“Friend of ours. Lives near Gatwick, but I know her and her husband by way of climbing”

“Ah! Peak? Lakes? Snowdonia?”

“Peak and Eryri. They’re mates of Penny and Keith”

Al nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, we assumed you’d end up heading that way. Anyway, Jimmy’s basically doing tonight in return for a few pints and a place to kip. I suspect he’s fully aware of…”

He stared at Maz for a few seconds, then put his tea down.

“Maryam, this is awkward. I don’t mean the old history stuff, for we have had a very long time to move on, after. What I mean is, well, you and the child. Neither of us knows how to talk about those things, if we should, if you’d want to, so if we put our feet in it, please let us know”

My wife hugged our daughter after thanking Alan for his kindness, and LC spoke up, for once.

“Mum?”

“Yes, love?”

“Is everybody here our friends now? Nobody was before”

Audrey shuffled across to kneel by the girl.

“We are all your Dad’s friends, love, so we should be yours too”

“Dad said he had friends who had lots of mountains”

“He does. Some of them are our friends too. Mike?”

“Yup?”

“Can I assume you’ll be spending a lot of time with Penny and Keith?”

Ish was nodding and smiling, so I squeezed my wife’s hand, which was an easy thing to do as I was trying my best never to let go of it if possible.

“Well, plan is a bit long-winded, but here goes. I have a duty in Stopsley, where I have some people to introduce, as you know. Once we’re done there, it’ll be over to Suffolk. Boy wants to see Dunwich again, and, well, there’s a treat there for Maz”

My wife looked up sharply.

“What sort of treat?”

There was a way in which she pronounced that last word that worried me, but not now. Another squeeze of her hand.

“I haven’t really given you a route yet, have I? Anyway… Ish can explain Dunwich to you, but it sits right next to Minsmere, which is an important reserve for the Royal Society for Protection of Birds. Ish?”

“Dad?”

“Those parcels in the back of the car? What I got in Singapore?”

“Right!”

I tossed him the keys, and he left the room, as I turned to smile at my wife, something I had missed more than I had ever realised.

“From there we go up the East coast, ish, with a stop in Norfolk for more birds on the Broads, then York, Durham, and then one of Maz’s bucket list things”

Her voice was hesitant.

“The Wall?”

“Yes, love. Exactly that. There’s loads more I wanted to do, like the Lakes, and Scotland, but we’ve got other appointments. Last one’s in Cardiff with Di and her friends”

Shit: she was weeping. I went to wipe the tears away, but she just waved a hand at me and shook her head.

“Sorry, my friends. Memories. ‘Treat’, that was a word they used a lot. It meant a beating. That’s said: no more about it, please. You have to… We were in a pit. Both of us had been gagged and blindfolded, our hands and feet tied, so when the hatch was opened, all we had was a hint of light, and the sound, and then someone threatened to shoot us. I was…”

She pulled our daughter to her.

“They snatched her, and pulled off her gag first, and I remember she screamed, and I thought ‘This is it, finally’, but then they untied me, and they were soldiers. I got to the top of a ladder, and there were soldiers everywhere, and this woman, she had a face so hard, so angry, and I couldn’t see our girl, and then…”

She paused for a few seconds, breathing deeply, before continuing.

“I was in a panic, and then I saw a face, one I recognised, and it was a friend, Bobby, and that was when I realised, and suddenly there was my man. I think a couple of the soldiers tried to keep him back”

I found myself laughing at that particular memory.

“They did, love. Was never going to happen”

“I saw, love. Never again”

“Never, love. Auds, Di was one of the coppers that found her. There’s a whole team of them, in Cardiff, and one of them is a friend of Enfys, Keith and Penny’s daughter. That’s why we are saving the Lakes and Scotland for another visit: we’ll be in Snowdonia for a while, then South Wales, and we… Carolyn?”

“Yes?”

“In both places we have so many friends I can’t count them. Do you remember Diane?”

“Was she the lady who gave me sweets? On the aeroplane to Australia?”

Ish was back, and called across to his sister, “Yes, that’s her”, before handing me the parcels he had collected from the car. I left them on the coffee table, and smiled at my wife once more.

“Neil will be in North Wales, love, but he also knows the Roman Wall, so he will meet us there first to show us about. In the meantime, as we are off to Minsmere, I bought you these, and this package is for you, Carolyn”

Carolyn watched her mother ripping off paper before remembering how parcels worked, and in short order each was holding a pair of binoculars, LC’s being rather smaller and simpler. I received a kiss from my wife, and a puzzled look from our daughter. Ah, well.

“I suspect there’s something being plotted, because everyone kept asking about the end of August. That will be revealed when they’re ready, I suppose”

Alan looked at his own wife before speaking.

“Camping kit?”

“Been lent a load by friends near Gatwick, and got a load of outdoor stuff in Crawley. About as sorted as we can be”

“Right. I suppose we should therefore start getting ready for the club, then! We’ll have a meal there early doors, and then it’s Jimmy”

“Mum?”

“Yes, love?”

“Can I wear my new dress?”

