The Paradise Trap Read Free Page B

adding, ‘Marcus is always telling me that his computer games are better than real life – and I’m beginning to wonder if he’s right after all. I mean, just look at this place! It used to be paradise, and now it’s awful!’
    ‘It’s not so bad,’ said Coco. Holly, however, wasn’t convinced.
    ‘How can you bear it?’ she asked. ‘I bet you can afford any kind of holiday you like. Doesn’t it depress you, coming here?’
    ‘Oh, no!’ Coco looked shocked. ‘I love coming here.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because it makes me happy.’ Seeing Holly’s puzzled expression, Coco tried to explain. ‘The first time I visited Diamond Beach, I thought it was perfect. And whenever I come back, I remember how I felt the first time. All these memories pop into my head. Like Jake’s treasure map. Or the dancing dog. Or that little old lady who used to play us nursery rhymes on her antique gramophone – remember her?’
    Holly nodded. ‘They were the prettiest songs I’d ever heard.’
    ‘That’s just what I thought!’
    ‘And the weather was perfect,’ Holly reminisced. ‘And the sea was always warm.’
    ‘And no one argued.’
    ‘And there were no flies or mosquitoes.’ Holly gave an embarrassed little laugh. ‘Sometimes I think I’m delusional. I keep telling myself that it can’t have been that great. But it was, wasn’t it? You think so too.’
    ‘Of course,’ said Coco. ‘It was perfect. Everyone felt the same. Jake didn’t want to leave. He packed a knapsack and told me he was going to run off and hide when his family went home.’ She clicked her tongue and shook her head. ‘I don’t think his parents were very nice to him,’ she concluded.
    ‘They weren’t,’ Holly agreed. ‘He told me they weren’t. So did he run off and hide, in the end?’
    ‘I don’t know. We left before his family did. And he wasn’t here when we came back the next summer.’ It was Coco’s turn to smile a nostalgic smile. ‘My mother always loved this place,’ she said. ‘Sterling and I used to bring her every year before she died. And Sterling doesn’t mind where we go, as long as he gets to tinker with his caravan. He adores this caravan. He loves to show off all the new gadgets he’s installed to make it better.’
    ‘So it’s just the memories that draw you back?’ Holly asked sympathetically. Coco shook her head.
    ‘Oh, no!’ she rejoined. ‘It’s because the service here is so good. And so cheap. Diamond Beach isn’t like the city, you know.’ She began to count off the local attractions on her lavishly manicured fingers. ‘There’s a fabulous beautician, and an excellent massage therapist, and a hairdresser, and a pet groomer, and a whole tribe of personal trainers, and a really nice jeweller who sells door to door. Not to mention the tradesmen, who are desperate for work. Nobody says “I can’t make it for another three weeks” in this neck of the woods, let me tell you!’
    She was cut short as Prot hummed into the room, bearing a pink lacquered tray laden with (among other things) three pairs of spectacles.
    Coco gave a little shriek.
    ‘For goodness sake!’ she quavered. ‘What’s that ?’
    ‘Some mice teeth, a bowl of cash, used ice ham, with cheese lemonade and three glasses,’ Prot replied in a toneless voice.
    ‘Oh, you stupid machine!’ Coco’s voice became shrill and waspish. ‘I asked for some iced tea , the bowl of cashews , diced ham with cheese, lemonade and three drinking glasses. ’ She threw a cushion at the robot. ‘Get out! Go on! And take that hideous stuff with you!’
    Prot’s upper portion swivelled around on its caterpillar treads, which began to reverse out of the room.
    ‘And don’t bother coming back!’ Coco yelled. Then she turned to Holly. ‘Sterling insists on lumbering me with every harebrained invention he comes up with. The freeven was bad enough, but this thing is worse.’
    ‘The freeven?’ Holly echoed, all at sea.
    ‘It was a combined