Epilogue
AMELIE
Mavis,
In the years since you’ve been gone, the town hasn’t changed much. In fact, it hasn’t changed much since I arrived here, all that time ago.
You were the first person I met here. I’d come to see the relics of what would be the Puffin Inn; it was little more than a shell, unused and unloved for twenty years or so, a crumbling mess of a building that still held echoes of the laughter that’d been spent there, along with the stale stench of pints that’d been pulled.
You warned me. If I took on that building I was committing the rest of my life to the town, only I’m not sure now it was a warning. I think it might’ve been a promise.
Thirty years later I’m still here, watching the town continue to thrive and I think you’d be happy about it. The kids, as you called them, the Holland brothers, Fleur, Thane, Clover – they’re all grown up now and have their own kids who’re all grown up. Some have stayed here; others have moved away – they may come back permanently one day, who knows. Their lives are complicated, as they always are at that age, falling in and out of love, having their hearts broken and mended again.
That was me once. I came here on the back of a broken heart, needing a fresh start and a new life. When I met you, you regarded me as if I was being assessed, giving me a slight nod, then a summary of what the town was.
Wild, at times, full of folk who need to be near the sea for whatever reason, and a place of life.
You were right. It is just that, and in those three decades I’ve watched those lives as well as having my own.
We miss you, you and Ivy and Alfred and all the other souls that aren’t here with us anymore, although no one’s used your name yet – it may happen, you never know. You’re not forgotten. Your house is still used as a refuge for those who need a place to stay, and no one has yet dared sit in your chair by the fire, apart from Flora, one of Fleur’s twins – I think she’d have been your favourite.
I still have the Puffin Inn and won’t be handing it over any time soon. I found my home here and that fresh start I needed, even though it wasn’t what I expected it to look like. Alys is still behind the bar because some things don’t ever have to change, and Roman still sorts out the barrels and provides everyone with entertainment when we bicker. That’s just the way we like it, and I hope it never changes.
Caleb’s all grown up now with two children of his own. Joel McAllister’s wife, Romy found her happiness with Cassian, just like you hoped at the time. Mia’s now a detective in Manchester – who’d have predicted that, and Aurora - Gully and Iris’ eldest - is down in London, doing the same job. Gully’s other two – I know you always liked Gully best – are doing well, just as maverick as he was and still is.
They come back sometimes to Puffin Bay, just like you told me – you never really leave - and it’s nothing to do with the place and everything to do with the people.
Which is why I think we all come back here in the end.
The End