Monday, 1 February 2021

Coincidence - A Caribbean Tale by Kit Domino

Over the next month or two I will be adding some wonderful, coincidence, stories from amazing authors. Today's story comes from author and artist, Kit Domino


“You’ll never believe it,” my husband Dave said. “I’ve booked us on holiday, to Barbados, with a crowd from the cricket club. You’ve four months to sort out your passport and clothes.”

And it took me all of those months to put together my wardrobe for our first holiday together in 20 years. I didn’t even own a decent swimsuit! Departure day arrived: up at 5 am, a 3-hour coach journey to Manchester (our Gatwick flight switched for some reason), another 3 hours hanging around the airport and an 8-hour flight to reach Barbados. But it was worth it for that first sight of the island as the plane banked and circled coming into land.

Dave dumped our cases onto the hotel bed. “Forget the unpacking for now. I want a swim right away.” He had already stripped out of his clothes while I dithered over which of my three new swimsuits to wear first. He grabbed one, thrust it at me. “Wear that!”

Minutes later we were hot-footing it across the scorching white sand, running into the warm azure blue Caribbean. If you’ve never seen or swam in that sea I can’t begin to describe it. Only that it was pure bliss. We didn’t stay in long, we were exhausted but, suitably refreshed, laughing we tumbled onto the soft sand to take in our surroundings, still not quite believing we were actually there. The palm tree lined beach of the wide bay was narrow, a few couples and families there but none from our group yet. A few yards to our right, a woman rose from her sunlounger. 


“I don’t believe it,” I said. “I spent weeks picking my costumes then come all this way to find someone wearing the identical one as I’ve got on now!”

Dave sat up to look. “Never mind. It looks far better on you.” As he spoke, the man with her also got off his lounger and gathered up their beach towels. “And you won’t believe this, either,” Dave added. “That’s my cousin Frank and his wife, Gwen. Haven’t seen them for nearly 25 years.”

“You’re kidding!”

He wasn’t. As the couple approached, Frank’s face fell into a wide grin as he recognised Dave. “Well I’ll be blowed. It is you, isn’t it? Thought it was when you were in the water but wasn’t sure.”

There followed the inevitable handshakes, hugs, shoulder slapping and introductions.

“When did you get here?” Dave asked.

“Today. Only just arrived. About half-an-hour ago.”

“Yes, had a horrendous journey,” Gwen told us. “Our flight from Gatwick was altered at the last minute and our son had to drive us up to Manchester. We nearly missed the flight.”

“Not the 11 o’clock Monarch?”

Frank and Gwen both nodded. Yes, you’ve guessed it. They were on the same flight as us too. Small world or coincidence? I’ll let you decide which. 


Kit Domino’s Website


Author of White Stones



and Every Step of the Way



If you missed the other Coincidence stories, please click on the links ...

The Piper

An Hair Raising Coincidence

The Best Laid Plans

And Did Those Feet...

A Magical Memory


Thank you as always for stopping by and please come back for more.

Please, take care of yourself and each other and I hope the sun is shining on your face and in your heart.

 Hugs

Pauline

 



2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh, what a wonderful coincidence! I love it when that happens. My daughter went to Hawaii a couple years back and I was looking at pictures of their hotel on Facebook. And looking at pictures of her godmother's hotel...in Hawaii...on Facebook. They were there same time, same hotel without even knowing it!

Kit Domino said...

Almost scary when it happens! Thanks for your comment and stopping by. :)
Kit x