AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You could try not nicking them at all.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, so he returned the compliment. “Which shore?” The furthermost was presumably the one Bertha had entered the river from, but he wasn’t absolutely sure of that considering her current angle, and he’d not really paid attention to the matter when he’d first realised she’d stalled. “Also, where the fuck are we?”
“Not sure,” she confessed, which was definitely not the answer he’d been banking on. “At the ford.”
That might mean something to the locals, but was unlikely to help get a tow truck for Bertha.
“What road is this?”
She shrugged again. “The B something.”
That described every back road in the country. The question was whether she genuinely didn’t know, or if she was being deliberately obtuse. “Fine, where does it go to?”
She thought for a moment. “Angelbrook, maybe. No, Ansthrupstruck. Nope, I don’t think that’s right either.”
You don’t say!
“It is something like that, though. Definitely starts with an A and has a ton of letters.”
He offered a few suggestions, but she shook her head at them all.
“There is a pub around here, though. It’s a way downstream, but… Do you think your coat boat’s up to it?”
He wasn’t entirely, if he was being honest. But the prospect of a beer and a warm accommodation were more appealing than shivering while they figured out how to get the rescue services out to them with the current level of locational information. The locals were bound to know the name of the road and the proper name of the ford, all that useful stuff that he’d no doubt get asked. Also, a pub would have the added benefit of being somewhere he could stow Jodi without raising suspicions. He could say he met her there and thus keep her out of trouble. And his bandmates might forgive him too for what he was going to make his fault, if he got in a couple of rounds of drinks.
Jodi wrapped her arms around her knees to preserve her body heat. Rock Giant was feeling warmish, himself. The makeshift paddle wasn’t particularly well engineered; therefore, it took more effort than it might to keep them steady. The night was closing in around them, the shadows on the banks growing deeper and darker, while overhead the cloud cover had dispersed, revealing the expanse of the Milky Way. He was rather enjoying himself; he decided. This certainly trumped all the ideas he’d proposed to his bandmates for how to liven things up and promptly had dismissed.
“Okay, let’s do it. Pub it is. If you’re okay with that?”
Jodi nodded. “If we’re agreed, we’re both no longer hostages when we reach there.”
“Eager to get home?”
“No-oo! But…”
“I’m not going to shop you, babe.”
“Right.” She gave a nod. “So, we’re agreed.”
“You can depart anytime you like. Even right now, if you wish it.”
“Pub’s good.”
Paul turned his head to give Bertha a final salute. The bus’s shadowy outline sat hunched against the skyline. “Don’t worry, my precious sweet, I’ll send the cavalry to fetch you soon as I can. Meanwhile, do your best not to pollute the river.”
-chapter seven-
Jodi Castle
“What’s it like?” Jodi asked him. They’d negotiated a couple of bends and were now coasting along a wide, relatively calm stretch of water, though she noted he was keeping them towards the bank, presumably in case they needed to abandon ship at short notice. Miraculously, the coat dinghy was holding up. “Living on a bus, playing in a band, being a rock star, fame, fortune, all that stuff.”
He considered for a moment as he paddled. “Well, the living on a bus bit is pretty shite, actually. It’s cramped and boring, and you’re in each other’s business twenty-four-seven, but the gigging part’s fun. As for the fame part… thing is, I don’t have anything to compare it to. My folks are musicians too. Entertainment’s kind of in my blood. I’ve been getting on stage since I was old enough to hold a spoon.”
“More rockers?”
He laughed. “Hell no. They’re folkies. They live on the road. I spent my childhood being ferried from one festival to another in the back of a VW campervan and pitching tepees. I’d never spent more than a month in the same place until I enrolled at university. It took some serious getting used to, always going back to the same place of a night. Sometimes I’d camp out on friends’ floors, or sleep in the park just to spice it up.”
“You did not.”
