Watching my family at close quarters on holiday took me back to when I was a kid.
Bobby Darin crooning with the girls over the camper-van stereo and the kids in bed reluctantly but smiling. And you're sitting there on the couch with the table jamming your legs, wondering if we're actually going to play cards before you're too tired. I've been trying to tell you about how good these holidays are and now you see and you talk about the boat ones and the places and the walking. But the text messages keep coming in, asking if it's hell in there with three kids and are you still getting the odd coffee? Why did we bring that? We should just stop for a bit while it's all so good. The kids found those other kids today. The kids they'll only know for a few fast days but will talk about for the rest of their lives. Nobody will ever understand how good it was no matter how they explain it. The sand on their feet got tramped into the van but that was OK. It was golden sand with ground-up shell in it. It was between their toes, in their clothes and hair, under their nails. They didn't care so why should we? The cloud out over the sea lifted long enough to show land on the horizon. 'Is that where we were today?' they ask. I say I think so but I'm not sure. It could be an island or the other land across the sea. It could be Nirvana. It could be Valhalla. It isn't heaven. It's the wrong sort of cloud. It was gone in the cloud again. It might be gone altogether. We can't be sure.
Bobby Darin sings about a lazy river over and over again and two kids are breathing earnestly in sleep while one wants to read until the morning like an adult would. Talk under night-lights like an adult would. Be awake in the beauty of a night away from home like an adult would. Last chapter darling. There'll be other nights like this. You'll make sure there are now you've had one. You'll look for the places, the moments, the days that lead to them but they'll never be quiet like this one again. That's the way it is and the way it has to be I guess. It's what made tonight so good. It's what made today so great. Ask your mum. Ask me. I can see that day of mine in your eyes and you helped me remember it again. My god it was good. Shall we try again tomorrow? Just incase someone changed the rules.
Let this coming of age story of a boy named Bean take you back to a simple time. Set in a small southern town in the 1960's, encircled by a river and gleaming white cotton fields.
It's almost Christmas. Lynn Basil is writing her last book about a secret entrance into the magical doll land of Sha Bebe that she loves so much. Bagannos have taken over the world! Lynn finally meets her dolls in real life. Can she write in a Secret
