‘Right.’
‘Are you disputing that?’
‘No. Right! The turning on the right.’
Sofia swung into the turning on the wrong side of the road with the brakes screaming.
‘You weren’t making it clear.’
Charlotte just stared straight ahead.
Another ten minutes on and the road had started to hug the coast and narrowed to a single track with passing places. The turquoise water on their left was some sort of inlet, and only a strip of shrub and rocks separated them from the edge of theroad and the sea. If anything came the other way, they’d be in big trouble, thought Maddie. She wasn’t convinced about Sofia’s reversing skills so close to the water.
Sofia seemed a trifle nervous herself.
‘Are you sure this is right?’
Charlotte shrugged.
‘My map reading’s certainly right. This is the way it says. You’re the one who “organised” it.’
‘OK, let’s carry on for a bit.’
Maddie kept quiet and let the others fight it out.
She could see that the tarmacked section they’d travelled on thus far was about to run out completely, and that there was a stark line where it turned into a track.
Charlotte pointed through the windscreen.
‘Are we still carrying on? That just looks like piles of stones on top of each other.’
Sofia leant over the steering wheel to follow where Charlotte was pointing.
‘I’m sure it’s fine.’
‘If you’ve got a four by four.’
‘Stop moaning.’
Sofia’s attention was caught by something at the side of the road. She brought the car to a sudden stop which had Maddie’s forehead positioned inches from Charlotte’s headrest.
‘What the hell, Sof?’
‘Sorry. Look. Someone get their phone out! That goat looks like it’s standing on the other one’s back.’
Maddie stared hard out of the window and tried to supress a giggle.
‘It really does.’
Charlotte pressed the button to wind down her window and snapped away.
‘Of course, it’s an optical illusion. The first one is standing on a rock.’
‘Durr. Yes, we know.’ Sofia took another look.
‘But it is funny, isn’t it. I can see you’re laughing, Char, don’t deny it. Your shoulders are giving you away.’
The acrobatic goat antics had broken the tension in the car more effectively than any words possibly could, thought Maddie with relief.
