‘Shall we go down for a quick peek before we go back to work?’ Lucy asked jumping up from her chair suddenly.
‘You’re the boss now,’ Elizabeth said and they both laughed at that, because it seemed strange having only sold the practice on to her so recently to think that the future of the village’s health now lay in Lucy’s hands.
‘I am, amn’t I?’ Lucy said, her eyes dancing with the pleasure of it all. ‘In fact, when you think of it, we have more than just your cottage to celebrate.’
‘We certainly have,’ Elizabeth said linking her arm as they headed out through the kitchen door to inspect how the building was coming along.
*
Over a week later and still, Elizabeth couldn’t believe her luck at securing Jo’s cottage and saving the practice. Dan’s parents had returned to London, promising they’d be back for Christmas. Elizabeth liked them even more than she had expected to. Already, they were sharing recipes in a WhatsApp group that included Dan’s extended family and Elizabeth felt as if she was being welcomed to its very heart. She was walking down towards the end of town on a sunny Saturday morning when her phone rang again.
‘Hello,’ she answered carefully, falling back on that default doctor’s wife setting when she wasn’t quite sure who was calling.
‘Elizabeth?’
‘Yes.’
‘Hi, it’s Clara, we met that night on the beach. Do you remember?’
‘Ah, yes, Clara.’ Vaguely, Elizabeth recalled a short dumpy woman who had taken to the water like a woman possessed and had been one of the last to leave. Of course, she had more reason than any to enjoy the freedom of the midnight waters. She’d survived breast cancer twice and although her body was a map of scars and crevices, her spirit was large and Elizabeth had warmed to her immediately.
‘Well, I came back to my workshop – I told you that I do a little engraving and…’
‘Yes, you’re the artist?’
‘Sculptor, mainly, but yes, I draw too. Anyway, I had a piece of marble here. It was gifted to me, really, a leftover piece that no-one seemed to want.’
‘Oh?’ What was the woman talking about? Elizabeth wondered. But she was too polite to interrupt.
‘It’s white marble, really pristine, and it’s very large; well over eight foot. I thought, wouldn’t it be perfect, if we could commemorate your friend Jo and everyone else who’s had the big C? I have some great ideas for a really nice sculpture – if you wanted to take a look – and maybe we could place it there, beside the cave so all of that loss could be in the shadow of something positive that we all did together?’
‘You want to dedicate it to Jo?’ Elizabeth felt her eyes begin to well up with tears. She had just arrived at the cottage, was standing at the wall, overlooking the sea opposite. ‘That’s so nice; I don’t know what to say…’
‘Do you think it’s a good idea?’
‘I think it’s a wonderful idea. I think she’d have loved it and yes, she loved what we did that night. She giggled her socks off and probably would have stayed in the water even longer than you, if we didn’t drag her out!’ Elizabeth laughed, remembering her friend.
‘Right, well, if you call up to my cottage, we can agree what should go on it first, and then we’ll see about moving it into place and checking if the council are all right with us erecting it.’
‘Oh, that sounds just perfect.’ Elizabeth closed off her phone and stood for a moment with her hand on the gate. ‘Did you hear all that, Jo?’ she whispered to her friend. Elizabeth had a feeling she’d always be close by, so long as she was near the cottage and the sea. ‘Isn’t that something to make you smile?’ Wasn’t it funny, she thought, after all Eric’s years as a respectable GP and no-one had offered to mark his time serving the community? And yet, here she was remembering Jo as if she’d never left. It was funny all right and she smiled sadly.
She pushed in the gate and made her way up along the path. Across the road, she looked far out, beyond the pier, to where the breakers were white and pristine in the dark blue sea. It felt, for a moment, as if they were washing away the years that she’d somehow let slip by and in that clearing, Elizabeth recognised that the woman she’d become today was not so far removed from the one she might have been, had life thrown a different hand her way. She caught her breath, as somewhere on the breeze, she heard Jo whisper…Welcome, Elizabeth, you are home at last.