Jo isn’t going to be taken in a second time, but as she looks into Eric the Viking’s very blue eyes, she can feel herself blushing just as much as if she had been.
As they are leaving the restaurant, Jo makes a quick detour to the front desk to pick up one of La Biblioteca’s business cards.
‘For your pinboard?’ Eric asks, as Jo rejoins them, card in hand.
She nods, surprised he has noticed that she is building – what? her new life? – on the board. Fingering the card, she wonders if maybe she could come here with Ruth and Malcolm.
‘You’re a magpie,’ Eric jokes.
She thinks he could be right; the bits and pieces that she is collecting are precious to her – especially all the words people write when they test out the fountain pens. Perhaps she has started collecting new friends too? It’s been easier than she expected with Eric the Viking. She has repeated to herself – he isjusta friend, a neighbour – and it’s working. As long as she doesn’t look at his hands.
‘My wife, Sacha – now sheisa magpie,’ Lando declares.
‘Is she?’ Jo is happy to be diverted.
‘Well, maybe not in the way you think,’ he says, opening the door for Jo. ‘Sacha, she collects the things people tell her. That woman is a mine of useless …’ he pauses, ‘… and sometimes really useful information. I don’t know how she remembers it all. That woman will talk toanyone.’
Like Lucy.
And as if somehow her best friend knows she is thinking of her, Jo’s phone pings. It used to be like this all the time. They would just be thinking of each other and suddenly, simultaneously, it seemed they would text or ring.
When Jo glances at the message, she wishes she hadn’t. The text reads:
Finn’s coming to London. I gave him your address. Said he might call in and say hello. L x
There is no reason why Finn shouldn’t have her address.
She wonders if Lucy is puzzled that Finn didn’t text Jo himself. But then they weren’t really that close.
Were they?
13
What the magpie collects
This is not the time for a list. As much as Jo normally welcomes the calmness that comes from curating a good list late at night – tasks and thoughts brought to order on a page – now is definitely not the time.
Firstly, she is lying down, cocooned in a nest of pillows and duvet. Secondly, she is a little drunk. And thirdly, she does not want to record what is ricocheting around her mind. So much harder to laugh off a midnight brainstorm if those thoughts have been crystallized into enduring ideas by the simple application of ink.
What she really wants is the oblivion of sleep, but she can tell that this is as far away as Northumberland. So instead she tries to focus her mind on just one thing. She thinks of Lando’s comment about Sacha ‘the magpie’. Does she do the same? Collect things from friends? Well, doesn’t she borrow from Lucy? Not just taking clothes, but trying on part of her character to help her when she’s feeling shy? She knows she does.
Jo thinks of Malcolm’s notebook all about William Foyle. That feels like something she has borrowed. The story of an East Ender, who tried for the Civil Service, but when he failed the exams was left with a load of unwanted textbooks. Except William discovered that there were people out there who wanted second-hand books on a startling array of subjects. So his failure was turned into a thriving book business. Jo frowns into the darkness. Would she really call this borrowing? She hadn’t actually been invited to read Malcolm’s notebook.
But then didn’t magpies steal too?
She moves swiftly on. There are other memories – things that friends have said to her in the past that have stayed with her. Theseareprecious, representations of the friend who gave it. A gift worth keeping, even if some snippets of information are odd or seemingly irrelevant.
Cézanne had a huge influence on other artists, and his work was the beginning of cubism.(Her cousin Alice, now working in New York)
Shocking pink was first made popular by the Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1930s.(Lucy)
It is best to harvest beans when the weather is not too dry; otherwise they bounce everywhere.(Adam from Young Farmers – her first crush)
The pollen in lilies is poisonous to cats.(Georgia from university, who gave up on Maths and became a florist – just one of the friends she has lost touch with)
The Festive 500 is a 500-km bike ride that has to be completed between Christmas and New Year.(Finn)
And, she is back to Finn.
