The waterpark was a hub of noise, colour and water everywhere. All the things Jack usually hated. Instantly Nancy regretted bringing him here as he hung off her arm, hands grasping onto her as a safety blanket. But she hadn’t forced him; he had told her he wanted to come, she reassured herself. She had tried her best this morning to prepare him for the type of establishment this was. But there was only so much she could say because she didn’t want to frighten him unnecessarily or make him feel worried. They had looked through his Calm Cards, at the building ones and he had spoken about what shapes and styles of structure he might see here today – but nothing could prepare him for the real thing.
‘Mum, too noisy,’ he squeaked. She could see he was trying really hard, but it was a little too much for his ears.
She pulled the headphones out of her bag and placed them over his ears. ‘Better?’ She gave him a thumbs up as she asked and he nodded.
‘Best purchase you’ve ever made, those, hey?’ Harriet asked, nodding at the green headphones.
Last night Harriet had apologised for being snappy with Nancy and the pair had agreed to let it go over a few pina coladas. Nancy still wanted to approach the work issue with Hari but only when things were relaxed again, she wasn’t pushing it. They still had a few more days to get through yet so she didn’t want to cause any friction. ‘Tell me about it. These ones are great; they’re like those ear defenders. I think he likes the feel of the pressure on his ears.’
‘Absolute godsend. Bless him. Isla! Careful honey, we aren’t ready to go in yet. Let’s find somewhere to put our stuff first.’
Nancy scanned the vicinity, looking for somewhere for her and Jack to sit whilst the others explored the waterpark. The sunshine was beating down brightly over the pool and today was incredibly hot. Nancy loved the heat, but she knew Jack wasn’t happy when he got too hot so she had to make sure she had lots of ideas in place to keep him cool. Firstly, she needed to find somewhere with some shade so he wasn’t in direct sunlight. As she looked, she came across an area which had a group of loungers and a small pool just for paddling. ‘Hari look, perfect! Jack can dangle his legs in there.’
‘Quick, grab it before someone else does.’
‘I’m not running,’ Nancy said, but it was too late, Harriet had bounced off, sprinting towards the loungers, her long legs stretching as her bright red kimono flapped around her hips.
A whistle sounded and Nancy glanced at the lifeguard who was staring at Harriet who had also turned round. He didn’t look happy and was standing up, pointing at Harriet. ‘No running!’ he called at her and Nancy burst out laughing.
‘Haha, Mummy just got told off by the lifeguard’, Nancy said to Isla who was staring wide-eyed at her. ‘It’s OK, she’s not in trouble,’ she added, as she saw the worry in her eyes.
‘Sorry!’ Harriet shouted as she raised a hand and then casually – but quickly – walked to the spot she was trying to save.
When Nancy reached her friend, she laughed. ‘Did someone get their wrists slapped?’ She put down her bag and grabbed a lounger, kicking off her flip flops so she could feel the cold tiles beneath her toes.
‘Still got the seats though, didn’t I?’ Harriet retorted, adjusting her floppy cream hat which would look stupid on Nancy, but Harriet totally pulled off.
‘Mummy can we go in now, pur-leeeeeease!’
‘Isla, let me just get our stuff sorted.’
‘But you’re taking forever and I reaaally want to go in!’ Isla stamped her feet and jutted her bottom lip out, her golden curls bouncing around her ears as she did.
‘Honey, I know you do but-—’
‘Pleeeeeeeease!’ she squealed, springing on her toes as though she was about to burst with impatience.
‘OK fine!’ Harriet said, chucking her bag down and putting her phone into Nancy’s bag. ‘Look after that for me please and if it rings, come and get me?’
Nancy nodded and watched Harriet get pulled off to the water slide by Isla. She glanced over at Tommy who was still fast asleep in the pushchair and then at Jack who was playing with a stone he had found on the way there.
She touched his arm gently and waited for him to take the headphones off. ‘You OK, baby?’ she asked.
‘Yeah.’
‘What do you think of the waterpark?’
‘It’s loud,’ he replied. ‘But I like the shapes.’
Nancy smiled. He was so funny with his little ways. How could Pete say that these were stupid? She found it lovely. ‘Which one is your favourite?’ she asked, enjoying their one on one time.
Jack spent a few minutes looking around him, analysing all that he could see so that he could give her an accurate answer. She watched his cute little face scan the waterpark, taking in each thing that his eyes set upon. To others he might seem closed off and strange, especially when he was feeling anxious and shut off from the world, but Nancy could see past the awkwardness and lack of eye contact. She didn’t see the uncooperative, difficult, attention seeking child that everyone seemed to complain about. Yes, he was hard work – sometimes she didn’t know how she was going to get through it – but when you got to know him, really know him, he was the most caring, sweet, clever little soul. A part of Nancy felt special that she was one of the only people to know this side of him, like it was their little secret away from the rest of the world. But there was still a small part of her which wanted others to see him how she saw him. Maybe it would come, maybe it wouldn’t. Only time would tell.
‘I think it would have to be that one,’ he said, pointing to the drop slide area.
‘And why’s that,’ she probed, settling back into her lounger and making herself comfortable.
‘Well, because it has straight lines. I like straight lines. The curvy ones make me feel funny.’
