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They hadn’tto seek their approval, and telling thele parent home would have produced exactly the reaction she’d predicted They would have stopped listening, in particular her mother It wouldn’t haveto be a lawyer on a scholarship

With this in mind, she hadn’t told Oscar the full story He presu aith them He hadn’t been hard to convince He loved children

Back on the beach, Oscar and Laura lay back on the soft dry sand The fire crackled at their feet and the air was fresh with the s his arm around her neck and his hand started to move over her shoulder and under the neck of her blouse

‘What’s that?’ said Laura knocking his hand away and sitting up

‘I can’t hear anything,’ he said ‘Come on, I really want to do you on this beach Theres no one around’

‘Jessica, she’s in the caravan,’ said Laura pointing to it in the distance Then they noticed it was in darkness

‘The generator, it’s stopped working,’ said Laura starting to panic

‘It’s probably run out of petrol’

‘But she’s scared of the dark, she’s all alone there in the dark!’ said Laura standing and hunting for her shoes

‘It’s okay, she’s probably asleep, she was exhausted’

‘We should never have left her alone in there!’ Laura shouted

‘It’s not ot the key,’ said Oscar pulling it froo back,’ said Laura She now had both shoes on and wasoff up the beach to join the small footpath to the caravan

When they reached the door, Oscar put the key in the lock

‘That generator really stinks,’ said Laura And then Oscar opened the caravan door

68

PRESENT DAY

Erika and Peterson sat in horror as Laura continued her story,