Catherine Miller - The Gin Shack on the Beach

‘Good.’ Olive was relieved to think no one else would know about her hobby. Especially as it might be a while before she braved a dip again.

‘It is good.’ The sound of Richard’s voice saw everyone turn their heads in his direction. ‘Because we don’t need you carrying on like that any more.’

Olive wondered where the royal “we” came in. They were her friends, not his. It was him who didn’t want her carrying on. ‘Good morning, Richard. Perhaps we can start off on a better foot now I have my clothes on.’

Skylar stifled a snigger, and catching a glimpse of her out the corner of her eye made Olive smile too broadly, considering she was trying to be serious.

‘Good morning, Mother. Is everything packed up? Do we need to do anything or are you ready?’

‘Yes, everything from the house is packed up. You’ll need to go through some stuff to see if you want it, but I’m sure house removals can deal with the rest of that.’ Richard’s visit was for the purpose of moving her into the Oakley West Retirement Quarters. It was a very odd concept to be moving an entire lifetime of memories from a four-bedroom house to a single room. But it turned out Olive wasn’t very attached to the past. It hadn’t been very nice to her all told, so she was more than happy to say goodbye to half the rubbish that had gathered over the years. The only piece of furniture she was attached to was the ottoman and that was safe here at her beach hut. At least she hoped so.

‘What about the beach hut? Is that all packed up?’ Richard asked.

The silence that followed was electric. It drew all the beach-hut residents to the conversation like atoms drawn to a charge.

‘I’m not packing up the beach hut because I’m not leaving.’ Olive’s voice sounded stronger than she felt.

Richard sighed in a way that might have caused smoke to puff from his nostrils if he’d been another species. ‘We talked about this.’

‘No. We never talked. You told me how it was going to be and expected me to agree to everything.’

‘Yes, because it’s in your best interest.’

‘Sandwich?’ Tony grabbed a platter from the table and offered them to Richard. ‘This lot have brown sauce. The better choice if you ask me, but there’s Tommy K as well if you prefer.’ Tony waved the plate a little as if he was trying to tempt Button, not that the dog needed much tempting. ‘They’re your mother’s speciality. Take a seat and have a sandwich and maybe I can introduce everyone.’

Olive was very appreciative of Tony’s actions. He was doing his best to disperse the charge gathering around them.

‘My apologies. I didn’t mean to come across so brashly, but as you’ve been discussing, I’ve had a bit of a shock this morning and I’m more than a little concerned for my mother’s welfare.’

‘Have a sandwich? Guaranteed to make you feel better.’ Tony waved the plate in Richard’s direction again.

At long last Richard took a sandwich and found a seat next to Skylar.

‘While you eat that, let me introduce everyone.’ Tony went round the entire group naming each individual and filling Richard in on which beach hut belonged to whom. ‘And the thing is, Olive is part of our gang. We’re a community, it wouldn’t be the same without her.’

Richard nodded and the cogs of his thinking process were almost visible. ‘I appreciate that you’re all friends with my mum, and I don’t want you to think I’m an overly interfering relative, but my concerns aren’t for when other people are here. It’s the fact she comes here before the crack of dawn with only crabs and winkles for company. However much I don’t want to say it, it needs pointing out that she’s not the spring chicken she thinks she is. This morning proves she’s taking too many risks. I’d be an irresponsible son if I didn’t do everything I could to ensure her safety.’

Having given his reasoned argument in typical lawyer style, Richard helped himself to another sandwich. For a moment, Olive saw the words sinking in with her friends and the thought he might be right was a scary one. She didn’t want to think she might be losing part of her identity by growing old. She didn’t think age should define a person and she wasn’t about to let it if she had her way.

‘It was a bit risky,’ Skylar said, reluctance evident in the quietness of her words.

‘Walking down the road is risky,’ Paul piped up. ‘At least Olive is doing something she enjoys.’

‘I know. Life is full of risk and it’s all relative, but I don’t want to be the one who gets the phone call telling him his mother has drowned.’

‘Look…’ There was a fire lighting in Olive’s belly and she needed to let it out. ‘I am here, you know, and don’t you think, as I’m nearer to death than any of the rest of you, that I should be the one who says how I spend my last years. And it might be the most selfish thing in all the world, but I think the idea of the ocean swallowing me up sounds rather delicious. I’m not going to let the risks of everyday life stop me from coming to the place I love.’

‘She’s got a point,’ TJ, Tony and Esme’s eldest son, said. ‘That would be way cooler than being run over by a bus.’

‘TJ…’ Esme chastised her son. ‘We don’t want anyone dying and we certainly don’t want Olive to lose her beach hut. There must be a way of making sure you’re both happy.’

‘I can look after myself, you know. I’ve only agreed to move into Oakley West so I can be lazy for a change. Not because I need supervising through every step of life. I’m perfectly able to look after myself while I’m here.’

‘She does a good job of looking after the rest of us as well,’ Tony said, raising a sandwich as proof.

‘My concern is the day you trip at five-thirty in the morning and not a soul finds you for another couple of hours.’

‘At least someone would find me. That wouldn’t happen if I stayed at home all day wrapped in a bubble like you’d prefer me to.’ She would chain herself to the beach hut if it came to it.

‘But that’s the whole point. The reason you’re moving to Oakley West is so that never happens. There’s always the staff there looking after you. They’re not going to be able to have someone with you all hours of the day while you’re swanning off to the beach. It defeats the point of your moving there in the first place.’

‘I haven’t moved there yet. I can soon change my mind if it means giving up every aspect of my life. That wasn’t my intention when I agreed to it.’

‘Hang on. Let’s not be hasty. All I want, Mum, is for you to stick to reasonable hours of the day. There are lots of activities to be joining in with at Oakley West. I won’t force you to leave your beach hut, but I will ask you to stick to coming here when you know some of your friends are around. And as we’re paying large sums of money for you to be at Oakley West, it seems only fair that you give their activity timetable a shot.’

Olive wondered if it was some kind of military workshop she was being signed up to. Wasn’t this move meant to be relaxing? She was much happier with her own company most of the time. It was why five-thirty in the morning had such an appeal.

‘That sounds reasonable,’ Esme said. ‘That way we’ll still see you and Richard’s mind will be at rest knowing there’s always someone here looking out for you.’

It wasn’t perfect. It was far from it, really. Olive didn’t want her freedom taken away, but then what Richard didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. ‘Okay,’ Olive said, knowing that at least if the beach hut was still hers, she would find a way to visit alone.

Chapter Three

Olive had already seen the room she was destined to move into. When she’d visited, it had reminded her of a bed and breakfast: quaint in its own way, but it would take some time for her to call it home. Even with her bags now here and mostly unpacked it didn’t take away from the fact it felt like a temporary stopping gap. There was no escaping the sense it was a hotel room and she was on holiday for a week. It probably wasn’t helped by the fact that Oakley West had once been a thriving hotel. The whole place had a very art deco feel to the interiors and was grand enough to be classed as five-star living. The building itself was rectangular with a turret on each corner of the building making it look like a miniature castle. Inside it was all high ceilings and every room was much larger and more imposing than it needed to be. It wasn’t exactly homely.