“Yeah, I saw Max and Leah going up.They’re good, aren’t they?”Kai smiled.
Zig nodded.“They were talking about the solstice.Thought I might come along to that.”
“You should,” Kai said enthusiastically.Then they frowned.“Better wrap up warmer, though.”
“Too bloody right.”Zig shivered.“I’m heading into town to warm up a bit.You gonna be okay here?”
Kai held up a takeaway cup from a coffee shop.“I’m good, ta.”
“See you around, then.”Hand on the latch of the gate, Zig paused and turned back.“You got a phone, mate?”
He got a wary look in return.
“Shit.Sorry.This ain’t a come-on, and I ain’t trying to shake you down.Just wanna give you my number.In case you need, I dunno, someone to talk to?”Zig cringed inside.Yep, Kai was definitely going to be having words with their mates about him.Something along the lines of,Watch out for the sad lonely bastard.
Kai brightened, though.“You can tell me it.I’ll remember.Got a memory thing.”
They were probably saying that to get rid of him, but Zig rattled off his number anyhow, then headed back down the path to town.He found a café on the high street, grabbed himself a bacon sandwich and a latte, and made them last, before checking his phone to see if anyone was trying to reach him.
No one was.It was equal parts a relief and really sodding sad.
After meandering round the town a bit more, Zig remembered he wanted a book of folktales and headed for the library.He liked libraries; they were warm, and nobody cared if you sat there for ages reading a book.Unlike bookshops, which understandably preferred you to buy the thing and bugger off home with it.
He found the library on a road off the high street, not far from a church with largish grounds in the centre of town.It was a modern, brick-built, flat-roofed building, with trendy round windows, and called itself a “hub,” but the staff seemed welcoming enough.
Disappointingly, he couldn’t find any books of local folktales.Maybe all the copies were out on loan, or had been stolen.Although, stealing would probably be bad karma or whatever people who were into that stuff believed in.
Course, technically speaking,Zigwas into that stuff, and he didn’t have a clue what he believed in.
Anyway, libraries always had plenty of classics.Since it was nearly Christmas, he probably ought to check out a Dickens to get in the mood, but fuck it, he was a rebel.Zig had a browse through the Thomas Hardies, ignoringTessandJude, cos who needed that depressing shit?He picked outUnder the Greenwood Tree, another Christmassy book, and settled down for a reread.
“I’m sorry, but we’re closing now, my lover.”The soft voice jolted him out of the rural world of the Mellstock Quire and back into shitty reality.
“Uh, right.Sorry.I’ll be on me way.”Belatedly, Zig grinned cheekily to the middle-aged woman in a cardi.
She went pink, which was rich for someone who’d called him herloverwith no sign of embarrassment.“Did you want to take the book home?”
“Uh, thanks, but I ain’t got a card.Just visiting.Went to the tor today,” he added, cos apparently he was a total saddo who was desperate for someone to talk to.
She brightened.“Oh?It’s lovely up there, isn’t it?Like you can see the whole world.Have you been to the Chalice Well?They do it up so nicely at this time of year.”
“Next on me list,” he promised, wondering what the hell a Chalice Well was.Si would know, he thought, and felt himself go pink as well.Serves you bloody right.“Well, cheers.You have a nice night, yeah?”
“And you.”She sounded a little breathless.
Zig checked his phone as he sauntered out of the library and into the dark streets.Five o’clock.Would Si be finished with work yet?He searchedGlastonbury locksmith, but it turned out there were way more than one and, like an idiot, he hadn’t asked Si the name of the place he worked for.
And yeah, he could go back to Si’s and get Esme to let him in, but...Fuck it, he was a coward.He didn’t wanna face her without Si as a buffer.
He decided to go for a drink, ask if there were any jobs going, and turn up at Si’s later.There was a pub a short way down the road, its lights warm and inviting, so he ducked inside.The place was pretty dead, so they probably weren’t hiring, but he asked anyhow.
“Sorry, my lover,” the girl behind the bar said with a look of genuine regret.“We’re fully staffed.”
Yep.He’d called it.Funny how the confirmation didn’t make him feel any better.
“Have you asked at the Prince of Wales?”the barmaid went on.“I heard from my friend Immi they were looking for staff.”
Zig’s mood perked right up.“Yeah?Guess I’ll head on over there.Cheers.You have a good night.”
