Excess Baggage Read Free

So please don’t worry. We’re all going to have a lovely time!’
    Penelope laughed. ‘He likes worrying, it’s his hobby; leave him alone.’
    Perry tapped the back of Simon’s seat. ‘It’s all covered by insurance anyway. I took out the Platinum Scheme. For that price they’ll fly the bodies back in hand-carved marble coffins on a chartered bloody Concorde. And you’ll know where to go for the cars, you could get a good few in this for the funeral.’
    Simon could feel his left eye twitching. They might laugh now, but what
was
this sudden, short-notice, no-expense-spared trip all about? He and Theresa and Lucy hadn’t been on holiday with their parents since the last Devon visit, and those used to be carefully arranged a good six months in advance, not rushed into at three weeks’ irresponsible notice. He must have been in his mid-teens for that last Torquay fortnight, at the age when you just prayed you’d be swallowed into the sand rather than have a bunch of giggling girls on the beach twig that you were with your mum and dad. They’d gone on taking Lucy away long after that of course, seeing as she was ten years younger than him. He vaguely remembered his mother showing holiday photos and saying things like, ‘This is the little friend Perry found for Lucy on the beach.’ He could imagine his dad accosting small girls of the right age and luring them to the immaculate sand castle he’d have constructed for Lucy. Parents now would be narrow-eyed with suspicion but Perry had simply been buying time off for Shirley with every ice-cream offered to a stranger.
    ‘North Terminal, sir?’ The driver interrupted Simon’s thoughts.
    ‘Oh, er … Gatwick already. Yes, North Terminal, thanks.’
    ‘Oh and look, there’s Lucy and Colette by the luggage trolleys.’ Plum leaned forward and shoved her arm past Simon, pointing through the windscreen.
    ‘She looks as if she’s arguing with someone,’ Perry commented.
    ‘No change there, then,’ Shirley muttered, watching, as their Volvo pulled up, her younger daughter furiously crashing her bag onto a luggage trolley that was being tugged at by a stout young man in an orange tracksuit. Colette was a few yards away, staring at the sky.
    ‘God, is that Ross? Her new bloke? He doesn’t look her type. Or anyone’s come to think of it.’ Becky sat staring while around her Simon and Penelope unloaded the bags.
    ‘What new bloke? She’s not bringing a …’ Simon craned past the throng of holidaymakers.
    ‘A what? An outsider?’ Plum murmured to him. ‘If she has, that’s her choice and her business. Just because she hasn’t had the marital luck you and Theresa have had. Please don’t you start picking fights too.’
* * *
    ‘You only picked on me because I’m female,’ Lucy hissed at the man as she wrenched the trolley away from him.
    ‘I only picked on you because you nicked my fucking trolley. I’d bagged that. I’ve got a family of six over there.’
    ‘Oh, that gives you priority, does it? The nuclear family, the nation’s pride and joy. Me, I’m just a lone parent, bottom of the social heap,’ she sneered.
    ‘Take it, lady. You deserve it for being a nutter.’ He gave way, hands up in surrender, let go of the trolley and walked off.
    ‘We didn’t need it, Mum.’ Colette was looking embarrassed. ‘We’ve hardly brought any stuff. We could have just carried it.’
    ‘No way. I got there first, it’s mine. You have to learn to stand up for yourself when there’s no big fix-it super-hero taking care of you.’ She giggled suddenly. ‘But it’s got a wonky wheel.’
    ‘Lucy! Don’t rush off, we’re all here!’ Simon caught up with her and Colette. He looked, she thought, flustered and already exhausted.
    ‘You OK, Si? You look knackered.’
    ‘Tricky journey. Moody kids and I’m sure Mum’s coming down with something.’
    Lucy leaned on her trolley, conscious that they were obstructing the busy corridor. ‘How tricky can