We Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside

As you lay panting on the beach, she goes scavaging along the tidemark for other shells. They fascinate her, for like the sand, they are something she had never seen before. She was no stranger to swimming in the sea, but that usually involved diving off cliffs first. When she returned, you pick up a small smooth pebble and show her the art of skimming them across the water. Arching an eyebrow, she has a go at it anyway. Like most things, it didn't her long to master. This time though, you proved the better at it.

The genie reappears suddenly behind the pair of you and you realise with a start that you had never noticed he had disappeared. He tells you that he has arranged somewhere for the pair of you to stay. The genie had used your memories to search where you stayed during your vacation here. You are bemused when he says your names are in the hotel register as Mr and Mrs Marc Grayson, though to Astra's relief and your dismay, you won't be sharing a bed. Instead, you each had a room with a single bed and en-suite bathroom. They were adjacent to one another and had an interconnecting door.

"I'm curious," you say to the genie, "why did you do this when you could arrange somewhere for us to sleep whereever we went?"

"I didn't think of that," the genie confesses. "Probably because you stayed in the one place during your time here. Have I caused a problem?"

You shake your head vehemently. "No, there's no problem. Since you've gone to the trouble of setting it all up, I'll go ahead with that. How about you, Astra?"

"Sure, whatever you say." She felt she was rather out of her depth with talk of hotels and en-suite bathrooms. Best just to agree for the moment.

"Good, good," the genie says.

1. "Do you wish to stay here a while longer?"
2. "If you like, I could take you to see your rooms."
3. "Are you ready to see the Victoria Falls, now?"

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