When we got back to the house, Mum was waiting for us.
Alice handed her the empty bowl from the stew.
Mum smiled at her.
‘Well, how was the stew?’
Alice beamed back at her.
‘It was perfect. Just perfect,’ she said, and Mum looked so happy I thought she was going to cry.
As soon as she recovered. Mum pulled us inside.
‘Girls, come in and see what we bought for Lucy to say thank you for lending us the house,’ she said.
We followed her inside, and Mum held up a huge painting.
‘What do you think?’ she said. ‘Don’t you think Lucy will love it?’
It was like my worst nightmare. It was a picture of a table covered with a big heap of vegetables.
‘Er … It’s … lovely,’ I said.
‘Lucky Lucy,’ said Alice.
Mum seemed happy with that, so she went off in to the kitchen to hang the picture over the sink.
‘It’s bad enough Mum feeding us heaps of vegetables all the time,’ I said. ‘Without her buying pictures of them as well. I’m sorry, Alice, that my mum is so totally embarrassing.’
Alice looked at me.
‘Megan,’ she said. ‘I think your mum is totally great.’
At first I thought she was joking.
‘What about the crazy hair, and the crazy clothes, and the crazy ideas about chick peas and stuff?’
Alice laughed.
‘That’s only small stuff. Trust me, Meg, she’s great. You’re lucky to have a mum like her.’
And all of a sudden, I realised that she was right.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, we were all packed up and ready to leave. Just as Mum was locking the front door of Lucy’s house for the last time, Alice’s phone beeped. She looked at the screen.
‘It’s a text message from Grace, she said, as she pressed the buttons. Then she read aloud,
‘Hi Al and Meg. Lanzarote wasn’t much fun this year. Hope your holiday wasn’t too boring.’
Alice looked at me, and I looked at her, and then we laughed until the tears streamed down our faces.
Then we all climbed in to the car, and set off for home.