“You’re not a different person,” Mrs.B said. “You’re the same June that the rest of us have always seen. Now you can just see it for yourself.”
“Mrs.Bransworth, are you being sentimental?” June said, laughing.
“No, I was not being sodding sentimental, I was just giving you some...”
Chantal looked at June and raised her eyebrows. “She’ll be at it for hours. You’d better go to your interview; goodluck!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Thanks so much for coming, June. We’ll be in touch.”
The man shook her hand, and as June turned and headed out the front door, she felt a wave of relief. The questions had been a breeze compared to Mrs.B’s grilling earlier. And although June was probably not experienced enough for working in such a big library, at least she’d got through the interview without completely humiliating herself.
She walked to the station and caught the next train, crowding into a carriage for the long journey back home. As the train moved off, June reached into her bag and pulled out her book, staring at the picture on the front cover. It was a portrait of a pale-skinned Regency-style woman, her brown curly hair pulled back into a bun. She was wearing a white empire-waist dress splashed with scarlet blood. On her face, where her mouth and chin should have been, the skin was peeled back to reveal sinister skeletal teeth.Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the title read.
June had reserved the book from Favering Library back in the summer, but it had been out on loan and had never arrived. She’d completely forgotten about it until she opened up the green crate of deliveries yesterday morning and found a copy among the pile of books on reserve. June’s first instinct had been to put it straight back, but something had stopped her and instead she’d taken it out. Now, June opened the front cover and started to read the opening page.It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains...
June had just got to the scene at Netherfield where zombies eat all the servants during Bingley’s ball when she arrived back at Winton station. She got off and caught the bus to Chalcot, disembarking on the Parade. But instead of turning left at the post office, she carried on and took the next road instead. June had been taking this longer route home for a while now and had replaced her weekly Chinese takeaway with homemade vegetable rice. She told herself this was because she needed to be healthier, but the truth was she felt a sharp ache in her chest every time she walked past the Golden Dragon. Alex was gone. Stanley was gone. And as of tomorrow, the library would be gone too. As much as June hated to admit it, all she had left in Chalcot was a house full of memories.
She walked up her front path, unlocked the green door, and stepped inside.
“Alan, I’m home,” she called as she kicked off her shoes and hung up her coat.
June went through to the living room and turned on the light. The room looked exactly the same as it had when she’d left this morning, exactly the same as it had every day for the past eight years. The same old photos on the walls, June’s and Beverley’s faces smiling down from dozens of frames. The same china ornamentson the mantlepiece, the same books on the shelves. June walked over and ran her hand along a row of spines. She came to her mum’s old copy ofWar and Peaceand pulled it off the shelf, flicking through the pages. There was a bookmark halfway through, left over from her last effort to read it back at the start of the summer. Her mum had loved this book, but as much as June hated to admit it, she was never going to finish it.
A thought occurred to June and she walked back into the kitchen. On the counter she kept a pile of old leaflets and flyers that came through the door, mainly for takeaways that she would never order. She rummaged through the pile until she found what she was looking for, a crumpled piece of pink paper.
Do you have any old books you no longer need? Cherry Tree Retirement Home is in desperate need of secondhand books for our residents. All genres welcome.
June knew the place well; once a fortnight she or Marjorie used to go there to swap library books for the residents. It was a lovely Edwardian building, with big windows overlooking a well-kept garden. Her mum and Linda always used to joke that when they were old they’d live there together, drinking gin and having their pick of the elderly gentlemen. And some Cherry Tree residents had come to the library occupation: June particularly remembered the ninety-four-year-old who had entertained them all with Vera Lynn songs.
She found an old cardboard box under the sink and carried it through to the living room. June picked upWar and Peaceagain, closing her eyes as she lifted it to her nose and inhaled the dusty,smoky scent. She stayed like that for a moment, the book pressed to her skin, and then without looking she placed it in the empty box.
Once she’d started, June found she worked quickly and methodically, the library assistant in her kicking in. The box was soon full, and she went upstairs and found several others, which were soon overflowing as well. With nothing else to put the books in, June started making tall piles on the floor, ordered into genre.
Next, she turned her attention to the mantelpiece. June picked up the ornament of the girl reading a book, turning it over in her hands. She remembered her mum bringing it home from the white elephant stall when June was seven or eight.No one else wants her, poor thing, Beverley had said.I think she looks a bit like you, Junebug, so let’s give her a new life here.
June put the girl to one side, then picked up a china model of a London bus and began wrapping it in a page from an old copy of theGazette. Alan Bennett was sitting on the sofa, watching her with startled curiosity.
“For the next summer fete,” she told him. “Someone else can give these a home now.”
When June paused to get a glass of water, she was shocked to see that it was past ten and she’d been working for almost four hours. She surveyed the chaos in the living room; piles of books for Cherry Tree House and newspaper parcels for the white elephant stall covered the whole floor. The place had never been such a mess and June suddenly felt exhausted. She hadn’t got round to eating dinner, so she went through to the kitchen and made herself a cheese sandwich. As she ate, she absentmindedly flicked through today’s post. There was a flyer from a new Chinese restaurant in Favering, which June put on her leaflets pile, feeling guilty. Underneath it was a copyof theGazette. June was about to put it aside for wrapping purposes when the headline caught her eye.cuppa coffee pulls out of library deal as police called in. Beneath the headline was the name Ryan Mitchell and a tiny photo of his spotty face.
The multinational beverage company behind the Cuppa Coffee chain has pulled out of its deal to buy the Chalcot Library building, as Dunningshire Council faces allegations of corruption surrounding the sale.
As previously reported, an exclusive investigation by this newspaper uncovered bank statements showing Chalcot parish councillor Brian Spencer received payments from Lombart Inc. into his personal account. A council insider, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Gazette that the payments Cllr. Spencer received were in exchange for bribing county councillors to support the sale. When contacted by the Gazette, Cllr. Spencer refused to comment.
Last month, Dunningshire Council launched their own internal investigation after being presented with the evidence. Now, sources say police have been called in to help with the inquiry.
A spokesperson for Lombart Inc. said the company’s decision to withdraw from the purchase of the Chalcot building is unrelated to the ongoing police investigation.
“We have found a site in Mawley which we believe is better positioned and so have decided to open a Cuppa Coffee branch there instead,” the spokesperson told theGazette.
Dunningshire Council’s Head of Library Services, Sarah Thwaite, confirmed that the library is still set for closureand the council are now looking for a new buyer for the Chalcot building.
“Our decision to close Chalcot Library was based entirely on the results of analysis by an independent management consultancy firm, and had nothing whatsoever to do with considerations about the sale of the building to Cuppa Coffee. The library will still be closing on 19th November as planned.”
June threw the paper down. In all the activity of this evening she’d not thought once about the library, but now the reality came crashing back. And while stories like this appeared in the paper every week and gave the village plenty to gossip about, it wouldn’t change a thing. Despite everything they’d done, the library was still closing tomorrow.
