CHAPTER 36
A tern creak-calling above us, we made our way slowly back to shore, a little warmer in the shallower water, and while Warren walked straight out of the waves, Alys and I had to do the wriggling dance to get our fins off before we could follow. Sali called over to us as we approached the group.

“Saw you coming! Got cold ones for you—no, don’t look like that! Not beers, cokes. See anything?”

To my surprise, it was Warren who answered for the three of us.

“Three sting rays, some big fish none of us could give a name to, and an octopus”

Both Susans and Elen jerked upright at that, and Warren laughed as he popped his can of cold drink..

“No, not like that! Alys found it. Only about the size of my fist. Really cute, it was. I must get a snorkel, though. Kept having to pop up for air. Anyway, Alys says she knows where you can see turtles. I really fancy that. And they are going mountaineering as well!”

I held up my hands to slow him down.

“He’s right. Loads of big fish out there, but Alys wants to see more, and the mountain thing just has to be done”

Sali snorted.

“You and mountains, as always! Girls, it’s not what it sounds like—there’s a cable car. These two want to walk up and ride back down, but I think the sensible people will be riding both ways. You sensible, Warren?”

He grinned, clearly beginning to find his own place at last.

“Clearly not! What bar are we hitting tonight? I want tapas this time, but I think I’ll leave the octopus alone. Not the same when you’ve been looking one in the eye; wouldn’t feel right to eat his cousin. Alys?”

“Yes?”

“I want to see if there’s a shop with proper kit in, but can I keep your goggles for a while?”

“Of course! I imagine we’ll be going back out again once we’ve had a rest. Coming along?”

“Yeah, would be great. And Enfys, your goggles spare for anyone else to use?”

I nodded, realising that he still hadn’t given up on Elen, and when that girl shrugged and nodded, he reddened more than a little, just before Gethin dumped a plastic bag of cold seawater over his head.

Boys. Or men. Whatever; they could never stay sensible for long. All of ours rushed off into the water, splashing each other and yelling loudly and, I assume, happily. We sensible folk just looked at each other, and with no prompting of any kind, sighed.

Four of us swam out again after warming up, Warren impressing me by remembering exactly where his new eight-legged friend was holed up to show Elen. She, in turn, impressed me by not doing the girly squeal I had been expecting. More fish, more terns fishing around us, and then it was time to swim back, and our new companions were still both smiling. Once our skins had dried a little, we did the mutual sunscreen-refresh game before stretching out on our towels.

Rinse and repeat. It was certainly warmer than many of my sessions on Welsh mountains, and that thought reminded me yet again that a large part of my chosen university course would involve those fabled and non-double-entendre water sports. In much colder water. As Annie and co would say, arsebollocks.

We got our tapas that evening, Warren having swayed the group with eloquence combined with careful research to locate a well-timed ‘happy hour’, and my culinary education got another boost. Colin’s chippy fare faded in comparison, and yet again it was Warren who led the way, with a seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of odd portions of indeterminate content.

I collared him at the bar as we ordered some more drinks, and he simply grinned.

“Internet, Enfys. Brought my laptop. Haven’t got a clue what we’re really eating, but it gave me a good script”

He snorted suddenly.

“I looked up a few things to avoid. Snails, for one”

“That’s a French thing, surely?”

“Nope. And the Spanish stuff is all little snails, not those big fat froggy things”

He obviously caught my wince, and grinned again.

“They even do a special grid thing for barbies. Really, REALLY don’t want to see them on my plate”

He paused as the barman served our drinks, then turned to me with a wistful expression.

“I don’t stand a chance with her, do I?”

I reached across for his hand.

“You want the honest truth?”

A look into the bar mirror, then a weak smile for me.

“If you don’t mind sharing it with me”

“Okay. Honest answer? I really don’t know. Yesterday, I would have said no, you don’t. After today, I don’t know. You were, I don’t know… You were sharing, Warren. Fine line between that and lecturing, but I think you stayed the right side of it. All I can say, really”

He nodded.

“Yeah, I suppose. I was doing something. It’s when I’m just, you know, in the same place. That’s when I get all useless. I suppose it was…”

He stopped as his thoughts derailed.

“I was going to say how easy it must have been for you two, then I realised what a bloody stupid thing that was to say. I knew Alys, you know? Before?”

“Before?”

“Before Alys, aye? I was one… she was always wrong, Enfys, and I have had a few drinks, so I will just plough on, and say I was one of the little boys who called her names, but I see her now…”

With a shock, I saw he had tears ready to fall. I was still holding his hand, so I gave it a little squeeze, and he returned a twisted smile.

“How could we all have been so wrong? She was always Alys, wasn’t she?”

I nodded, giving his hand one more squeeze.

“Yes. Exactly. Thanks for seeing clearly. So many don’t, or can’t”

“Aye. Fucking Ifor… She okay? Now?”

“Strong girl, Warren”

“Aye. Strong girlfriend, as well. Thank you”

He drew a long, slow breath, then turned back to me with another brittle smile.

“This mountain, then? I’ve got a plan”

I raised an eyebrow, and he leant closer.

“I think we should start somewhere low down… then walk… uphill”

We gathered our glasses and jugs of fruity alcohol and returned to the others, and I found myself watching as he cracked jokes around the group, and signally avoided locking his focus onto Elen, the poor sod.

Alys took us on a bus trip the following day, to the place she had read about, where we might see turtles. We ended up splitting the group, as not everyone fancied a day out at, as Colin described it, the ‘arse end of nowhere’, when there was beer to drink. Sali had shrugged a clear ‘What can you do?’, but in the end it was the two of us plus Warren, and, to my surprise, Elen.

We had a bloody good day, once more, to my surprise. There were indeed turtles and, probably against all the rules, I got close enough to stroke one’s shell, but my surprise was concentrated on Elen, for she seemed to be reacting in the most positive of ways to Warren’s attention. I found a moment in between turtles and wriggly fish, and asked him in the most direct of ways. His response was a smile.

“Decided to move the goalposts, Enfys. I might never, you know, with her, but here we are. Sharing things, aye? Better than watching her lech over waiters”

“And when we get home?”

A twisted smile.

“I’ll still have this, won’t I?”

Poor sod.

The day of our expedition dawned earl for us, and there was a minibus at the hotel for our group at a time I didn’t want to become familiar with if I could help it. It was the first of two, another being scheduled for a couple of hours later for those intending to ride up in comfort. What is there to say? Alys, Warren, Elen (Yes!) and I boarded, we went through various odd bits of Tenerife suburbia, and finally arrived at the start of a trail that went uphill in the most obvious and insistent of ways.

Arsebollocks. That was one enormous hill. Three Wyddfas, Alys had said. Remember Warren’s joke, and start walking uphill.

The five litres of water in my Camelbak went rather quickly, despite all the stops Alys called for with her constant refrain of “Hang on, was that a…”, but I was watching our two companions. Warren spent each moment of rest with his hands on his knees, while Elen spent similar periods staring upwards and panting. There were signposts on the path giving our height, and I was ticking off each Wyddfa as it arrived.

The last part of what had turned into an absolute slog was the approach to the upper cable car station, where the others were due to meet us. We were around three hundred yards from it when Warren fell on his face and wouldn’t, or couldn’t, get up.