The wind ripped through us. 

Sweet coffee warmed my throat. Elsie’s horn shivered on top of her unicorn cap. Sam surfed the wind on his skateboard. My fingers clawed around my stainless-steel travel cup while my nose dripped. The sun teased us as it sang over the clapping waves and lit the promenade as though it were summer, except the only warmth I felt was a slight flick of a hello on my legs. Other than that, it was absolutely freezing.

‘I told you it would be cold,’ Sam groaned. 

‘It’s because we’re by the sea,’ I stammered.

‘Then why did we come to the sea?’

‘I didn’t expect it to be this strong,’ I muttered, my words lost in the biting wind.

‘Mummy, Daddy is like a whole a hundred miles back there.’ Elsie’s small, pale face was flushed, with two snot icicles forming under her nostrils.

‘Nick!’ I yelled, trying not to shiver because this was all my idea, and I wouldn’t admit it was the worst one ever. What was that he just shoved in his pocket? 

He trudged over in his black skinny jeans and grey beanie, looking more like our teenage son than the father. ‘What?’ he growled defensively, noticing my gaze on his pocket. ‘It was important.’

‘What part of a digital detox don’t you understand?’ I retorted, forcefully sniffing all my snot back up my nose. The wind nudged me into Elsie, who watched us with wide eyes.

‘I don’t understand why we’re doing it,’ Nick replied, exasperated. 

‘What do you mean you don’t understand? You’re glued to that phone. Sam’s glued to his music…’

‘I have a band, Mum.’

‘Elsie is six years old and she’s scrolling on the iPad like she’s Tim Cook.’

‘It’s 2024, Luce, it’s normal!’ Nick shook his head.

‘It shouldn’t be normal in our home on a Saturday when we’re all together and no one is talking to one another. That shouldn’t be normal,’ I insisted. ‘We’re all doing our own thing in the week, so the weekend comes…’

‘And I want to do my own thing!’ Sam blurted out.

The sea roared, and the wind howled, whipping foam and froth into a frenzy. An old woman struggled with her dog, swept up by the gale.

‘My teacher says I need to get better at touch typing,’ Elsie piped up, teeth chattering. ‘Can we finish the detox now?’

‘This was never going to work.’ Sam rolled his eyes, leaning against his skateboard.

‘Why can’t we all be without our devices for one day?’ I begged. ‘Just one day where we can be together as a family.’

‘But we’re not together as a family, are we?’ Nick snapped.

Sam dropped his skateboard, and Elsie clutched the end of my coat.

‘No,’ I blinked back the tears that had been threatening to leak all morning, ‘but we will be soon. Ava is going to be fine. She’ll get through this. We all will. And when we do, I want us to be together.’ I breathed evenly. ‘Without technology plugged into each one of us.’

‘Great. Now it’s raining.’ Sam huffed. ‘Like ice pellets.’

‘Lucy,’ Nick started, but it was too late. This was never going to work. Not if I didn’t have him backing me.

‘What if she doesn’t wake up, Mummy?’ Elsie asked. 

‘Just because she was on her phone, doesn’t mean all technology is evil,’ Sam glowered.

I met Nick’s eyes. Thanks for the support.

‘Let’s go home,’ he said and carried on walking. 

‘Come on.’ I held Elsie’s icy hand and drank the rest of my coffee with the other. Sam skulked behind us, tugging his hood up.

When we arrived back in the village, the wind had finally relented, and the sun took its chance in the spotlight, sweeping over the fields opposite our house. 

Nick paused at the front door, then turned to us. ‘Mum is right.’ He gave me an apologetic glance and put his hand on Sam’s shoulder, who hadn’t said a word on the way home. ‘We should be pulling together while your sister is in the hospital, not ignoring each other and drowning in our own worlds. We need each other.’

‘I need my music,’ Sam muttered.

‘I understand that,’ I said, watching Elsie pick up petals that had blown off the magnolia tree. ‘And I know you enjoy time on the iPad, Els. But I need you more than you might know. I only wanted a break from it all.’

‘And we should,’ Nick agreed. 

‘This isn’t all because Ava was on the phone while she was driving, is it?’ Sam asked, and as much as I wanted to say it wasn’t, I wondered whether, for me, it partly was.

‘It’s because we’re a family, and we should spend quality time together,’ Nick said, holding his hand out for me.

I took it, held it tightly, and prayed that Ava would be okay.

Sam took the keys from Nick, opened the house, stormed in, and before we could shout after him, he was back with one of his leads. ‘This is me giving mine up for a day.’ He draped it over our home’s stone sign, which read, “Hollywell House”. ‘For Ava, for you, Mum, for our family.’

Those impending tears fell like magnolia petals because as callous as Sam could be, sometimes he could be the sweetest. I squeezed him in the tightest hug.

‘Get off!’ He squirmed and rolled his eyes with a smirk.

‘We could brave the wind and the waves again,’ Nick suggested.

‘Nooooo,’ Elsie shouted.

‘Why don’t we go and see Ava?’ I countered. ‘Today might be the day she wakes up.’

‘Absolutely,’ Nick said.

We packed back in the car, and as Nick turned the ignition on, Sam asked, ‘But we’re going to stop the digital detox tomorrow morning, yeah?’