“Of course it’s not Alicante. That’s the whole point.” Ava shrugged his arm off and reached into the car for a floppy straw hat.

“The plane to Alicante wouldn’t have to stop every hour to top up the radiator. If you’d let me drive us down… ”

“We wouldn’t all fit in your car.”

“So? Finn and Caroline could have come in his car, we could have come in mine. I don’t get why we all had to come in one big mob like a bunch of students. Look, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to start an argument, okay?”

Ava shrugged and turned away from him, as if Paul wasn’t important enough to be worth arguing with. She saw Finn and waved eagerly.

“He’s still there,” Finn called.

“Really?” Ava laughed. “That’s brilliant.”

“I know. You’d have thought he might have gone by now, but no, he’s still going strong.”

“How long must he have been there?”

“Well, I noticed him when I was five, so it’s been at least seventeen years, but he might have come a long time before that. It would be awful if they’d painted over him.”

“They wouldn’t dare.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Paul.

“The stain on the wall of the third cubicle in the Gents,” said Finn. “It looks like an upside-down Jesus.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be Jesus, to be fair,” said Ava. “It could be any old bloke with a beard.”

“Course it’s Jesus. Who else would manifest himself like that?”

“Good point. And it does look just like him.”

“You’ve seen this too?” asked Paul, bewildered.

“In a photograph.” Ava’s lips were curving irresistibly upwards. “Finn borrowed the camera and took one secretly. Do you remember? When we got the photos back? And Roy and Janet were looking through them and there were all those photos of the beach and the sea and so on… ”

“… and then they got to that one of Third Cubicle Jesus, and they just stopped and looked at it, and… ”

“… and you said, ‘Oh, that’s Jesus,’ and they just nodded and kept looking through the pictures… ”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Paul demanded. “What’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry,” said Ava, wiping her eyes.

“I’m not,” said Finn. “Third Cubicle Jesus is important. He needs recognition. Shall we go down to the beach?”

“Shouldn’t we wait for Caroline?” Paul said to Finn and Ava’s backs.

“Oh God, yes,” said Finn, looking guilty. When Caroline came out from the Ladies, he put an arm around her and kissed her hair. After a minute, Caroline nuzzled him affectionately.

The sand was crowded and crossed with invisible lines of possession. Finn and Ava picked their way cheerfully through, ignoring tuts and mutters and dark looks. Paul and Caroline trailed apologetically in their wake.

As they got closer to the water, Ava began to shed her clothes. She took off her hat and dropped it on the sand. She peeled off her flimsy cheesecloth shirt (Paul, holding his breath between arousal and embarrassment, was relieved to see the bikini underneath). A quick pause and an awkward shimmy, and her jeans lay like a shed snake-skin, her flip-flops caught in the ends.