Aunt Bessie's Holiday Read Online Free PDF

had left on her trousers as he
fell into her.
    “Is it jam?” Bessie asked.
    “I have no idea, but I’m hoping so,” Doona
replied.   “To think I actually
applied for a job with the ferry company a few years back.   I wouldn’t have lasted through my first
sailing.”
    “School’s in session, so nearly all of the
families who are travelling are the ones with very small children,” Bessie
remarked.   “Children are very noisy
when they’re small.”
    “And sticky,” Doona added, shaking her head
at the stain the little boy had made.   “At least I was sensible enough to travel in old clothes,” she told
Bessie.
    “I didn’t even think about it,” Bessie
admitted.   She’d worn a pair of
trousers and a light jumper, nothing different from her normal attire.
    “I was a little bit worried about being
seasick,” Doona told her.   “I wanted
to be as comfortable as possible.”
    “I didn’t think about that, either,” Bessie
replied.   “It’s been years since I
went anywhere on the ferry, but I never used to get seasick.   The idea never even crossed my mind.”
    “I took a tablet before we left this morning,”
Doona said.   “Although with all the
waiting around we did before we boarded the ship, it’s probably worn off by now
anyway.”
    “Are you feeling okay?”
    “Yeah,” Doona answered, sounding
surprised.   “Actually, I feel pretty
good.”
    The pair curled up with their magazines for
a while, trading titles back and forth as they went.   The only sound was pages turning for
some time and then, suddenly, Doona’s tummy rumbled loudly.
    “Oh, good heavens, I am sorry,” she
exclaimed.
    “I’m surprised mine hasn’t replied in kind,”
Bessie replied.   “We were going to
get breakfast when we boarded and we never did.”
    “I can’t believe I forgot about a meal,”
Doona said, laughing.   “Should we go
and see what they do for lunch?”
    “Yes, let’s,” Bessie agreed quickly.   “We still have over an hour of sailing
time and I feel as if I’ll starve if I don’t eat until we dock.”
    Back down on the passenger deck, the pair
wound their way through the crowd, heading to the small café in the back corner
of the ship.   There were only a few
tables, and they were all full of large family groups.
    “Let’s take something back to the cabin,”
Doona suggested, nearly shouting over the noise.
    “Definitely,” Bessie agreed.
    They studied the menu board for a moment and
then Bessie shook her head.   “Hot
food sounds too heavy,” she told Doona.   “I’m just going to get a sandwich and a bag of crisps for now.”
    “That works for me,” Doona replied.  
    The pair walked over to the large cooler and
each selected a sandwich.   Bessie
added an apple and a bag of crisps to her tray and then selected a cold bottle
of fizzy drink.   Doona opted for a
banana, crisps and a bottle of apple juice.   They paid for their selections and
walked as quickly as they could back through the throng.  
    The cabin felt blissfully quiet in spite of
the noises of the ship’s engines that hummed constantly in the background.   Once they’d finished eating, Doona
decided to take a walk on the outside deck.
    “We aren’t that far from Heysham,” she told
Bessie.   “I want to see if I can see
it yet.”
    While she was gone, Bessie tidied up the tea
things from earlier, neatly stacking the dirty cups and spoons on one of the
trays from the café.   She set the
tray outside their door, adding all of the rubbish from their lunch to it.   Then she settled back in with her
magazines.  
    “I would have helped with the tidying up,”
Doona told her when she returned a short time later.  
    “It only took a minute,” Bessie said.   “But what could you see?”
    “Nothing much yet,” Doona said with a
sigh.   “I’m starting to get bored.”
    Bessie laughed.   “It is rather tedious,” she agreed.   “Did you explore the whole ship?”
    “No, but I