‘I think it’s gone,’ said Dixie.
The man was still staring wide-eyed out of the window. Not quite the hero material he had first appeared. Dixie cleared her throat, making him turn in her direction.
‘Right. Sorry. I’m Ned.’
He really was rather hot up close. Dark wavy hair,brown eyes and a strong jawline. He was watching her and she realized this was where she was meant to introduce herself. ‘I’m Dixie.’
‘Hello, Dixie,’ he said with a smile that made a dimple appear. ‘And what do you do, apart from antagonize wildlife?’
‘I’m a social media influencer.’ She very much liked how that sounded and Ned seemed impressed. ‘I’m recording my journey with Elsie.’
‘There’s more than one of you living in here?’
Dixie chuckled. ‘No, it’s just me.’ She patted the cushion next to her. ‘This is a seventies VW campervan and her name is Elsie.’
‘You’ve not got much in the way of facilities. Would you not be better on a campsite with mod cons like running water?’
It made her look around. Elsie’s interior was sad and unloved. Dixie had been so caught up in her breaking down that she’d lost sight of all the other things she was going to do to improve Elsie. ‘I’ve not got round to renovating yet as I am enjoying communing with nature. Going back to basics. Learning to live off the land and be environmentally friendly. So what are you doing in the middle of nowhere?’ she asked, trying to deflect the questions.
‘Woodland management,’ he said, then moved his head from side to side as if weighing things up. ‘Learning really. If I’m being honest, I’m totally out of my depth, but I guess that’s the challenge and I like somethingthat’s going to test me. Mainly because I like proving people wrong.’
‘Oh, me too,’ said Dixie. ‘That’s really why I’m here. I’m showing my parents they’re wrong about me and that I can be successful without them. And I need to prove that to myself as much as to them.’ For a second she worried that she’d overshared but Ned was nodding.
‘I can totally relate to that,’ he said.
Maybe she was imagining it, but in that second something passed between them. A mutual understanding perhaps? But the moment was soon broken by a thud on the roof of the van.
‘Heavens, we’re under attack from above now,’ said Dixie. There was the sound of movement across the top of the van then a furry face appeared upside-down at the windscreen.
‘I think this is my cue to leave,’ said Ned, heading out the door. He opened his mouth as if he was going to add something, but he shook his head and got out, pausing for a moment. ‘Look, perhaps we…’ While he was talking, Dixie noticed movement behind him. Movement of the bounding-squirrel variety. She didn’t want to see Ned savaged by a marauding squirrel. A distraction was needed. She threw the two grapes she still had in her pocket. Unfortunately, one of the grapes hit the squirrel square on the head and it immediately raced towards Ned, screeching loudly.
‘What did you do that for?’ yelled Ned as he took off into the woods.
19
Dixie watched through the window as Ned hurdled the stump she had now formally named Bastard Stump, raced off through the woodland and disappeared into the greenery. The squirrel went as far as the fallen tree, jumped up and screeched for a bit, flicking its tail violently. It turned around quickly, making Dixie gasp and let go of the curtain. If this had been a horror film she knew exactly who would be next to die. But in a flash the squirrel’s demeanour changed. It hopped to the ground and began searching for food like nothing had happened. After a few minutes things were restored to peace and quiet and the birds were idly twittering again.
Dixie had planned to make it to tomorrow and then arrange to get towed back to Melton Mowbray, but it felt like things had changed. Her number of followers had risen dramatically and that was all down to the predicament she was in. If she left now her followers would lose interest and most likely a shedload would unfollow her. This was all bigger than her now, so she had to stay.
She realized that just because she couldn’t drive Elsiedidn’t mean she couldn’t do all the other things she’d planned to do, like making cute curtains and matching cushions and generally refitting and updating the inside. For one thing, it would make use of the items she’d brought for repairs and free up some much-needed space. It was also excellent online content. There was probably a nature angle she could include as well. Visions of the squirrel helping her popped into her mind. That was possibly a long way off but she did still really want to see if she could make friends with the squirrel. They’d got off on the wrong foot. She made a mental note to look for something it would like at the service station so that she could begin winning it round.
While she didn’t like to admit it, there was also Ned. Their meeting had been fleeting but he’d made an impression. Perhaps that was because she’d been deprived of human contact for so long, apart from the lady at the service station, who she now knew was called Lesley. The thought of Ned made her feel less alone. Maybe if she stuck around she might see him again and that would be useful because someone who was managing the woodland would know about plants and flowers. Ned would make excellent content and he’d also help her to avoid poisoning herself when she was foraging. And the other thing was that if she went now the person leaving the mystery rude messages would think they had won. There was no way she was going anywhere.
*
Jay and Nora met up to do a bit of bouldering together. Jay had said he wanted to improve his strength and he definitely needed to work on his holds so the low-level climbing activity seemed the perfect answer.
‘You boob-flashed him and now he wants to meet up?’ asked Jay, summarizing Nora’s late-night video call with Liam. ‘I can’t imagine why he wants to do that.’ He gave her a look.
‘It’s not because I… it wasn’t boob-flashing. That’s something people do on purpose. This was accidental.’
‘OK, got it,’ said Jay. ‘Accidental boob-flashing.’
Nora shook her head at him. ‘Anyway, it’s just a coffee and it was me who suggested it before the boob… incident. But we’ve not put anything in the diary because he’s busy with work. I might catch up with Mickey before then.’
Jay gave her a rather puzzled look. ‘Are you two-timing your exes?’
‘No, because I’m not seeing either of them, or anyone for that matter. It’s simply not efficient to not overlap the research.’
