Chapter One #2
‘Thanks,’ said Ivy. She had gathered up her work and left the studio that afternoon feeling nothing less than crushed.
She had ducked past the student union, knowing that everyone would be in there celebrating the end of term and their successful projects, and driven back to her lodgings, miserable thoughts churning round her head.
Were ephemerality and impermanence the same thing?
Yet again, Ivy had a growing suspicion she’d made the biggest mistake of her life.
The last thing she’d painted with any conviction had been a half-finished seascape in September that she’d immediately flipped face-down on her desk.
It had reminded her of home, and the last thing she wanted to paint was anything inspired by Fox Bay.
And now it was the end of term. The crowds of exciting, Bohemian new friends Ivy had thought she would make had obviously not materialised, nor had the longed-for internship in Paris.
Ivy had no hot artist boyfriend to bring home and show off either.
With no money and no offers pending, Ivy had realised she had no choice but to go back.
Back to Fox Bay, back to the room she shared with Liv, to figure out her end-of-year art project in a place she knew better than the back of her hand, where literally nothing exciting or inspirational ever happened.
‘Of course you must come back!’ her mum had said delightedly down the phone when Ivy finally summoned the courage to call and admit defeat.
Her mum was permanently enthusiastic about life and love, despite a succession of failed relationships.
‘I’m sorry the internship didn’t work out, but I can’t wait to see you and Liv will be thrilled.
Not to mention everyone else here. Everything is exactly the same in the flat, love. We haven’t changed a thing.’
Ivy blinked back tears. It was comforting hearing her mum’s warm, lilting voice.
But … everything is exactly the same. We haven’t changed a thing.
She could just imagine it – the same mismatched furniture, the same cramped little kitchen, the same bedroom, one half papered in Velvet Underground posters and prints of expressionist art, the other covered in Lilo Tamsin, selling her crystals; Skye, making coffee at the Driftwood Café; Kate at the surf shop teaching the new generation of surfers …
Nothing ever changed in Fox Bay and Ivy couldn’t believe that anything ever would.
‘And all your school friends will be so pleased,’ her mum had gone on happily. ‘Erin, Mei, Callum.’
‘They’re not my friends, Mum,’ Ivy muttered. ‘They think I’m a loser. They only used to invite me to things because they felt sorry for me. I bet they were relieved I never went.’
Mei, Erin and Callum were nothing like her and Raye.
They did regular Fox Bay things like surfing and partying on the beach, while Raye and Ivy had preferred to listen to music in their rooms and plot their escape.
And Raye had been non-committal about the break, wanting to hang with Cleo, her new girlfriend. Ivy wasn’t sure when she’d be back.
And there was another thing to consider. While Ivy’s mum was just about scraping together tuition fees for Cornwall Art College, Ivy would still need to work during the holidays. She needed a job.
‘I’ll ask around,’ her mum had said, clearly running through her mental roster of Fox Bay job vacancies.
‘Lou’s started doing delivery pizza, so maybe you could do some shifts with the car, but I’m not sure it’s quite taken off yet and the Fiat is pretty unreliable, as you know.
Or Simi might need help behind the bar at the Mariner’s Arms now that Jacob’s away with Anna …
I saw Skye the other day back for the holidays, so I’m not sure there will be anything going at the Driftwood … ’
‘Thanks, Mum,’ Ivy said. ‘I was sort of hoping for something during the day so I can do my project in the evenings. But if you hear of anything …’
‘I’ll do my best,’ her mum had promised.
But all her mum’s leads – handing out fliers for Old Bill’s new boat tours, wiping tables at the beach café – came up short. In the end, Ivy had rung Raye.
‘I’ve got the perfect solution,’ Raye told her. ‘Wildest Dreams. It’s the most low-maintenance job ever.’ She had worked at the haphazard bookshop part-time for years.
‘It’s incredibly chill,’ Raye assured her. ‘You remember – I was mostly reading or catching up on gossip. Okay it got pretty busy towards the end of last summer but that was exceptional circs. It’ll be perfect for your needs.’
Stacking shelves during the day sounded more appealing than pulling pints at night, Ivy thought.
‘Do you think Josie needs anyone?’ she asked.
‘I bet she does,’ Raye had said. ‘I just had to tell her I couldn’t help out this winter as usual.
Josie is the best. If anyone is going to support your artistic endeavours, it’s her.
She is all about living for your art. Besides, she’s too loved up with Fin these days to make anyone work that hard.
You could do a lot worse than Wildest Dreams. I’ll text her now and ask. ’
‘Thanks,’ Ivy had told Raye. ‘I guess I’m coming home. Are you not coming back yet then?’ She’d tried not to sound too hopeful (or desperate).
Raye laughed down the phone. ‘And miss the end-of-term parties? No way! Besides,’ her voice turned coy, ‘Cleo’s parents are coming to Glasgow in a couple of weeks and she thought maybe we could all have dinner together. Pretty big, huh?’
‘Pretty big,’ said Ivy, trying not to sound like she cared too much whether Raye made it or not. Like she wasn’t at all jealous of Raye’s cool new life. ‘I guess I’ll see you when I see you.’
