‘But where did she find Peony?’ asked Lulu, hugging her pony close.
‘I don’t know,’ said Henry. ‘She didn’t say.’
Lulu kissed her pink pony’s nose. ‘It’s a miracle.’
‘She said to tell you she is your knight on a shining bike.’
‘When you see her again, Lulu,’ said Mum, looking up from her magazine, ‘make sure you say thank you.’
‘If I had a zillion billion gold dollars,’ said Lulu, ‘I would give them all to her!’
Henry gazed out at the bike path, looking for the girl on her crimson dragster, but all he could see were the nuggety rugrats from next door with their spiky helmets, whizzing up and down on their bikes, brazen and loud, shouting out to each other, ‘Look at me, no hands! NO HANDS! Whoop! Whoop!’
‘Henry,’ said Lulu. ‘Do you want to come to the pool with me and my ponies?’
‘Well,’ said Henry, swallowing.
‘Pretty please? Pretty please with cream and a cherry on top?’
‘Maybe.’ Henry kicked off his thongs and slipped into the tent. He had to get out of his pyjamas quick, just in case. He scrabbled through his crate, looking for his board shorts and rash shirt. He got dressed in a corner and then shoved his rocket pyjamas right to the bottom of his crate, beneath his jeans and long-sleeved shirts. When he came out of the tent, he snatched up a banana from the fruit bowl and peeled it fast. ‘I’m starving,’ he said.
‘There are some croissants in the bag on the table, if you want one,’ said Mum, sipping her coffee. ‘Fresh from the bakery.’
Henry fished out a buttery, flaky croissant. He sat down with his banana and took turns biting from both.
‘Your dad’s taken Patch for a quick surf at Joe’s Beach,’ said Mum, glancing up from her crossword. ‘Dylan’s headed over to the skate park and Reed’s going to try his hand fishing on the estuary. I think Jay and Carey might be building Bionicles with Kale in their tent, if that takes your fancy?’
‘Well, Lulu and I are going to the pool in a second, so feel welcome to join us.’
Henry nodded. ‘Okay.’
‘Can we go now? Can we go now?’ chanted Lulu, running around in circles, galloping ponies in front.
‘Get your hat,’ said Mum.
‘Yeee–heeee,’ said Lulu. She put her ponies down on top of the camp fridge and began rummaging in a bucket. Hats flew everywhere, between her legs, over her shoulders, bouncing off the tent. ‘Got it!’ she cried, waving a sun hat covered with cherry blossoms.
Mum eased herself up from the table with a big sigh. ‘Oh, Lulu,’ she said. ‘You’re incorrigible!’
‘Is that good?’ asked Lulu.
‘That depends.’ Mum scooped up her magazine, beach bag and towels. ‘Now pack those other hats away.’
Lulu raced about snatching up hats and shoving them back into the bucket. ‘Ready!’ she cried.
‘Okay then,’ said Mum.
‘Let’s go,’ said Lulu with a grin, dragging Mum by the hand.
The three of them meandered up past the giant chess set and down the path towards the swimming pool. A big boy opened the gate and Henry darted past a clump of shivering coconut girls on their way out. ‘It’s freezing today,’ said one girl, her lips blue.
Lulu lined up her ponies on the edge of the big pool and jumped straight into the shallow end, while their mum sat nearby on a tan plastic lounge chair, her bare legs covered with a towel.
Henry flopped on the lawn. He plucked at blades of grass, watching ants tumble clumsily up and down, through a scratchy tangle of roots.
‘Watch me, watch me,’ Lulu shouted.
‘I am watching,’ said Mum.
Lulu dove just beneath the surface, her bottom wiggling like an unsinkable floatie. ‘Did you see?’ she asked, standing up, swiping her hair back. Her eyes were big behind their goggles. ‘Did you see? I put my whole head under!’
‘I saw!’ said Mum. ‘Well done, you clever girl.’
‘Heno,’ cried Lulu. ‘Come in and play with me. Please! Please! Please!’
Henry hesitated. There were no other big brothers playing with their little sisters in the pool.
‘Please, Heno. Please!’ Lulu clung to the side of the pool. She pushed out her bottom lip.
‘Stop staring at me like that,’ said Henry.
‘Please, Heno,’ she said, dipping her head and gazing up at him soulfully. ‘I promise to be good and to do exactly what you tell me.’
Henry bit his lip. He was good at playing pretend, and sometimes the stories he made up with Lulu were so real it almost felt as if they were happening. And the longer he played, the less likely it might be that he would have to learn how to ride his bike.
‘Okay.’ He glanced over his shoulder at the jumping pillow to check for bossy-boots Reed. ‘But only if you listen.’
‘Seahorse, seahorse,’ Lulu said. ‘Let’s play that!’
And so Henry spent the next hour at Lulu’s beck and call. He darted about the pool, pretending to be a magical sea pony, with Lulu perched on his back.
They fought the evil sea hag Mibena, who had cast a terrible spell across the whole of the underwater kingdom. They wrestled with her minions, the kraken and sea serpents and sea dragons. They rescued languishing mermaids from their cave prisons and freed selkies, seals, dugongs and turtles from dark underwater dungeons.
Then Lulu vanquished the evil sea hag above a coral meadow, with a simple spell, and peace came to the underwater kingdom again. Only then did Lulu get out of the pool. She sat shivering beside Mum, tired out, wrapped up tight in a My Little Pony towel, waiting to be warmed by the sun.
Palm trees rustled.
The pool was a dark sapphire blue. Henry took a deep breath and sank into the water like a crocodile, so only his eyes popped out.
There were lots of people swimming now. Babies drifted by in yellow ducky rings. In the middle of the pool, two short stubby men with tattooed stars on their backs were throwing children backwards and forwards like basketballs. At the deep end, an older grey-haired lady sat on a ledge, next to a younger lady in a tomato red T-shirt. ‘Isn’t this lovely, Moira?’ cried the grey-haired lady to the red T-shirt lady. ‘Aren’t we lucky!’
Moira nodded and sat closer to the grey-haired lady, closer than a shadow. Henry could tell Moira had Down Syndrome like Ellie in Year Six at his school.
Henry guessed the grey-haired lady was Moira’s mum. But there were two little girls with them too and they were throwing themselves against the grey-haired lady and wrapping their arms around her neck, taking turns to kiss her pale papery cheeks.
Henry wondered if these girls were the grey-haired lady’s grandchildren. She looked like a granny to Henry. She had the same sweetness of face, the same creamy, calm expression he recognised in his own Nonna.
‘Careful now!’ called the grey-haired lady to the little girls. ‘You’ll knock Aunty Moira off the step.’
Moira sat gazing up at the sky, like she hardly noticed those girls throwing themselves like salmon upstream.
Then the granny dove off the ledge, as if she had suddenly had enough. She swam out into the deep and the two little girls flung themselves after her. ‘Granny Apples!’ they called, snatching at her arms. ‘Apples! Wait! Wait!’ And they thrashed down the pool, wide as a three-headed monster. And just like that, Moira popped off the step too and swam after them, one small hand perched up on her head like a fin.
A fin! Henry laughed. He couldn’t help it.
Moira was swimming in the deep, with her head right under water. She was swimming down the pool as if she wasn’t afraid of anything. She was chasing after her mum and hunting down her two splashy nieces like some sneaky shark and nobody noticed but him! Henry held that funny moment like a small quiet treasure. Everything was shiny because of it, the whole wide world glittering with possibility, waiting to be discovered wherever he might look.