‘Oof,’ said Polly. ‘Total nightmare.’
‘I know,’ said Marisa. ‘Anyway. It doesn’t matter. I’m still feeling much better.’
‘Good,’ said Polly. ‘Maybe you can bag one of Reuben’s rich mates at the party.’
Marisa rolled her eyes. Oh God, Caius would probably be coming too. ‘How big is this thing?’ she asked, as Polly smirked.
Chapter Seventy-two
Marisa gasped when she saw the beach, as they lugged huge boxes of ingredients down a sandy path. It was absolutely perfect, like something out of a magazine. Young guys were going up and down, raking the sand. In the middle was an actual real life circus tent, next to an entire funfair, complete with big wheel, waltzers and, indeed, a candyfloss machine, if not technically a waterfall. The sun shone brightly down on everything.
‘Okay,’ said Polly. ‘This is going to be just fine.’
‘’Scuse me,’ said a cheerful voice, and two young women walked past them on the narrow pathway, carrying between them the longest snake Marisa had ever seen in her life. She jumped and nearly dropped the cake.
‘Not scared of a snake, are you?’ said the first woman quite aggressively.
‘Yes. A bit,’ said Marisa, as the first woman sniffed contemptuously. Polly, meanwhile, was looking on with horror.
‘Don’t listen to her, Janice.’
‘Aren’t they meant to be in a . . . cage or a box or a linen basket or something?’ said Polly trying not to look scared but sidling slightly to the side of the path nonetheless. Oh God. Poor Daisy.
‘Actually, we believe in freedom for animals? Not caging them?’ said the woman at the back end of the snake. ‘Janice is free range.’
Polly took out her phone and texted Huckle, telling him under no circumstances to let Neil come, however much he liked being in the sidecar. And then she told him not to tell Daisy, and to stay away from the animals’ tent. It would be fine. It would be fine. There were a million other things here to distract children, yes?
The girls marched on towards the circus tent, unabashed, even as the snake opened its vast jaws in something Marisa very much hoped was a yawn.
‘Daisy is not going to want to see this,’ said Polly.
‘As long as they don’t have any free-range tigers,’ said Marisa with feeling. ‘She’ll probably be all right. It looks like there’s plenty for them to do.’
Two men came by with a huge box labelled with several hazard warnings and a lot of exclamation points in Chinese writing.
‘What are those?’ said Marisa.
‘Definitely not fireworks,’ said the man in a low voice.
‘Sssh,’ said the other guy as they gingerly crept by.
‘Why can’t they have fireworks?’ wondered Marisa. ‘Is it the beach?’
‘Nope, it’s normally fine,’ said Polly. ‘Unless they’re some terribly vast military-grade illegal fireworks.’
‘Near a loose boa constrictor,’ said Marisa. ‘Absolutely nothing is going to go wrong at this party.’
Down in the main staging area, all was choreographed mayhem. People were running about with headsets barking serious orders into them like they were organising a war rather than a party for an unbelievably spoilt eight-year-old. The kitchens were superb – Reuben liked to cook too and used the beach kitchen all year round – and Polly was familiar with it, so she started to unpack the food.
‘I have to ask,’ said Marisa. ‘I get the pizza element but . . .’
She looked around. There was an entire old-fashioned sweet stand, and an ice cream van giving out free ice cream in every imaginable flavour. Marisa felt a sudden rush of pity for any other kid in Lowin’s class at school having a party after this. There was also a fish and chip van parked up, and a fancy-looking plating station.
‘Why are we doing smoked salmon canapés? Are kids different these days?’
‘Oh no,’ said Polly. ‘There’ll be a lot of grown-ups at this party.’
Marisa raised her eyebrows. Then she thought.
‘It has been so long since I’ve been to a party.’
‘I bet. Well, you can join it when we’ve finished serving the little brats. They’re here two to four but the party will carry on rather longer than that if my experience of these things is correct.’
‘I won’t know anyone.’
‘Alexei’s coming,’ said Polly, smiling to herself.
‘Is he?’
‘Yes. Didn’t I say?’
‘When I was spilling my guts in the van?’
‘Sorry,’ said Polly. ‘I didn’t think it would help.’
‘No! Oh my God.’
Marisa looked down at the simple black and white outfit she was wearing.
‘Why is he even invited?’
‘He’s playing “Happy birthday”. Only a proper concert pianist will count to play his boy in.’
Marisa bit her lip.
‘This is money, huh.’
‘I know,’ said Polly. ‘Exhausting, isn’t it?’
Kerensa didn’t look in the least bit exhausted, however, as she came down from the house, dressed in beautiful beige draped trousers and a top, and hugged Polly. ‘Hooray! How’s it going?’
‘Don’t you know?’ said Polly. Kerensa waved her hands. ‘Oh, I’m sure Reuben’s got it sorted.’
They all stopped talking and turned around as a platoon of people dressed as stormtroopers marched in formation across the sand.
‘Wow. Do you think they’re hot?’ said Polly.
‘Christ yes,’ said Kerensa, grinning. ‘Please come and drink Champagne with me, otherwise it’ll be the school mums and if the WhatsApp is anything to go by they are all completely deranged.’
‘You read the school WhatsApp?’ said Polly.
‘Ha, not any more,’ said Kerensa. ‘I told them I was coming off it for the sake of “self-care for my own screentime wellness” and none of those beyatches could do a thing about it. HA!’
Polly laughed too.
‘Well, a small one. Huckle can drive home. I’m so tired these days I’d be unsafe whether I have a drink or not.’
‘I heard,’ said Kerensa. ‘You’re quite the talk of the region. Reuben wants to talk to you about buying you out for a franchise.’
Polly rolled her eyes.
‘Unfortunately that only works if you can duplicate the secret ingredient, and there’s only one Marisa here.’
Marisa smiled and looked embarrassed.
‘It’s lovely to have you here,’ said Kerensa. ‘Welcome.’
Marisa thought the woman who lived here would be terrifying, but she wasn’t; she was nice.
‘It’s amazing,’ said Marisa honestly. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘Welcome to Reuben’s world,’ said Kerensa, rolling her eyes as if you ever got used to it.
Polly turned round at a sound on the water.
‘You are kidding,’ she said.
‘Oh,’ said Kerensa. ‘He didn’t tell me about this either.’
‘Didn’t tell you about what?’ came a loud American-accented voice. ‘Hey. You know they didn’t bring the tigers! How are you meant to have a birthday party without tigers?’