‘I’ll try and make it back for New Year,’ Raye said breezily. ‘And,’ she went on mysteriously, ‘wait till you see Fox Bay. I went back for Reading Week and let me tell you, you’re in for a surprise. Things have changed since you were last there.’
‘Really?’ Ivy said, hardly listening. ‘Change, in Fox Bay? I find that hard to imagine. Have they repainted the station sign? Or put in new speed bumps by the Co-op?’
Raye had cackled. ‘Just wait and see, Ivy. Wait and see.’
When Ivy reached the centre of Fox Bay, on her way to meet her mum and Liv at Cod Almighty for a homecoming meal, she realised that Raye had been right. Something had definitely changed.
Take, for instance, the train station. Forcing the wheezing car into a space, Ivy stared in amazement.
Usually, only one or two passengers would alight at Fox Bay, if that.
It wasn’t uncommon to be the last passenger on the train by the time it made it all the way down the coast to the town.
Today, though, crowds of people poured off the train, chatting excitedly.
Ivy climbed out of the car and caught snatches of their conversations.
‘This place is so cosy!’
‘Shall we hit the bookshop first?’
‘Or the Unmissable Gems of Fox Bay boat tour maybe?’
‘A cream tea at the Mariner’s?’
‘We need to get one of Fin’s cinnamon buns.’
Bewildered, Ivy headed along the pavement to Cod Almighty.
Her mum and Liv were in the window, holding up a sign that read WELCOME HOME IVY!
She went inside and allowed herself to be enveloped in her mum’s warm, slightly bony hug.
Her mum was a whirlwind of energy, all sharp angles and elbows, with freckles and thick red waves of hair like Ivy’s.
She was also the kindest person Ivy knew and an eternal joiner, signing up for everything from the PTA to the Litter Collection Team; all in spite of the long hours she worked as a receptionist at the doctor’s surgery.
‘Darling,’ she whispered into Ivy’s hair, ‘look at you! All grown up! My clever art student.’
‘We missed you,’ whispered her little sister, Liv, burying her own curly head into Ivy’s waist.
‘You’ve got so tall,’ Ivy said, extricating herself from her mum’s hug and rumpling her sister’s hair. ‘You’re going to be taller than me soon.’
Liv, who was nine years old, very practical and wanted to be the next Sheryl Sandberg ‘so that someone in this family makes some money’ wrinkled her nose. ‘I doubt it,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘Your dad was six foot five and my dad was, and I’m quoting Mum, a short arse.’
‘I don’t think I said that about him, love,’ her mum said, going pink. ‘Come on. Let’s get Ivy some tea.’
‘What,’ Ivy said, gesturing to the people bustling along the pavement, ‘is going on here and what has happened to the sleepy little seaside town I left behind? Is there some new festival I don’t know about?
’ It was the only explanation she could think of.
Fox Bay had a penchant for eccentric traditions and festivals, going big on things like Pancake Day, egg rolling, midsummer rites and Samhain.
But it was usually confined to the locals.
Ivy couldn’t remember anything bringing in the tourists like this.
‘Of course, you haven’t been here since it all kicked off.’ Her mum had tucked her arm through Ivy’s. ‘Remember when that writer, Kathleen Lee, came here last summer? You were away on that residency, but I told you about it.’
Ivy remembered, of course. A celebrity romance author called Kathleen Lee had launched her book in a hidden bay in their town. The launch had gone viral, with an exclusive signing from Kathleen Lee at Wildest Dreams, stoking the book’s already mammoth pre-sales and turning it into a phenomenon.
‘But it wasn’t like this,’ Ivy said, bewildered.
‘Well everything just snowballed after that,’ her mum said.
‘Some big travel writer from the US wrote a feature calling Fox Bay England’s Secret Seaside Paradise.
They said we were “the UK’s answer to Stars Hollow”.
And since then, it’s just been hordes of tourists.
’ Her mum sighed. ‘Which I suppose makes this secret seaside paradise rather … unsecret. Good for the local businesses though. The bookshop is especially popular, of course.’
‘Wow,’ Ivy said. ‘I didn’t realise it had got so big. Is Kathleen Lee really that famous?’
‘She’s huge. There’s even talk of a movie of Ocean Deep. Although that might just be a rumour. I haven’t seen an announcement yet. You know what this place is like for gossip.’
As they navigated their way back to the car after finishing their chips, Ivy found that the town was indeed crawling with tourists, thronging the cobbled streets, taking selfies in front of Old Bill’s boat, posing with glass bottles fitted with tiny paper scrolls on the shoreline, buying crystals at Tamsin’s shop and having coffee outside the picturesque Mariner’s Arms.
‘Gosh,’ Ivy looked around in amazement. ‘It’s quite a change. I’m not used to seeing this many people at once in this town.’
Her mum laughed. ‘And you always said nothing happened here! Well, now look.’
It was true. Ivy had left to discover the outside world at the precise moment the outside world had come to Fox Bay.