Holly raised her eyebrows.

Sharon continued, "Because to us, that's just how Gerry was. He wasn't all nice. We remember all of him, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that."

There was a long silence.

Denise was the first to speak. "I wish my Tom had known Gerry." Her voice trembled a little.

Holly looked at her in surprise.

"Gerry was my friend too," she said, tears p.r.i.c.king in her eyes. "And Tom didn't even know him at all. So I try to tell him things about Gerry all the time just so he knows that not long ago, one of the nicest men on this earth was my friend and I think everyone should have known him." Her lip wobbled and she bit down on it hard. "But I can't believe that someone I now love so much, who knows everything else about me, doesn't know a friend that I loved for ten years."

A tear ran down Holly's cheek and she reached out to hug her friend. "Well then, Denise, we'll just have to keep telling Tom about him, won't we?"

They didn't bother meeting up with their holiday rep the next morning, as they had no intention of going on any tours or taking part in any silly sports tournaments. Instead, they got up early and took part in the sun bed dance, running around trying to throw their towels on the sun beds to reserve their positions for the day. Unfortunately, they still hadn't managed to get up early enough. ("Don't those b.l.o.o.d.y Germans ever sleep?" Sharon had given out.) Finally after Sharon had sneakily thrown a few towels away from some unattended beds, the girls managed to get three beds together.

Just as Holly found herself nodding off she heard piercing screams and a crowd ran by her. For some reason, Gary, one of the holiday reps, thought it would be a really funny idea to dress in drag and be chased around the swimming pool by Victoria. Everyone around the pool cheered them on as the girls rolled their eyes. Eventually Victoria caught Gary and they both managed to fall on top of each other into the swimming pool.

Everyone applauded.

Minutes later as Holly was taking a quiet swim a woman announced into a microphone attached to her head that she was going to begin aqua aerobics in the pool in five minutes. Victoria and Gary, helped by the Barbie Brigade, ran around all the sun beds dragging everyone up and forcing them to take part.

"Ah, would you ever f.u.c.k off!" Holly heard Sharon scream at one of the members of the Barbie Brigade as she tried to drag her into the pool. Holly was soon forced out of the pool by the approaching herd of hippopotami who were about to dive in for their aqua aerobics session. They sat through an incredibly annoying half hour session of aerobics with the instructor yelling out the movements into the headpiece. When it was finally over they announced a water polo tournament was about to take place, so the girls immediately jumped up and headed over to the beach for some peace and quiet.

"You ever hear from Gerry's parents, Holly?" Sharon asked as she and Holly lounged on their inflatable rafts in the sea.

"Yeah, they send me postcards every few weeks telling me where they are and how they're getting on."

"So they're still on that cruise?"

"Yeah."

"Do you miss them?"

"To be honest, I don't really think they feel like they're part of me anymore. Their son's gone and they have no grandchildren, so I don't think they feel we have any connection anymore."

"That's bulls.h.i.t, Holly. You were married to their son and that makes you their daughter-in-law. That's a very strong connection."

"Oh, I don't know," she sighed. "I just don't think that's enough for them."

"They're a bit backward, aren't they?"

"Yeah, very. They hated me and Gerry 'living in sin' as they said. Couldn't wait for us to get married. And then they were even worse when we did! They couldn't understand why I wouldn't change my name."

"Yeah, I remember that," Sharon said. "His mum gave me an earful at the wedding. She said it was the woman's duty to change her name as a sign of respect to her husband. Imagine that? The cheek of her!"

Holly laughed.

"Ah well, you're better off without them being around anyway," Sharon a.s.sured her.

"h.e.l.lo girls." Denise floated out to meet them.

"Hey, where have you been?" Holly asked.

"Oh, I was just chatting to some bloke from Miami. Really nice guy."

"Miami? That's where Daniel went on holiday," she said, lightly running her fingers through the clear blue water.

"Hmmm," Sharon replied, "nice guy, Daniel, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he's a really nice guy," Holly agreed. "Very easy to talk to."

"Tom was telling me he's really been through the wars recently," Denise said, turning to lie on her back.

Sharon's ears p.r.i.c.ked up at the sound of gossip, "Why's that?"

"Oh, he was engaged to be married to some chick and it turns out she was sleeping with someone else. That's why he moved to Dublin and bought the pub, to get away from her."

"I know, it's awful, isn't it?" Holly said sadly.

"Why, where did he live before?" Sharon asked.

"Galway. He used to run a pub there," Holly explained.

"Oh," Sharon said, surprised, "he doesn't have a Galway accent."

"Well, he grew up in Dublin and joined the army, then he left and moved to Galway where his family owns a pub, then he met Laura, they were together for seven years, were engaged to be married, but she cheated on him so they broke up and he moved back to Dublin and bought Hogan's." Holly caught her breath.

"Don't know much about him, do you?" Denise teased.

"Well, if you and Tom had paid the slightest bit more attention to us the other night in the pub then maybe I wouldn't know so much about him," Holly replied playfully.

Denise sighed loudly. "G.o.d, I really miss Tom," she said sadly.

"Did you tell the guy from Miami that?" Sharon laughed.

"No, I was just chatting to him," Denise said defensively. "To be honest, n.o.body else interests me. It's really weird, it's like I can't even see any other men, and I mean that I don't even notice them. And as we are currently surrounded by hundreds of half-naked men, I think that's saying a lot."

"I think they call it love, Denise." Sharon smiled at her friend.

"Well, whatever it is, I've never felt like this before."

"It's a nice feeling," Holly said more to herself.

They lay in silence for a while, all lost in their own thoughts, allowing the gentle motion of the waves to soothe them.