‘Really? Funny in what way?’ It was in conversations like this that Nancy learned little nuggets of information about Jack, while he didn’t even realise he was talking about his thoughts and feelings.
‘Just … funny.’ He still wasn’t very good at articulating those feelings though. ‘I like the sink.’
Nancy pulled a face. ‘The sink?’ Jack nodded. ‘What sink?’
‘The one in the room.’
‘Our hotel room?’ Another nod. ‘Why?’
‘Because it is square. It’s not like the oval one at home. I like the straight lines.’ He turned the stone over in his hand. It was only then that she noticed the stone was a jagged one not a smooth round one. It was sharp, pointed and full of straight edges. She smiled.
‘Do you want to dip your feet in the pool, Jack?’ She stood up and sat down on the edge of the pool, placing her feet in. ‘Come and sit next to me.’
He did as she asked and slowly lowered his feet in. They sat there for a minute in silence and whilst Nancy would normally try to fill the silence with questions and conversation, this time she just sat. Because they didn’t need words; sometimes it was enough just to have him sitting next to her.
***
‘Well, well, well, look who I found,’ Harriet said as she noticed Cameron swim by.
‘Oh, hello!’ he said, standing up and smoothing out his hair. ‘How are you?’
‘Good thanks, you?’ She could see what Nancy saw in him, he was pretty good-looking. Although he was a little too ‘nice’ looking for her – Harriet liked the dark, rough and ready type. Cameron was all blonde hair, blue eyes and sweet smile. Like a model for a typical father on Christmas morning, opening presents with his children and then singing carols round the tree. Harriet liked the I’ve just got home from the garage and I’m covered in grease and oil where I’ve been fixing cars all day… look.
‘Yeah great. You here alone?’ He looked around and she could see he was clearly looking for Nancy. He might be hot, but subtle he was not.
‘No, Nancy, Tommy and Jack are over there.’ She pointed to the area where they were siting and could see Nancy and Jack sitting by the little pool with their feet dangling in. Tommy’s pram behind them.
‘Oh yeah. Her little one didn’t want to come in the water?’
Harriet shook her head. ‘He doesn’t really like water.’
Cameron nodded as if he understood and Harriet was glad he didn’t press the issue as she wouldn’t know what to say. It was up to Nancy who she shared Jack’s autism with and Hari would never take that away from her friend. ‘Are you enjoying the waterpark?’
‘It’s AWESOME!’ Isla screamed as she splashed around near Harriet’s face. ‘I like getting Mummy wet on the head because she screams and screws her face up.’ She giggled mischievously.
‘Yes, Mummy screams because she’s wearing contact lenses and doesn’t like getting her head wet,’ Harriet said through a strained smile.
‘Not one for water, hey?’ Cameron seemed to be hiding a smile.
‘It’s not my favourite thing to do,’ she said, tilting her head slightly. ‘Nancy is more of a water person. We do a tag team when we go swimming so that one of us is always with Jack and Tommy and the other can get in with Isla. I always take the first shift because Nancy takes forever to come back so I get my turn out the way and then I can sunbathe, and she gets to act like the big kid she really is.’
‘She sounds like a lot of fun,’ he said looking over to her with a smile and then realising what he’d said, snapped his glance back to Harriet adding, ‘not that you don’t sound like fun!’
‘Yeah thanks for that,’ she laughed, splashing him.
‘Mummy come on, I wanna go down the slide!’ Isla was pulling at Harriet’s arm.
‘In a minute, darling.’
‘Daddy, did you see me? I did a roly poly UNDER the water! My head went UNDER!’ Aiden bounced over to where Harriet was standing and shook his head ferociously, spraying water everywhere. Harriet recoiled but tried to stay smiling, to show she wasn’t a complete bore. However, she wasn’t enjoying this at all.
‘You did it, well done you! High five!’ Cameron held up his hand and Aiden slapped it really hard, nearly missing it because their hands were wet. ‘Woah! You nearly got my face then!’ Cameron laughed.
‘So, are you a single dad?’ Harriet blurted out and instantly realised how random the question was by the look of surprise on Cameron’s face.
‘Yes,’ he smiled. ‘Just me and this little guy.’
‘Nancy’s a single parent too.’ She raised an eyebrow, just subtly, but enough to make an impact. They shared a knowing smile between them and Harriet stifled a laugh.
‘Are you trying to set us up?’ He smiled.
‘I’m just giving you all the relevant information.’ She smiled and gave him a wink. ‘Come on Isla, let’s go on the slide.’
She walked off with a little grin on her face.
‘Mummy, why are you smiling?’
‘I’m just excited to go on the slide, darling. Come on, last one there is a rotten egg!’
She hopped over towards the slide, Isla screeching with pleasure as she skipped alongside her mum. Harriet knew she had probably overstepped the mark here a little bit and she wasn’t sure Nancy was going to appreciate it, but she didn’t care. Nancy deserved some fun and she sure as hell wasn’t going to take the plunge and instigate it herself. All Harriet had done was put the idea in Cameron’s head. Hopefully he would take the initiative to pursue this further. Nancy didn’t need a man in her life messing things up – but a holiday romance to life her self-confidence and spirits? Who didn’t want or need that? It was just a shame she couldn’t have the same thing for herself.