‘Wake up. Wake up’ Harry’s face peered round Charlotte’s bedroom door. ‘Time to go to the beach and find those other children’.
‘Harry!’ Charlotte was not at all pleased. ‘It’s only 6.30 a.m. go back to bed’ and she turned her back on him. Harry though was not easily put off. ‘By the time you get ready and have breakfast it will be quite late, and...’ but Charlotte had thrown a pillow at him, and never heard the end of his sentence as Uncle shouted ‘What is going on there?’
‘Nothing Uncle, I was just talking to Charlotte’.
‘Well if you are that wide awake you can get ready then help me prepare breakfast’. It was Aunty’s voice.
Charlotte giggled ‘Serve him right’ she thought, then immediately she felt ashamed as she was as keen as her brother to find the children. She turned and looked out of the window, the sun was already dancing on the waves with a joy that seemed to say ‘Come on, get out of bed and join the fun’. Charlotte couldn’t resist the call and, jumping out of bed, she dashed to the bathroom to shower.
During breakfast Uncle asked ‘Have you started thinking about your Millennium Project for school yet?’
Oh! Uncle, we’ve only been here three days.’ Harry was horrified at the very idea of thinking about school whilst on holiday. ‘There’s plenty of time yet’.
‘That may be’ continued his Uncle ‘but you need to go back to school with at least some idea of what you are going to do’.
Harry groaned ‘I’ve no idea at all what to do - have you?’ and he turned to Charlotte. Charlotte had to agree that she had no idea either! ‘I thought I would ask the Sunday School teacher on Sunday if she could think of anything’.
‘Good idea’ said Aunty ‘after all if Jesus hadn’t been born in Bethlehem all those years ago we wouldn’t be having a Millennium to celebrate would we?.
The children agreed. They knew that the calendar dated back to the birth of God’s Son, Jesus, 2,000 years ago.
‘Well keep thinking’ said Uncle as he rose from the table and began to get ready for work.
Charlotte and Harry cleared the table and helped with the dishes.
‘That’s everything finished’ Aunty said at last. ‘Off you go, I’ll see you at 12.30 for lunch, have a lovely morning and I hope you find the two children.’ Charlotte and Harry had told their Aunty and Uncle all about seeing the children and, as Harry had said, they hadn’t minded at all about the children going down the steps into their Cove.
‘It would be lovely for you to have other children to play with’ had been Uncle’s comment. ‘I hope you find them tomorrow’.
‘See you for lunch then’ the children called as they hurried out of the house and made for the beach.
‘Where shall we try first?’ Harry asked as they walked down the terrace steps on to the sand. ‘The beach or the cliff top?’
Charlotte thought for a moment ‘If we try the cliff top we’ll go by the stairs, they are easier to climb than the beach steps, but I think we should look in the caves first’.
So they made their way to the cave at the far end of the Cove, past the large boulders, through the warm pools and across the sands to the mouth of the first cave, but the cave was empty.
They went into the other caves - exactly the same, no sign of the children. Disappointed, they walked to the far end of the Cove to see if they could be there, just out of sight, but they weren’t. ‘Here, have some chocolate’ Charlotte handed Harry four squares of fruit and nut chocolate as they made their way back to the cave mouth.
‘We’ll give them a few minutes then we’ll go to the cliff top’ said Harry as they ate.
‘I hope we do see them’ Charlotte said as she popped the last piece of chocolate into her mouth.
‘We will. Ready then?’ asked Harry. ‘Let’s go’.
They walked back to the house looking all the time for the two children but by the time they reached the terrace steps there was still no sight of them.
‘We are going to the cliff top Aunty’ Charlotte called as they passed the kitchen door. ‘They weren’t on the beach or in the caves.’
‘Well if I see them on the beach I’ll bring them up to you, but don’t come back down by the beach steps or we could miss each other’ Aunty called as Harry and Charlotte made their way upstairs.
‘Thanks’ they called.
Up the twisting stairs they went until they reached the turret. Opening the second door they crossed the room, opened what was known as the ‘garden door’ and stepped out into the sunshine. It was another glorious day, but they scarcely noticed the sunshine or the flowers lining the path as they quickly walked down the garden, opened the gate, and walked out on to the grassy cliff top.
They stood, for a moment, looking rather uncertainly at the many paths. It was puzzling! Whichever one they chose the children could be down one of the others. ‘They could be down any of the paths’ Charlotte said. ‘We wouldn’t see them from here. Which one should be try?’
‘Well we can’t stand here all day thinking about it. We’ll try this one’ and Harry set off running down the nearest path.
‘Wait for me’ Charlotte shouted at her brother’s rapidly disappearing back, and sped after him. They ran and ran until they were out of breath. No-one!
‘They aren’t here’ Charlotte gasped as she fell down on to the grass and lay back.
Harry nodded. They could see that the end of the path ran to the cliff edge and there was no-one in sight.
‘Lots more paths though, we’ll try them all’ Harry said as he, too, lay down and then sneezed as a strand of grass tickled his nose.
Charlotte giggled ‘Come on, you’ll get hay fever if you poke your nose into the ground like that’ and she began to sit up. ‘We’ll try the path that goes off to the right of this one’ and she nudged her brother with her foot.
They tried the right hand path - no-one. They tried the left path - no-one.
‘Do you think they have gone into town today?’ Charlotte asked as they sat down once again to get their breath back.
‘No! Not a lovely day like this. Who would want to go round the shops when they have the cliffs and the sea and...’ Harry was horrified!
‘Some people like the shops’ and Charlotte laughed as her brother’s face was a picture of amazement at anyone preferring shopping to swimming and sunbathing and caving and everything else the coast had to offer.
It was getting hot now and they began to think longingly of the pools and the sea.
‘We’ll try one more path, and if they aren’t there then we’ll go down to the beach and try this afternoon’ Charlotte decided. So off they set again.
‘We’ll try this one’ Harry said when they again reached the fork in the path.
‘O.K.’ Charlotte agreed and they began to walk down yet another rutted yet beautiful path.
They paused to watch the rabbits and listen to the grasshoppers looking to see if they could catch one, but each time the grasshoppers were too quick. They were enjoying themselves but time was passing so they began to run.
They reached the place where the path began to twist and wind and as the children turned a corner they almost jumped into the air when two voices called “Hello”!
And there they were, sitting on a large boulder, the two children they had been looking for!
Elizabeth Aynsley 1995 ©