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take the Spirit over to Main Island to pick up people from the ferry two or three times a week, to bring them back to the campsite on St Ailla. If the weather’s good enough, all of us kids go down to the jetty to meet the boat and see who’s arriving. We sit on the wall and watch the Spirit ploughing back across the Sound, and we help with loading the bags and gear on to the tractor-trailer. Sometimes, if Huw’s driving he’ll give us a lift back. Everyone loves the bumpy ride along the track to the field.
    So that’s what we’re doing now: waiting. Me, Joe, Will, Luke, Lisa, Maddie, Rosie. Rosie is the youngest (about six) then me (thirteen). Maddie, Rosie’s big sister, is the next oldest, then Joe, Will, Luke and Lisa are all sixteen. Huw’s more like nineteen, and Dave’s grown-up of course, like forty or even more.
    â€˜Where’s Ben?’ Rosie asks.
    Maddie shrugs. ‘Off somewhere.’
    Ben lives on St Ailla all year round. He loves it when we all turn up in the summer: it means he gets to play football. He’s not very good at it because he never gets any practice. He’s about eleven or twelve. Small for his age. He goes to school by boat, on Main Island. How cool is that?
    â€˜He said he was going to Main Island on the early boat with his dad,’ Lisa says. ‘That family with twin babies left this morning, too.’
    â€˜The campsite’s full now, apparently,’ Will says. ‘Just one new family, arriving on the ferry.’
    â€˜I hope there’s a girl for me to play with,’ Rosie says.
    â€˜Me too. So you stop bothering us all the time,’ Maddie says.
    Rosie puckers up her mouth and slaps Maddie’s leg. Maddie picks up a pebble and pretends she’s going to hit Rosie, just so Rosie squawks, then chucks it at the can we’ve set up on a rock. She misses.
    I have a go. I miss too.
    Joe picks up a handful of pebbles. He chooses them carefully, testing their weight. He aims. The can bounces off the rock and clatters down the cliff a little way. ‘Yes!’ Joe jumps down from the wall and goes to set the can up again.
    â€˜Best of three,’ Will says.
    â€˜Boat’s coming,’ Lisa calls.
    We watch the people getting off. A few rambler types, for the bed and breakfast place, we guess. The family with camping gear is just a woman and two girls, one about seven, so Rosie’s happy, and the other older, more like Joe’s age. She’s got long straight dark hair, almond eyes. She’s utterly beautiful. A sort of collective sigh passes from Will to Luke to Joe and even to Lisa and Maddie.
    Huw helps the girl up the steps. He holds her arm longer than is strictly necessary. We all notice.
    When I look round at Joe, I see his mouth’s slightly open. ‘Catching flies, fish-face?’ I tease, and he shoves me so I fall off the wall.
    The new girl doesn’t smile. We watch her follow the woman and the little girl up the steep stone jetty. No one else moves or says anything. It’s like we’re all spellbound. As she goes past, she glances briefly at us. Rosie hops down and runs after the little girl. ‘Hello, my name is Rosie.’ We hear her chattering after them, like she always does with new people. The rest of us turn our heads to watch their progress along the path. The girl stops and looks back once. Joe smiles. Then Huw comes chugging past on the tractor, and we all scramble to get a lift with the luggage on the trailer. I see Joe check the labels on the bags.
    That’s the real moment Joe’s summer changes. The day Samphire arrives.

Nine
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    â€˜I thought I’d go on the boat trip tonight,’ I say at teatime. Evie and I have grilled the mackerel and we’re eating it now, picking out the small bones.
    Evie shoots a look at Gramps, and then at me. ‘Well,’ she says slowly. ‘I’m not sure . . . your mum and dad might not