Wishing

[squirmelia]

The crash landing back to reality was harsher than expected. The week before, I had been ill and the world had then seemed mixed up, my mind ridden with fantasies and confusion. I then went on holiday to the Forest of Dean with my mum to celebrate my birthday and escaped from the Internet for a few days.

On Friday, I stood underneath the Wishing Fish Clock in the Regent Arcade in Cheltenham, with my mum and a crowd of small children and their parents, waiting for the clock to strike 4. The clock was designed by Kit Williams, who wrote Masquerade. Mice popped out of the clock at various times and the fish spun around, and then when the moment I had been waiting for came, at precisely 4 o'clock, the fish blew bubbles. I caught a bubble and made a wish.

In Newent, I bought dolmades and strawberries.

We spent the night in a wooden lodge and my mum was convinced Heidi was locked in the cupboard, with the jigsaws of dolphins.