Day Trippers by Grace Thompson

Author:Grace Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

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The day of the beauty contest was dry but overcast, with a breeze blowing in across the sea and making people add a warm cardigan on top of their summer dresses. The contestants were disappointed: having to parade in a bathing costume would be much less fun in a chilly breeze.

It was the last weekend in August. The town was filled with holidaymakers and hundreds of day trippers making the most of their final fling. As the season came to a close, crocheted hats with floppy brims appeared, many made with matching handbags. Rather than the usual jackets carried over the arms of many trippers, people no longer felt confident to travel away from home without the precautionary addition of a coat or mac. The freedom of summer was already receding. Men put on the sleeveless Fairisle pullovers their wives had knitted, and trilby hats reappeared after their brief summer hibernation. But on that day, the weather made no difference. A beauty contest was drawing the crowds. A walkway was set up near the swingboats, roundabouts and stalls. People began arriving hours before the proposed start, to be sure of a seat with a good view. The sand around the walkway was soon filled with people pressing up closer and closer, mothers keeping a watchful eye on their broods as the concentration of bustling people made it easy to lose sight of the lively, excited children.

The tide was ebbing and the semicircle of people around the walkway became deeper as more sand was exposed. It dried quickly in the breeze and a reluctant sun, and was immediately colonised by the continuous flow of families unpacking buckets and spades, windmills, towels, sunhats and parasols, struggling for room to spread, then good-naturedly squeezing up to accommodate yet more arrivals.

Shirley had taken a taxi to the beach. It would be something to tell Freddy when she wrote. Others probably had the same thought, as it was difficult sometimes to find news to fill the pages.

She thought of Alice then. She would probably tell her father but Shirley doubted whether he would understand. She had visited the hospital once with Alice and was saddened by the emptiness of the man’s life, but impressed with Alice’s determination to reach him through the vacant expression and the uncanny silence. Alice insisted that while there was a chance he might understand she would continue to tell him about her day-to-day activities. Shirley sent a message to the sweet shop, telling Alice where she was and asking her to join her when she was free.

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