‘Thanks, I’ll sleep easier now.’ She drove up the stone ramp and parked on the wharf. There was smoke coming from the chimney on one of the cottages but there was no sign of anyone about.
They got out of the car and Will was immediately overawed by the stillness, the clean feel of the air out there, the quiet. It was as if she’d spirited him away into another dimension. The town, the university, they weren’t just a few miles away, they’d disappeared altogether, taking the rest of the world with them.
He looked down at the makeshift road they’d just come across, at the couple of small boats toppled over on their keels in the sand. There were a couple of gulls floating about above them but even they were silent, like they could sense that nothing here was meant to shatter the peace.
He heard the boot shut and turned to see Lorna standing expectantly. Her face was so pale it was almost lost in the sunlight, and he wondered if he looked the same, two figures almost slipping out of reality, blurring like ghosts. Anything seemed possible in a place like this.
‘What shall I carry?’
She looked at the things on the ground and said, ‘If you don’t mind carrying my bag and the sketch pad - that way, I can take pictures as we’re walking.’
‘Okay.’ He picked up the small black doctor’s bag and the sketch pad and followed her onto the narrow path that led away from the cottages and across the dunes.
She turned a couple of times as they were walking and took pictures of him and he smiled each time, not for the picture but because he couldn’t help it. They reached the high-point and she stopped, waiting for Will to come and stand with her.
The sea was far from the shore but blue and flat. The point stretched away to either side of them, the lighthouse far off to their left, the estuary behind them. And even now that he could see the geography of the place and knew where they were, it still felt like they’d been left behind by the world, lost in their own space.
She didn’t say anything, just walked on further down the path into the dunes, closer to the beach. Finally she stopped and said, ‘This looks good.’ He stopped too and nodded agreement, looking around. ‘You can put the things down.’
‘Oh, right.’ He put the things down, still unsure what to do next.
‘This is it. Explore. Walk on the beach. Do whatever.’ She held up her camera. ‘I’ll be taking pictures. Just give me a call if you need me.’
He nodded again and said, ‘Thanks for bringing me.’
‘You’re welcome,’ she said, still sounding like she couldn’t quite work him out.
He walked down onto the beach and out onto the flats left by the receding tide. He headed for the sea but didn’t get far before the sand beneath his feet was too waterlogged to feel safe. He was still far enough out that when he turned, the dunes of the point were reduced to a narrow strip of green. He couldn’t see Lorna.
He faced out to sea. He liked being out there, feeling lost on the surface of the world, the blue sky vaulted, the sea running away to the gentle curve of the horizon. He liked the feeling of being reduced back to scale, in a place where it no longer mattered who he was, only a thin strip of green and a lighthouse to guide him home.
Walking back, he’d almost reached the beach when he saw Lorna, coming up over the top of one of the dunes. She pointed the camera at him and, he guessed, took a picture. She waited for him then.
‘This is the most amazing place. How often do you come here?’
‘I don’t know. Every couple of weeks maybe. I was high out here once - that was pretty wild.’ She looked around. ‘It’s probably better with a clear head though.’
He’d always assumed she was into drugs, the whole look of her.
‘Marijuana?’
She smiled, because he’d called it marijuana which he supposed was a really square thing to call it.
‘I don’t smoke. Actually, it was acid.’
‘Oh.’ He’d never taken anything like that, had always been scared to, a fear that seemed ludicrous all of a sudden. In fact, if she’d had some with her he’d have probably taken it now, anything to help fix the memory of this day forever. ‘Do you have any with you now?’
She laughed and said, ‘Like you’d take it if I did!’ He obviously looked stung or disappointed because she added, ‘Look, as it happens I might have some mushrooms left in my bag, but you are clearly in one seriously strange mood today, or else you’re just strange, and either way, you should think whether you really want to take something like that.’
‘Magic mushrooms?’
She looked amazed and said, ‘No, chanterelle mushrooms; I always like to keep some handy.’
‘Let me take them.’
As if she hadn’t heard him right she said, ‘You want to take mushrooms?’
‘Yes I do.’