Free Five Go Glamping by Liz Tipping Page B

in and I realised my head had cleared a little and I felt surprisingly chipper.
    The man at the pub showing a bit of interest in me had put a little spring in my step and now we had arrived on holiday everything felt that little bit brighter. It was still warm, but there was a breeze and it was nice to be outside, enjoying the summer rather than commuting into work on a packed sticky bus.
    I passed Kirk a bottle of water from the cool bag and looked over out on to the gravelly track and admired the view. A bright blue sky sat on top of a valley where the hills rolled down to a river. In the valley, cows drank from a stream, while a line of sheep trailed up the other side. I could make out a little chink of darker blue on the horizon. The sea. It all looked so beautiful and after surveying the lovely vista, I felt my stiffened muscles unwind. I had a definite sense of getting away from it all.
    I was in mid- stretch, admiring the view, when my gaze was drawn to our more immediate environment and I stopped with my arms still raised above my head.
    ‘Erm…are you sure this is it?’ I asked. ‘Doesn’t exactly look very erm…festival-ly, does it?’
    ‘No, it doesn’t,’ said Steph, who then glared at Sinead who had come round to join us at the front of the car.
    The three of us leant on the bonnet and stared at the piece of paper taped on the gate of a field. Someone had written in biro ‘Welcome to the Find Yourself Festival’.
    ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,’ said Steph.
    ‘There’s nothing here.’ I said, leaning over the gate. ‘It’s an empty field.’ I did not like the sound of the Find Yourself Festival one bit and was leaning towards Steph’s theory that this was some kind of cult. Although at least if I was kidnapped by a cult, I wouldn’t have to go back and face Juliet again.
    ‘I’ll ring the lads and ask them,’ offered Sinead. She fished in her handbag for her phone.
    ‘No signal,’ she said, which prompted Steph to check hers.
    ‘Do any of you have a signal at all? Seeing as we are stranded in the middle of nowhere?’ said Steph.
    ‘Oh my God, where the bloody hell are we? What hell hole is this?’ Kirk said as he put Brian Harvey down on the ground. ‘Are we stranded?’
    ‘No, this appears to be it,’ I said, resignedly. ‘This is where we are spending the weekend.’
    ‘My God. But it’s a field. A field!’ Kirk looked terrified. ‘I can’t stay in a field in the middle of nowhere. I’m afraid I’m a little too fragile to cope with this.’
    ‘Calm down Kirk,’ I said ‘We can always go and find a B&B, or even go home, it’s not like we’re stranded in the Sahara desert and have to decide whether we to starve to death or eat Brian Harvey for our tea is it?’
    ‘Oh. How could you?’ he said, picking Brian Harvey up and flouncing off to go and sulk in the car.
    ‘Let’s not panic,’ said Sinead. ‘It’s not that bad. We have Kirk’s tent and we can pitch up here. We can all stay in that. Maybe everyone is late. Or we could go back to that pub and see if that man knows where–’
    ‘Yes, let’s do that,’ I interrupted, causing everyone to smile and tease me about the man. I could feel my cheeks going red when a rickety old banger with peace and love stickers all over it pulled up next to us. The moonfaced mirrored skirt lady from the Himalayan Healing Centre and another woman who looked like her got out of the car. They both had skirts with mirrors on them and bags with mirrors on them. I could see Steph bristling at their fashion choices.
    ‘Bright blessings,’ said the first woman with an impossibly shrill voice. ‘Are you here to find yourselves too?’
    We looked at each other and conferred without speaking. We shared a few raised eyebrows and then some reluctant nods before turning to the women and muttering ‘Yes’, letting her know that we were here for the free festival, but not fully confirming that we believed in any of this new age