Then, to my utter astonishment, Mum and Dad start retreating.
What… What are they doing? They were supposed to be running toward me.
They disappear round the corner and for a few moments I’m too baffled to speak.
“Luke, was that Mum and Dad?” I say at last.
“I think so.” Luke sounds equally puzzled.
“And did they really… run away from me?”
I’m stricken. My own parents, running away from me as though I’ve got the plague.
“No!” Luke says quickly. “Of course not. They probably just didn’t see you. Look!” He suddenly points. “There they are again.”
Sure enough, Mum and Dad have appeared round the corner again, this time without the girl. They walk along for a few steps, then Dad dramatically grabs Mum and points at me.
“Look!” he says. “It’s Becky!”
“Becky!” Mum exclaims in a stilted voice. “It can’t be true!”
She sounds just like she did in the amateur dramatics Agatha Christie last year, when she played the lady who discovered the body.
“Becky! Luke!” Dad calls.
And now they really are running toward us, and I feel a huge swell of emotion rising.
“Mum!” I shout. “Dad! We’re back!”
I race toward them, throwing my hands out. I land in Dad’s arms, and the next moment Mum’s there too, and we’re all in a great big hug.
“You’re home!” Dad exclaims. “Welcome back, darling!”
“Is everything all right?” Mum peers at me anxiously. “Are you OK?”
“We’re fine! We just decided to come home early! We wanted to see you all!” I squeeze Mum tightly. “We knew you’d be missing us!”
All three of us walk back to the house, where Dad shakes Luke’s hand and Mum gives him an enormous hug.
“I can’t believe it,” she says, looking from Luke to me. “I just can’t believe it. Luke, your hair! It’s so long!”
“I know.” He grins at me. “It’ll be coming off before I go to work.”
I open my mouth automatically to protest, then close it again. I’m feeling too joyful to start arguing. Instead I beam happily back at him, my arm still linked inside Dad’s. This is how I imagined it. Everyone together and happy. Although… I’m still wondering what was going on earlier.
Impulsively I hug Mum again with my free arm. “It’s so lovely to see you!”
“It’s lovely to see you, darling!” She hugs me back and I inhale the familiar scent of her Green Irish Tweed perfume, which she’s been wearing as long as I can remember.
“That’s a relief to hear!” I laugh. “Because it almost looked like you were…” I break off, feeling a bit awkward.
“What, love?”
“Well, it kind of looked as if you were… trying to avoid me!” I give another little laugh, to show what a ridiculous idea this is.
There’s a pause — and I’m not totally sure, but I think I see Mum and Dad glance at each other.
“Dad dropped his spectacles!” says Mum brightly. “Didn’t you, love?”
“That’s right!” Dad chimes in heartily. “I dropped my specs.”
“We had to go back for them,” Mum explains.
Both she and Dad are watching me with alert expressions.
What’s going on? Are they hiding something?
“Is that Becky?” A shrill voice pierces the atmosphere, and I look round to see Janice, our next-door neighbor, peering over the fence. She’s wearing a pink flowery dress with matching eyeshadow, and her hair has been dyed a very strange shade of auburn. “Becky!” She clasps her hands breathlessly to her chest. “It is you!”
“Hi, Janice!” I say, trying to hide my discomfiture. “We’re back!”
“You look so well!” she exclaims. “Don’t they look well?” she says to my parents. “So brown!”
“That’s traveling for you,” I say nonchalantly.
“And Luke! You look just like Crocodile Dundee!” Janice is goggling at both of us with open admiration, and I can’t help feeling gratified.
“Let’s go in,” says Mum. “And you can tell us all about it!”
This is the moment I’ve pictured so many times. Sitting down with friends and family and telling all about our foreign adventures. Spreading out a crinkly map… describing sunrises over mountains… looking at the avid faces… listening to the gasps of admiration…
Except that now it’s actually happening, it isn’t going quite like I imagined.