"Holy s.h.i.t!" Denise suddenly yelled, causing the other two to jump. "Look how far out we are!"

Holly sat up immediately and looked around. They were out so far from the sh.o.r.e everybody on the beach looked like little ants.

"Oh s.h.i.t!" panicked Sharon, and as soon as Sharon panicked Holly knew they were in trouble.

"Start swimming, quick!" Denise yelled, and they all lay on their stomachs and started splashing around with all their might. After a few minutes of tirelessly going at it they gave up, out of breath. To their horror they were even farther out than they had been when they started.

It was no use, the tide was moving out too quickly, and the waves were just too strong.

TWENTY-EIGHT.

"HELP!" DENISE SCREAMED AT THE top of her lungs and waved her arms around wildly.

"I don't think they can hear us," Holly said with tears welling in her eyes.

"Oh, could we be any more stupid?" Sharon gave out and continued to rant on about the dangers of rafts in the sea.

"Oh, forget about that, Sharon," Denise snapped. "We're here now so let's all scream together and maybe they'll hear us."

They all cleared their throats and sat up on their rafts as much as they possibly could without causing them to sink under their weight.

"OK, one, two, three...HELP!" they all yelled, and waved their arms around frantically.

Eventually they stopped screaming and stared in silence at the dots on the beach to see if it had made any impact. Everything remained as it was.

"Please tell me there aren't any sharks out here," Denise whimpered.

"Oh please, Denise," Sharon snapped viciously, "that is the last thing we need to be reminded of right now."

Holly gulped and stared down into the water. The once clear blue water had darkened. Holly hopped off her raft to see how deep it was, and as her legs dangled, her heart began to pound. Their situation was bad. Sharon and Holly tried to swim for it while dragging their rafts behind them, while Denise continued her bloodcurdling screams.

"Jesus, Denise," Sharon panted, "the only thing that's gonna respond to that is a dolphin."

"Look, why don't you two just stop swimming because you've been at it now for a few minutes and you're still right beside me."

Holly stopped swimming and looked up. Denise stared back at her.

"Oh." Holly tried to hold back her tears. "Sharon, we might as well stop and save our energy."

Sharon stopped swimming and the three of them huddled together on their rafts and cried. There was really nothing more they could do, Holly thought, beginning to panic even more. They had tried shouting for help, but the wind was carrying their voices in the other direction; they had tried swimming, which had been completely pointless, as the tide was too strong. It was beginning to get chilly and the sea was looking dark and ugly. What a stupid situation to get themselves into. Through all her fear and worry, Holly managed to surprise herself by feeling completely humiliated.

She wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, but the unusual sound of both began to tumble out of her mouth, causing Sharon and Denise to stop crying and stare at her as though she had ten heads.

"At least one good thing came out of this," Holly half laughed and half cried.

"There's a good thing?" Sharon said, wiping her eyes.

"Well, the three of us always talked about going to Africa," she giggled like a madwoman, "and by the looks of things, I would say we're probably halfway there."

The girls looked out to sea to their future destination. "It's a cheaper mode of transport too," Sharon joined in with Holly.

Denise stared at them as if they were mad, and just one look at her lying in the middle of the ocean naked with only a leopard-skin thong on and blue lips was enough to set the girls off laughing.

"What?" Denise looked at them wide-eyed.

"I'd say we're in deep deep trouble here," Sharon giggled.

"Yeah," Holly agreed, "we're in way over our heads."

They lay there laughing and crying for a few minutes more till the sound of a speedboat approaching caused Denise to sit up and start waving frantically again. Holly and Sharon laughed even harder at the sight of Denise's chest bouncing up and down as she waved at the approaching lifeguards.

"It's just like a regular night out with the girls," Sharon giggled, watching Denise being dragged half naked into the boat by a muscular lifeguard.

"I think they're in shock," one lifeguard said to the other as they dragged the remaining hysterical girls onto the boat.

"Quick, save the rafts!" Holly just about managed to blurt out through her laughter.

"Raft overboard!" Sharon screamed.

The lifeguards looked at each other worriedly as they wrapped warm blankets around the girls and sped off back to the sh.o.r.e.

As they approached the beach there appeared to be a large crowd gathering. The girls looked at one another and laughed even harder. As they were lifted off the boat there was a huge applause; Denise turned and curtsied to them all.

"They clap now, but where were they when we needed them," Sharon grumbled.

"Traitors," Holly giggled.

"There they are!" They heard a familiar squeal and saw Cindy and the Barbie Brigade pushing their way through the crowd. "Oh my G.o.d!" she squeaked. "I saw the whole thing through my binoculars and called the lifeguards. Are you OK?" She looked to each of them frantically.

"Oh, we're fine," Sharon said rather seriously. "We were the lucky ones. The poor rafts never even had a chance." With that Sharon and Holly cracked up laughing and were ushered away to be looked at by a doctor.

That night the girls realized the seriousness of what had happened to them and their moods drastically changed. They sat in silence throughout dinner, all thinking about how lucky they were to be rescued and kicking themselves for being so careless. Denise squirmed uncomfortably in her chair and Holly noticed she had barely touched her food.

"What's wrong with you?" Sharon said, sucking in a piece of spaghetti, which caused the sauce to splash all over her face.

"Nothing," Denise said, quietly refilling her gla.s.s with water.

They sat in silence for another little while.

"Excuse me, I'm going to the toilet." Denise stood up and walked awkwardly into the ladies.

Sharon and Holly frowned at each other.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Holly asked.

Sharon shrugged, "Well, she's drunk about ten liters of water through dinner, so no wonder she keeps going to the toilet," she exaggerated.