Ben by Kerry Needham

Lodge, it was just so refreshing to get out of the house, to have a bit of time to myself, to let my hair down.
    Kos wasn’t expensive by any means. Still, it wasn’t fair to expect my parents to keep me and, after asking around, I heard there was a job going about a ten-minute walk from the caravan. The Palm Beach Hotel was looking for someone to work breakfast and evening shifts in the dining room, as well as spend afternoons frying and serving poolside snacks. I obviously said something right at the interview because not only did the manager, a young guy called Manos, offer me a position, he also agreed to take on my mum as well.
    The last thing I wanted was to be away from Ben but without Simon around to support us, what choice did I have? In any case, Ben was just as happy playing with his grandparents and uncles as he was spending time with me. If I’m honest, he probably enjoyed having a break from seeing my face all the time. I know Mum inparticular would have looked after him every minute if I’d let her. She loved having him.
    We quickly fell into a routine. If I was working lunchtimes, I’d push Ben over to Mum’s, leave him there and go to work. If I stayed to do the evening shift as well, then Ben would sleep at the caravan. Or if I was on breakfasts, I would drop him off the night before. Mum only worked the lunchtime shift and never when I was on, so there was never a problem with childcare.
    Far from resenting me working, I think Ben enjoyed it because of the perks. Manos insisted that my family feel free to use the hotel’s facilities at any time so, while I sweated away dishing up French fries and burgers, I was able to watch my son bobbing up and down in the water in his arm bands while either Stephen, Danny or Mum kept him company. I once saw him take a stray cat into the shallow end with him, much to the cat’s displeasure – Mum was laughing too hard to stop him.
    When I wasn’t working, I’d take Ben to the beach. Mum would usually come and so too would her friend Athena and her son, Alex. Alex had just turned three so it was mostly his toys and clothes that Mum had acquired for Ben. Athena and her husband Dino were lovely people and it rubbed off on Alex. Watching him and Ben play together, they could have been brothers.
    Ben loved the beach. It was like being at the swimming pool but the water was bigger and better. Before he could go near either, of course, he had to be covered in sun cream. The Greeks used to say the April and May sun was worse than summer so it was important to keep children covered. I think Ben was drilled a bit too well. I was watching him toddle around one time, in his own world, when he stopped next to a couple of sleeping sunbathers.I turned for a second to get Mum’s attention. When we looked back, Ben had found a tube of lotion from somewhere and was slapping it extremely liberally onto his chest and arms. By the time I got over there, the sunbathers had woken up – which was not surprising, considering the amount of cream splattered over their legs. I was so embarrassed at my tiny little tealeaf, but they laughed it off. Then, as I stood with them, Ben found someone else’s bag and dived down into that instead. It was a full-time job keeping him out of other people’s belongings. To strangers he must have looked so cute helping himself. I only saw the mischievous little urchin who’d disobeyed my instruction.
    On days when I worked afternoon and evening shifts, I’d spend the hour in between diving and sunbathing. After the evening shift I would often stroll over to the bar and have a beer with the two guys who ran it. Martin and Peter were both English, so they got on well with the mostly British clientele, but they were also nice lads. It was really great to be able to unwind with them when my shift finished at ten o’clock. I’d sit at the bar, they’d be on the other side, and we’d put the world to rights for half an hour or so until I began the