“I thought you were leaving this morning,” Alicia confessed. “I mean, I know you’re going in the end, but I thought you were leaving today. I always thought you’d leave the beach hut behind you. I want to live in it. Don’t laugh, don’t you dare laugh.”

“I’m not laughing. But you know it’s not really practical, don’t you?”

“Why not? You do.” Ava was silent. “I know it’s not mine but I thought I could have it anyway. I didn’t even like you when you first came. I just wanted the beach hut. I suppose that’s stealing, isn’t it?”

“Is it? I don’t know.”

“Actually I don’t mind even if it is stealing. It wouldn’t be the worst thing I’ve… ” Alicia splashed at a seagull floating curiously nearby. “Go away, stupid! Get out of the way!”

“Hey.” Ava’s hand reached through the water to clasp Alicia’s. “It’s okay. We’re going to make it.”

“I can’t do it. It’s too far.”

“Yes you can.”

“No I can’t.”

“How about I tell you a story while we swim?”

“What good will that do?”

“Keep swimming and we’ll see.”

Alicia’s arms dragged slowly at the water, the seagull bobbing beside her.

“When Finn was about seven,” said Ava, “he went through a phase of squashing Christmas baubles. He used to stand by the Christmas tree, pick a bauble, and squeeze it.”

The seagull studied Alicia from one round, yellow eye. The scarlet spot on its beak was very bright.

“He used to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze,” said Ava, “until in the end, the bauble would collapse into pieces.”

“Why?”

“Keep swimming. And remember to breathe. That’s it. He said he wanted to know how hard he could squeeze before it broke. And unfortunately, the only way to find out was to go past that point, and actually break it. So he’d stand there, squeezing and squeezing, and in the end it would break, and there would be bits of glass everywhere. Then I used to sweep up the bits for him so he wouldn’t get into trouble.”

“That was nice of you.”

“He never asked me to, mind you. He would have sorted it out for himself. But he was only little, and I didn’t want him to cut his fingers.”

“Didn’t your mum and dad… ” Alicia was going to ask if her mum and dad had noticed their Christmas baubles disappearing, but Ava kept talking.

“Then one day, he squeezed a really big silver bauble, and it broke all over the place. And when I fetched the brush and dustpan, I stood on a massive piece of glass and cut my foot.”

Alicia shuddered. “Did it hurt?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. There was blood everywhere. It wasn’t serious, I didn’t need stitches or anything, but Finn was horrified. I kept saying it was all right, he didn’t need to worry, but he said it wasn’t all right, and he was sorry, and what could he do?” The seagull spread its wings and flapped heavily off. “After that, he never squeezed baubles again.”