Page 108 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

‘Your announcement,’ Jo said.

He grimaced at her.

‘Sorry, everyone,’ he said. ‘Must be a sign of old age, but I’ve completely forgotten what I was about to say.’

*

When everyone else had left and Razz and Jo were doing a last check of the room, making sure there were no escapee letter tiles lurking under radiators, Jo said, ‘Why didn’t you tell them?’

‘I didn’t want to spoil the mood,’ he said. ‘I reckon everyone – except perhaps Linda and Cosmic Ray – was delighted by Stan and Florence going away together. It would have been a shame to ruin the moment.’

‘But they might turn up next week to find the hall locked.’

‘I’m counting on you, Jo. To persuade the vicar to let us stay until the hall is actually sold and to line up a new venue ready for when it does.’

40

‘Couldn’t we stay,’ Jo said to Reverend Stone, ‘until it’s demolished? Or at least until it’s sold?’

He shook his head. ‘The estate agent says it would be better if all the groups who use the hall relocate as soon as possible. He thinks if it’s still being used, it might put potential buyers off.’

‘I don’t see why,’ Jo said. ‘What would we do? Hold a Scrabble sit-in and refuse to let the bulldozers in?’

‘No, no, no,’ he said. ‘Of course not.’ He smiled but it was a fake smile. The kind of smile Jo could imagine him fixing to his face when a child screamed its head off during his sermon, when he was marrying a bride with a visible bump or when a family chose a particularly loud rock track to play at a funeral, claiming it was the deceased’s favourite.

‘Why? What harm could it do?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I’m no expert in these matters. Something to do with vacant possession or the like.’

There was a tap at the door and a woman in an apron poked her head round.

‘More tea, Vicar?’ she said.

Jo couldn’t believe someone had actually said that phrase in real life but she was too wound up to enjoy the moment.

‘No, thank you, Mrs Green,’ he said. ‘Joanne was just leaving.’

She had no intention of leaving. Not yet, anyway. She sat back in the chair and crossed her legs. She was staying put.

‘Actually, I’d love another cup,’ she said defiantly. ‘And it’s Jo.’

Mrs Green looked nervously from Jo to the vicar. He rolled his eyes and nodded. She disappeared.

‘Isn’t vacant possession more a residential property issue?’ Jo said hopefully; she hadn’t a clue what she was talking about. ‘No-one is going to be living in the church hall. We’d play our games and then disappear like we always do.’

‘You’re going to have to find somewhere else anyway,’ he said. ‘This week. In two weeks. In six weeks. What does it matter?’

‘The longer we have, the more chance we have of finding somewhere suitable. If you kick us out and we haven’t found anywhere, we’d have to cancel our meetings for a few weeks.’

‘I see,’ he said, but she knew that he didn’t.

‘Our club is about community. I’d go as far as to say it’s a lifeline for some of our members. People who are lonely. Isolated. Struggling with mental health or money problems. Some of them go home on a Friday evening after Scrabble and they don’t talk to another soul until Monday morning. Can you imagine how hard that is? What that’s like?’

‘They could come to church,’ he said.

‘That’s true, they could. But not everyone believes in God, do they? Church isn’t for everyone.’

‘We welcome everyone,’ he said, but looking at his tight-lipped face, Jo found that difficult to believe.