‘See!’ said Effie. ‘That’s amnesia. I told you. Didn??t I?’
‘How about you track down Doc McLeod,’ said Dolly, wheeling over and narrowly missing the large spear thing. All Liv needed was for that to land on her head and she would be off to hospital – or possibly a shallow grave in the woods.
‘Okay.’ Effie dashed off.
‘Where’s the ice!’ shouted Dolly making Liv recoil.
‘Coming!’ called back a deep voice.
Dolly was quite close again. Her voice a gentle burble of accent.
‘Now, can you remember anything? Who you are? Why you’re here? How you got here?’
This was beyond awkward. Liv bit her lip and slowly shook her head. Once she felt okay to drive, she’d have to get the tyre sorted and just leave. Then she had a flash of something she did remember, and that she should definitely share.
‘Oh I remember what happened outside. I was attacked by this huge bull.’ She gestured with her hands so they could get an idea of the size of it. She didn’t want it attacking anyone else. ‘He had these massive horns. I thought it was going to gore me with them. It was the bull that knocked me off… um… over. He knocked me over and I must have banged my head.’ She looked to Dolly and Robbie for a response. What she wasn’t expecting was for them both to start laughing. A laughter that built up into belly laughs. Liv sat there soaking wet, with her head throbbing and her mind whirring. Were these people insane?
Effie returned and while she seemed to have an air of the dramatic, she did seem fairly normal.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Effie as Robbie was now holding on to Dolly’s scooter for support while clutching his side with the other hand.
He finally got his laughter under control.
‘She said she got attacked by a giant bull with big horns.’ That was all he could manage before he and Dolly cracked up again. This was weird.
‘Were both horns pointed in the same direction?’ asked Effie turning to Liv.
Probably the oddest question she’d ever been asked apart from someone who stopped her in town to ask if she’d seen any recent signs of alien life. Liv had to think back to the bull. She’d only caught a glimpse of her attacker and that had been enough to scare the life out of her. But now she thought about it the horn nearest her was slightly pointing up but the other not so much.
‘I don’t think so. Sort of one up and one down. What does that mean?’
Effie started to giggle. This was an epidemic. Liv shot her a look and Effie put her hand over her mouth.
‘Sorry. We’re not being mean. It’s just that it wasn’t a giant bull.’
‘It flaming well was,’ said Liv, feeling indignant. She might have banged her head but she knew what she saw. ‘It was right in front of me. I thought I was going to be a human kebab.’ This triggered another burst of laughter from Robbie and Dolly.
‘Actually I think you just met Ginger,’ said Effie.
‘What now?’ asked Liv starting to wonder if she’d taken a harder bang to the head than she thought and she was imagining all this madness.
Dolly cleared her throat and gave herself a shake to quell the laughter.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said gripping her shawl. ‘Ginger is a wee Highland cow, not much more than a calf, and she’s the gentlest soul you could ever hope to meet. Although she has no idea about how big she is, so sometimes she’s a bit…’
‘In ya face,’ added Effie. ‘It’s possible that she thinks she’s a dog. She loves to steal a bucket and kick it around the yard.’
Robbie nodded. ‘Like she’s playing centre forward for Rangers.’
Liv wasn’t sure what to make of all of this. A football-playing Highland cow – that was beyond weird.
‘Right,’ was all she could manage. When she thought her head couldn’t take any more, a door at the end of the hallway opened and out strode Fraser Douglas.
6
For a moment Liv wasn’t sure if it was her head playing tricks but as Fraser strode towards her, she knew it was him. Although he was even hotter in real life. He was certainly beefier than she’d imagined. He had the faintest smile on his lips, but he was coming straight at her with an outstretched fist and she panicked. She felt vulnerable sitting on a chair, so she jumped to her feet once he was within arm’s reach. Pain shot through her ankle and she immediately hopped onto the good leg, accidentally kicking the long spear-like object. She watched it, in what seemed like slow motion, as it fell, striking Fraser on the head.
‘Pissing hell!’ he said grabbing the pole before it hit anything else.
