Page 25 of A Doctor's Promise
Finn placed the order and added a juice for Anna. He took the juice out to the girls who were playing a game of eye spy with Archie at their feet.
“Edie, Mary isn’t doing great today, are you okay for a moment here?” Finn whispered.
Anna was busy trying to name things beginning with S and wasn’t interested in what the grown-ups were talking about, thankfully.
“Yes, of course,” Edie replied, trying to see in the window at Mary. “I’ll finish up here and we’ll head down to the sand. Come and meet us when you’re ready.”
“SAND,” Anna shouted, startling Edie back to the game they were playing.
“Yes, Anna, well done. Sand,” she said, trying to focus once again on the young girl and not her poorly mother. “Your go.”
Anna tugged at Edie’s sleeve instead.
“I want to go to the beach. Can we go to the beach?”
“Yes, of course, Anna,” Edie said, trying to block Anna’s view inside the cafe. “Finish up your juice and we can go and build a sand castle, how does that sound?”
“Don’t want juice anymore,” Anna said, throwing her carton on the floor and sending the orange juice flying accidentally into Edie’s face.
Edie felt it dripping from her hair to her forehead, cold and thick. Anna’s face looked half like it was going to burst out laughing, the other half on the verge of tears. Edie took a deep breath and stuck out her tongue to catch the drips.
“Yep,” she said grimacing. “I can see why you don’t want any more juice.”
They both looked at each other for a split second before bursting out laughing. Edie felt so happy, she hadn’t belly laughed for such a long time. It was so refreshing.
“I’ll race you to the sand,” Edie said, still laughing. “Last one there is a rotten egg.”
Anna squealed again and pushed herself out of her chair, running towards the ramp to the beach. Edie jumped up and chased after her, laughing and growling like a pretend tiger, while Archie bounded forwards towards the young girl. She let Anna reach the beach first, watching as she dived into the soft sand head-first, as Archie wagged his tail so hard his bottom was flying backwards and forwards too.
“You’re a stinky rotten egg,” Anna laughed, sticking her tongue out at Edie and getting a mouth full of gritty sand. “Blurgh, yucky.”
Edie helped Anna up and brushed her down the best she could with her bare hands.
“You’re too quick for me,” she said, taking Anna’s hand and leading her to a quiet patch of sand so they could sit and build a castle. “Where’s Monty the Bear today?”
Edie started to pile up the sand, digging down deep until it felt cool under her fingers, and stacking it in the middle to form the castle mound. Anna watched her work, gently stroking Archie’s ears, then joined in.
“He doesn’t like the sand, it gets stuck in his fur,” Anna said with a very serious face. “Then mum has to put him in the washing machine, and I can’t have him until he’s all dry, which is normally ages and he can’t come in my bed with me when he’s drying. He’s at home looking after the rest of the teddies, he’s good at that.”
“I’m sure he is,” Edie said.
She stopped digging and looked at the girl. Anna was concentrating on digging the moat now, deep and even. Her little tongue stuck out of her mouth as she focussed on not letting the sand fall back down the ditch she was digging. An endless task, but one that Anna seemed happy to do. Edie felt a pang of emotion at how this little girl would cope if her mum didn’t make it. Edie knew that there were many, many amazing people who would foster children, and adopt them long term. But this wasnow, and this was Edie, and the young girl was right in front of her. She knew then that she would do everything in her power to make Anna okay, even if it was just the hormones talking.
“Are you okay, Edie?” Anna asked, looking up at Edie with rumpled eyebrows. “Your eyes are all watery.”
Edie rubbed at her eyes with her sleeve, not wanting to get them all sandy with her hands.
“Yes, lovely Anna,” she said, smiling. “Just a little bit of beach in them, that’s all. Now, how are we going to build the actual castle on top of this amazing mound and moat without a bucket?”
“We NEED a bucket,” Anna cried, standing up and pointing at the little shop attached to the cafe where her mum and Finn were still sitting. “Let’s go and get a bucket. I’ve got my pocket money in my purse, mummy gave it to me before we left, in case I wanted an ice-cream. But I think we should go and buy the biggest castle bucket they have so we can make the best castle and my mummy will love it and be extra specially proud of me.”
Edie laughed at the stream of words coming from Anna. The little girl talked just as Edie imagined she would herself if she could let her own stream of thoughts do the talking. There was no filter, no inner voice telling her to stop talking. It was just exactly what she was thinking.
“Come on, then, let’s see what we can find,” Edie said, brushing the sand from her legs. “We can keep an eye on our moat from the shop.”
The sun was high in the sky now, and Edie felt quite warm beneath her summer dress. She pulled her straw hat from her bag and put it on, immediately feeling the shade it provided.
Anna contemplated Edie’s new headwear. Feeling the edges of her own cap as she did so.
