Gone With the Penguins by Hazel Prior

Author:Hazel Prior [Prior, Hazel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Humorous, General, Women, Friendship, Animals, Nature & the Environment
ISBN: 9781529917451
Google: QgLpEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2024-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

27

Eileen

Bolder Island

DOUG SAYS HE never believed I’d get all this way. But I did.

‘I was sick on the plane,’ I admit as we FaceTime. ‘Just as I always am. I survived, though (thank you, dear pills!), and during the flight I even looked out of the window at the clouds this time. Fiona from choir talks about feeling the fear and doing it anyway and says that’s true courage, so I do feel chuffed that I’ve managed it.’

‘Good,’ Doug says. ‘Good for you.’ His face looks different to how it normally looks, and I wonder if it’s the fact he’s proud of me or just because the image on the phone is blurry.

‘So here I am! Look.’ I angle the phone so he can see. ‘This is the view from our – Daisy’s and my – bedroom at the lodge on Bolder Island. And can you see the sea in the distance?’

He says he can. ‘But we have sea here in Scotland,’ he adds.

‘That’s very true, Doug,’ I answer. ‘And come to think of it, the coast here isn’t that different from Ayrshire. All ragged and rugged and cliffy but with plenty of sandy beaches, too, and nobody on them. But there you’re in autumn and here we’re in springtime. Lovely bright, breezy mornings and nature doing its thing. Lots of the birds are sitting on eggs. But otherwise it’s really quite like Scotland. Only with penguins.’

‘Just as well you have the penguins,’ he says, implying it would be silly travelling all that way otherwise; maybe that it’s silly anyway. He can think what he likes, though. I’m the one who’s here and I like it, far more than I thought I would.

I should ask him all about life at home and the oatcakes but I’m so excited about the penguins that I don’t.

‘So many different penguins, too. Not just your plain black-and-white, but the ones with big orange feet and little white bonnets (they’re the Gentoos) and the ones with yellow tufts behind their ears (they’re the rockhoppers and Macaronis) and the ones with a band of black round the belly and a pink patch round the eyes (they’re the Magellanics) and the ones with egg-yolk yellow on their cheeks and chests (they’re the Kings).’ Doug’s eyes are glazing over. ‘I’m not showing off,’ I tell him, ‘but I’ve learned it all recently and it’s good for me to keep repeating it because Mrs McCreedy gets cross if I muddle which is which. She’s very particular about penguins.’

‘She’s very particular about everything.’

‘Haha, yes, I suppose so. I had no idea how to pronounce “Magellanic” when I read it in the guidebook but she told me it’s “maj”, like “majestic”.’

‘Talking of which, how is Her Majesty?’

He thinks he’s being funny, calling Mrs McCreedy that. I don’t laugh. ‘She’s doing marvellously well. All that walking and travelling doesn’t seem to have worn her out at all. I’ve never known anyone so driven about anything. There’s that gleam in her eye, too, and I know she’s looking forward to being made Penguin Ambassador, even though she might grumble.

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