Page 23 - My Home on the Earth

pages, noting where they were taken. She felt disappointed as she turned the last page over. ‘It isn’t here.’
Alice breathed a sigh of relief and took the album back indoors. The photograph Cara referred to was destroyed a long time ago. It was taken in 2014 on a beautiful warm July evening in Nestonbrook. Three young boys sat giggling on the bridge because one, her grandson Robin, had fallen whilst paddling in the water below. Recalling those events made her heart beat so loudly she half-expected her chest would explode. Then the hairs on her arms stood up and she shuddered. Memories of Robin came flooding back. She was stuck for words and didn’t know what to say to Cara.
Although much older, but with the same hairstyle, Cara was convinced it was the same boy in the picture. When Alice returned, she said: ‘But if it was the same boy, doesn’t it seem odd for him to be wandering around Rauston Quay alone?’ After a pause, she added: ‘I suppose he could be on holiday with his family.’
‘Look at the time,’ said Alice glancing at her watch. ‘I bet you’re hungry.’ She turned to go indoors and thought back to the exact moment when Cara was told of Robin’s death. She’d wept for days and Alice had done her utmost to support her. There was no way she could tell her granddaughter who she thought the boy in the shabby clothes might be.
Alice felt terrible as she prepared their lunch, and watched her granddaughter sitting in the sunshine. How can this happen? she thought to herself. It’s the last thing
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