“Of course”

That evening, Jimmy was exactly as I had expected, and Carolyn as entranced as she had been at the Woodruffs’, but she was asleep by the time the evening ended. Ish was the one to carry her home

“Hello, you. I have brought some new friends to meet you. This is my wife Maryam, and our daughter Carolyn. She was named in your memory, my love”

I didn’t normally speak to her grave so directly, but that day it felt absolutely right to do so. We were in a larger group as well, for half of both of our old clubs had turned out to share the day. We had a number of small plants to set by the headstone, as well as a continuous and copious supply of hugs from so many friends I hadn’t seen for far too long. In the end, though, we had to get rolling. I had decided to take a more northerly route than I usually did, to avoid motorways as much as possible, and so set off up the A505 towards Royston and Cambridge, as it led straight from Stopsley and avoided the centre of That Place, so it was a mixture of urban and rural driving for me.

My family sat silently most of the time, still slightly worn from the previous evening and, to be honest, a little hungover. Auds and Alan had felt the need to ensure as many people as possible got their chance to say hello, and as each of them felt the need to bring a bottle or more of alcohol, it had become hard work. I chose the more complicated route out of necessity, so as not to risk falling asleep.

Ish was tapping away on his tablet, of course, as Carolyn dozed against Maz in the back seat, when my boy went “Ooh, Dad!”

“What, son?”

“Imperial War Museum ahead!”

“Duxford. I know”

“Yes, Dad, but one of the exhibits--- could we please stop? This could be important for Mum”

I was intrigued, to say the least, as Ish hadn’t been one for Big Boys’ Toys like tanks and jets as a kid, but agreed to stump up the entrance fee, which wasn’t that cheap. The place had a café, of course, so we took a breather there and I went to gather drinks and snacks while Ish talked his Mum through whatever he had discovered. I was just paying for our mini-feast when I heard her yelp, in an absolutely Aussie way, “You beauty, son!”

When I set the tray down at our table, Maz was beaming, almost pushing the screen into my face.

“Our clever, clever boy, love! See what he found?”

The site was that of the museum, with a list of its exhibits, which were mostly aircraft, each with a sort of mini-biography attached. The one Maz had open was of some antique airliner, and I couldn’t see what had her so excited, until she paused, told herself “Calm down, Mrs Rhodes”, and began slowly explaining, as if forcing herself to avoid exploding.

“This aeroplane… When Alan’s Dad flew out to Singapore, it was in this plane. And you can go aboard it”

I started to ask how many such planes were left, and she cut me off abruptly.

“No, love: from what the old man told Alan, and he was very, very meticulous in what he recorded, this isn’t the type of plane he flew out on, but THE plane. The actual aircraft. How wonderful is that?”

My son is a genius sometimes.

We spent too much time wandering around the exhibits for Carolyn, but there was a playground, something else she had never encountered, and my son the generous genius volunteered to stay with the girl while Maz and I explored the four-prop airliner. Maz was snapping away with my camera, but surprised me by opening one of the toilets and taking several shots.

“Alan’s Dad told him he was airsick for the whole flight. This was where he was too much of the time”

Suddenly, she was wrapped around me, almost stopping my breathing.

“I feel like Kul, now, my love. He spent all that time telling the office what you were like, before we met, and the office, we all wondered how you would match up, and you did, more than I could have hoped… When that woman asked about the cutting, Carolyn… I said it to Suleiman and the others: touch my girl, and either me or you would find them and kill them. When Carolyn would ask why we spoke English, why she had to learn, I always told her it was because you would be coming for us, that she needed to be able to talk to her father, because you would never give up”

I squeezed her back, my guilt almost unbearable, because I had indeed given up on her, and she spoke again, clearly reading my mind.

“No, love. Coming to terms is not giving up. All you needed was a way, and I need to find a way of thanking Neil that won’t terrify him. Now, a few more photos, and then we gather our offspring”

We finally crossed the high bridge at Ipswich before switching to smaller roads as we approached Dunwich, Ish explaining its history with its Great Storm while, thankfully, avoiding tales of tumbling coffins or non-Euclidean geometry, with or without added tentacles. I had booked us two nights in a cottage not far from the beach and within a very short walk of another facility of some importance, which was the Ship, which might have been, you know, a pub. That sold Adnam’s.

I mean, I had been away from decent ale in Australia, Maz had been without her whole life, and the lad was now legal, so there was a need they could fill. As we awaited our starters in the Ship that evening, I handed Maz the present Steph had slipped to me as we had left Charlwood: the Collins guide to British birds, and I am almost certain I got a slightly miffed look from our daughter, as her own present count was a little behind. The meal was lovely, and the ale slipped down nicely, but it was soon a little girl’s bed time. I had slipped Ish the wink as we had finished our desserts, and he had himself slipped away on a ‘loo break’, returning a little out of breath but with a grin that announced ‘job done’. I looked at the other two with a smile

“Long day out tomorrow, people. Out past the graveyard for Ish, then through the woods to a car park. Down onto the beach and then the back gate to Minsmere. Be about five miles of walking, all told, but it’s almost all flat”

I checked all drinks were finished, paid the tab, and led the way from the pub back to our little cottage, where I ostentatiously wished the younger two good night. Our peace was shattered thirty seconds later when Carolyn reappeared, clutching her two new presents, her gaze flicking from her mother to myself and back again so I held out a hand.

“Shall I show you how it fastens, love?”

It was something Auds had spotted, and the idea had tickled me: a teddy bear, and a miniature ‘rucksack child carrier’ for it. Caro was nodding, entranced, so I simply talked her through the straps before asking what her bear was called.

“Don’t know!”

Maz waved for her to come closer, so she could see the rig more clearly, and simply said, “If you sleep together the bear might whisper their name to you”