said ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ to us as they walk past, they even know us by name at the AppleJacks store now. I feel really comfortable here, no more judgy mum’s sending evil glares over to me, just happy kind people who genuinely want you to have a good day. We’ve tried and tested as many Cornish pasties as we possibly could and ate way too much ice cream, but we have had the most incredible time here and made some beautiful memories.

*

The children are fast asleep not long after we arrive back at the cottage and I’ve finished re packing their suitcases, I write a quick note to the homeowner:

‘We have had the most wonderful time staying in your beautiful cottage, thank you so much for our gift basket, We hope to stay again soon. Alice, Joshua, Rosie, Harry and Penelope xx’

I leave the note on the kitchen side next to the now empty basket. I settle into bed for our last night here, wishing that we could stay.