Clactononsea

It was a Tuesday and Tuesday meant Show and Tell. The class of Year 3 had seen a tiny plane, flown by the Dare Devil Maxine, that she'd spent most of the day charging on the flat school roof. Tariq had made a picture of his second Dad using bits of felt, twigs and a washer. Danny was explaining how he'd seen a picture of a tiger at Dudley Zoo and its concrete paw print had been bigger than his head. At the back of the class, Annie was rearranging her sea shells. She wasn't nervous. Her mom had said that "this wasn't anything to fret about". Soon it would be her turn and she was sure that this week her story would be the best. Her mom had brushed her hair twice so it was extra shiny but Harry in the other Year 3 class had rubbed a balloon on it at lunchtime and now she looked like a little blonde hedgehog. Her mom said that, when it got spikey, but Annie had never seen a real hedgehog. Only pictures on the TV. On the news before she'd gone to sleep, there had been more adults talking about flooding and her mom had said that her Show and Tell was 'topical'. Annie liked that. She didn't know what it meant, but she thought it sounded important and had spent all of Maths imagining she was like the woman with the shiny bob on the TV. She had borrowed her mom's broken tablet so she could place it on the table at the front and look like she was reading off of it. Danny had stopped talking about tigers and everyone was clapping. Giving him a Round of Applause. Annie thought tigers must be huge. Like the metro to Nana's. Danny had said they had really big teeth. Annie had seen a programme about rhinosusauruses once and thought that tiger teeth must be like the horns on rhinosauruses. A big mouth. And lots of teeth. "Annie!" Miss Ahmed was waving to her. Annie straightened the bow in her hair and skipped to the front of the class. Alex P, who smelt funny and was the one she didn't like most, was doodling on his Nexus. She glared at him and put down her mom's battered tablet, and rearranged her seashells. The one at the front wasn't quite right, so she twisted it to the side so it matched the others. "Ahem," she said, because that was what her mom did at important family dinners. The ones that her Dad's Mom and Dad came to. The ones where everyone looked serious. The ones where sometimes her mom cried in the kitchen of the funny bungalow with the big dining room and the hopscotch carpet that Her Great Granddad Had Built. "My show and tell is that at The Weekend," she paused dramatically, "I went to the seaside." Twenty five heads nodded back at her. Ar, the seaside, we know about that. "Me and my mom and my Nan and my mom's friend who is called Alex who bought me a sweet that is called Rock and it said Ch-" she stopped and stumbled over the unfamiliar word. "Chelmsford in reallyreallyreally tiny letters." She squeezed her finger and thumb together to make it obvious to everyone. Especially thick Tony. He was a bit Slow. "And I got some seashells and mom said we could go for a paddle but only a paddle 'cause," she put on her oldest voice and standing a little taller in her red patent shoes said, "It's Cold This Time Of Year." She wasn't sure what that had to do with anything, but she had been told it a lot on the beach with all the interesting stones and the women who called her babe, like one of those rhyums you learn at school. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Don't Touch That It's Hot. It's Cold This Time Of Year. The Weather's Nice Today. She paused, and then remembered where she was. She looked down at the tablet to prepare herself for the big reveal. "Mom says that when she was eight like me, the sea wasn't," she hesitated because this part confused her, "It wasn't by Chelmsford. It was at Clactononsea and there were women in bikinis and an Amusement Park and Clactononsea isn't there anymore or the women in bikinis or the Amusement Park. Mom says it is like Atlantis." She stopped, and grinned at them all, single front tuthed, like a magician presenting a fabulous trick. The class stared, bemused, back at her. Daisy already had her hand up. Annie didn't like Daisy. Her mom said that she was "up herself". She'd said, "Aer kid'll never get like that." And then she'd ruffled Annie's hair. "Annie," Miss Ahmed said, "Daisy has a question for you." Annie glared at the pretty blonde girl with her curls and her pink cheeks. "What?" she mumbled. "Annie, that's not how we speak to people." "Yes, Daisy," said Annie, glaring all the while. "What's Atlantis?" Daisy asked. She wasn't from round here, Latika's Dad said. He said she was from one of the Clactononsea places. One of the underwater-flooded places. Only there was no Amusement Park. She didn't sound right, that was all Annie knew. "Atlantis is like Clactononsea," Annie said, hands behind her back like her mom had told her. "It's underwater and all the houses and the Amusement Park have fishes in them and no one but fishes and eels live there anymore. Not even women in bikinis. Atlantis was in Ancient Greece and." She stopped and scrunched up her forehead as she tried to remember what her mom's friend Alex had said, "And Clactononsea is in Essex." Miss Ahmed was smiling at her as if she'd said something clever. "Well done, Annie. Maybe you'll bring us all some of that rock when you go back?" Annie nodded, and collected her sea shells. She was glad no one had asked if they could have one. They were hers. They were like the seashells that she'd bashed with a stick til they were bost. Broken, her dad had said. Broken, Annie, not bost. She said it under her breath. Broken. He'd put the shells round pots and red onions in lines like Annie's toy soldiers. They'd made a fortress. An Inpenetrable Onion Fortress. Annie had asked what happened when the onions wanted to be rescued. Her dad said they were like Ariel. Ariel, Annie liked Ariel best. She didn't need rescuing because she was from Atlantis. AtlantisClactononsea where the streets were paved with seashells and women in bikinis swam with fish and posted eels like postcards in red letter boxes. Her mom had said that seaweed would have grown over all of the houses. Sea weed front lawns. She said that Walsall would never flood because it was Too Far From The Sea. And it had no rivers. Annie thought she liked the seaside. She liked the days when they did things like that. Like the day they'd gone to the zoo and her mom said she'd come when she was little, and had a lemur sit on her shoulder. She wondered if one day she would swim to ClactononseaAtlantis and see the fish in the pub and the crabs in people's toilets. She hoped so. Then she could find more shells, shells that made underwater pavements. Shells that were hers, but she would show one to her Dad. Because her mom would think that he'd like that. Annie didn't just think, she knew. Even if Daisy said she couldn't know because HowCouldSheKnowWhenHeWasDead? Miss Harwood had got all upset about that and said was that he was "Up in Heaven" even though Annie's mom had said that wasn't true and when Annie had asked she'd just said. She'd just said that He Would Have Been Proud Of Her Anyway. It's Cold This Time Of Year. Don't Touch That It's Hot. The Weather's Nice Today. He Would Have Been Proud Of You Anyway. Annie put away her shells. The seaside had been nice. She liked it when they did things like that. Her and her mom and her Nan and her mom's friend who was called Alex who had given her a sweet that was called Rock with Chelmsford written in reallyreallyreally tiny writing.