“Three cheers for Stanley!”
They were in the Plough, eating the buffet the owner had thrown together when they arrived.
“I’m impressed with you making that speech,” Vera said to June, a sherry in one hand and a pork pie in the other. “I wish I could have seen that Donnelly’s face—he must have been livid.”
“I’m not sure it’ll make any difference, but I’m glad I said something,” June said. “I’ve spent too long being scared of speaking up.”
“You were fantastic,” Mrs.B said, slapping June on the back.
“Vera was amazing too,” said Alex.
Vera beamed. “I told them, I’m eighty years old and eighteen stone—you’re not getting past me without a fight. And you know what? That security boy Sam gave me a wink and told those councillor men that he couldn’t manhandle a pensioner.”
“Good for you, Vera,” June said.
“Oh, Stanley would have loved to have been there today,” Chantal said, and everyone went quiet.
“Well, he was certainly there in spirit, thanks to June’s speech,” Alex said.
Vera was nodding. “Surely there’s no way they can vote to close the library now?”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” June said. “For now, let’s focus on celebrating Stanley’s life. Do you remember how he used to do the newspaper crossword in pencil and then rub it out so Marjorie wouldn’t tell him off?”
Everyone laughed.
“He used to recommend me books to read,” Jackson said.
“He helped me with my schoolwork,” Chantal said. “He spent hours explaining the Russian Revolution to me.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t have a clue how to work a computer,” Mrs.B said with a chuckle. “Poor June, I must have heard him ask you a hundred times how to log on.”
June smiled, but she thought of all those unsent e-mails.
“Do you remember that news interview he did during the occupation, when he said he needed to use the library computers for surfing?” Alex pulled out his mobile phone and soon they were all laughing as they watched the clip.
“Look, it’s been viewed more than two hundred thousand times,” Chantal said. “Turns out Stanley was an Internet star and we never even knew it.”
More drinks were consumed as everyone carried on sharing their favorite stories about Stanley. After a while, June slipped away and went to sit at a table outside. The rain had stopped, and the sun was fighting through the late-September clouds. She felt drained after everything that had happened today. And why wasn’t thereany news from the council? It was almost two hours since she’d been pulled out of the chamber by an apologetic Sam. Surely the meeting couldn’t still be going on.
“Do you mind if I join you?”
June looked up to see Alex standing a few feet away. “Sure.”
She shuffled along and he sat down on the damp bench next to her.
“Well done for making that speech,” he said.
“I felt such an idiot standing up there with everyone staring at me.”
“But you did it. You put yourself out there and did the one thing that terrified you most.”
They were both quiet for a moment.
“June, there’s something I need to tell you.”
She looked over at Alex, his face serious. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Well, I guess my timing is... the timing’s terrible.”
