“I wish I knew. It’s been a month now and there still haven’t been any public events. I’m trying to eavesdrop at the library, but no one says anything in front of me.”
“What have FOCL been doing all this time?” Alex said with a frown.
“I’ve no idea. Although I did pick this up in the village shop the other day...”
June reached into her bag and pulled out a crumpled flyer, which she laid on the table. The words “Save Our Library (please)” were written at the top in large Comic Sans font.
“Jesus, this isn’t going to save anything,” Alex said. “What are they doing on social media?”
“I don’t know. I’m not on it.”
Alex took his phone out and typed something in. “They must be on Twitter, surely?” He scanned the screen. “Aha, here they are.”
He passed the phone over to June and she saw there was one tweet.
Friends of Chalcot Library @FOCL
Join us on Saturday 7th August for a protest event at the church hall. A raffle, face-painting, and a performance from Chalcot’s very own Colin the Clown. All welcome! #savechalcotlibrary
“Well, that’s something, I suppose.” June went to hand Alex’s phone back, and as she did, she saw a WhatsApp message flash up on his screen.
Ellie
Just got some exciting news—call me ASAP! xx
June felt her heart drop when she saw the kisses, and then felt stupid: it was none of her business who messaged Alex. He glanced at his phone and smiled, and June took a long drink of wine.
“So, are you sure there’s nothing you can do to help FOCL?” he asked once he’d put his phone away.
“No, I can’t risk it. The council would sack me if I do anything in public; it’s as simple as that.”
“What if it’s not public? What about trying to help them in secret?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I know you can’t risk the council seeing you being involved, but you could be FOCL’s undercover operative.”
June chuckled. “I’m not sure I’d make a very good secret agent, despite having readHarriet the Spythree times as a kid.”
But Alex didn’t laugh. “I know you won’t believe me, June, but I think you have much more to offer than you realize.”
“No, I don’t,” she mumbled.
“You know, when I was readingMatilda, I kept thinking how much you reminded me of her.”
“Matilda?”
“Well, obviously you both love books, but Matilda also had so much integrity and really cared about people. You were always the same at school.” Alex took a swig of his pint before he spoke again. “I think you need to ask yourself: What would Matilda do?”
•••
That night June slept deeply and didn’t wake until after nine on Saturday morning. She lay in bed running over the events of last night: Alex’s busy and exciting life, his ridiculous comment about her being cool, the WhatsApp message...
She went downstairs and made herself a cup of tea. Alan lay under the table and lashed out at June’s feet every time she walked past, but she was too distracted to tell him off. What about Brian and the snatches of conversation she’d overheard in the pub? Hadn’t he said something about “incentivizing councillors”? And why had one of the men asked Brian about Marjorie? They must have been talking about the library, surely.
June took a sip of tea and swore as she burned her tongue. If Brian was up to something dodgy with the library, then she should tell someone, but who? She couldn’t exactly walk up to the council and make wild accusations when she didn’t have a clue what was going on.
June reached for her mobile phone and searched for Twitter, and after several minutes she worked out how to find FOCL’s page. She stared at the tweet they’d written about the protest event, and as she did, an idea began to formulate in her mind. But could she do it? It was risky. She didn’t have any evidence, and whoever read the message would probably think she was a crank.
