By the time they’d done a wander up and down the main street her enthusiasm had waned a little. The heat and the brightness of the sunlight and cloudless sky were still a surprise. Her brain was still set to winter even though her eyes took in the glare and her body the warmth. At breakfast a steady breeze from the ocean had kept the temperature down but now she was dragging her feet. There were several women’s clothing shops and she was grateful for their air conditioning but they were also busy with other shoppers.

Feeling sweaty and having to squeeze between racks and other customers hadn’t put her in a conducive mood for trying on clothes but Dot was a trooper, working out what suited her and running things to and from the change room. Faye kept to herself, much to Natalie’s relief, and only offered an opinion if Dot dragged her to look. In the end Natalie came away from one shop with a pair of bathers and a floaty dress to wear over the top, and from another a broad-brimmed hat. At the last shop she bought an olive-green-and-bronze patterned shift dress and a sarong. The sarong had been Dot’s suggestion.

“So useful,” she’d said. “You can wear it to cover up bathers or as a wrap to keep out the sun.”

Even though Natalie was used to beach holidays she’d never bothered with sarongs and over-bather outfits. She’d always worn shorts and t-shirts. The two other women bought a top each and when Natalie enquired about a newsagency to buy a book they took her instead to a delightful bookshop where Dot and Faye were astonished to find she didn’t read much. They plied her with suggestions and as she was in Broome she chose two that had local settings, one historical, set during World War Two, and the other more contemporary, about a woman living in Broome and a proposed mining development. Dot and Faye chose another book each, complaining they had too many already but then deciding there was always room for more. They shared their books so it was like two for the price of one, Dot had laughed.

They ate lunch off a small lane that served as Chinatown, enjoying the shade created by leafy trees and a wide verandah, then wandered past souvenir shops to catch the bus back to the hotel where Dot urged them to head to the beach.

“You’ve got to try out those new bathers, Natalie,” she said.

Faye made a wry face. “The pool’s right outside our rooms.”

“But we haven’t been in the ocean yet,” Dot persisted. “The tide’s in now so it’s the best time.”

“All right,” Faye huffed.