Chapter Thirty-One #2
And with that he turns to his small audience of fans and does a silly little bow, at which they all cheer even louder.
*
On the car ride home, River tells me all of the places near Bedlam that would be great for him to go open-water swimming.
Apparently there’s a lake near Blue Egg Meadow, and a natural spring about ten miles out on horseback.
I grin at his excitement but can’t help feeling a lurch in my chest at the thought that I won’t get to witness it.
‘Thank you,’ he says, eyes latching on to mine. ‘I … thank you for doing that. For making me do that. I don’t know why I waited so long. That was … invigorating.’
‘Sometimes all it takes to be brave is to have the company of another person trying to be brave alongside you.’
‘That’s what Josie did for you, huh?’
I glance up at him, touched at how much attention he’s clearly been paying.
I nod. ‘She used to say, “Give it some oomph, Gertie!”’
‘Oomph?’ River laughs.
‘Oomph. Like show us what you’re made of. Give it some welly! That sort of thing.’
‘Oomph. I like it.’
‘You’d have liked her,’ I say quietly.
‘I think I would have.’
I reach out to turn the radio dial up in a bid to muffle the feeling that comes whenever I think about Jo. Beyoncé’s ‘Crazy in Love’ fills the car, the brass riff bold and joyful.
‘What the hell is this song?’ River asks, starting to tap his hands against his thighs, bouncing his head a little in time with the drums. ‘I like it. I like it a lot.’
‘This is Beyoncé!’ I laugh. ‘My God, I cannot believe your universe doesn’t have Beyoncé!’
When the song has finished River reaches out to turn the radio back down. ‘She’s great. Beyoncé. Man. I can’t believe we live without her.’
‘So who’s the biggest pop star in your world then?’ I ask. ‘Ariana Grande? Rihanna? It’s not Shawn Mendes, is it?’
‘They’re popular, sure, but no one’s as big as Dangerlady and the Cool Cats, obviously.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Dangerlady and the Cool Cats?’
I side-eye him. ‘Yeah, so you’re going to have to immediately tell me everything about Dangerlady and the Cool Cats. Right this instant.’
‘Y’all don’t have them here?’
‘Um, no?’
River sits up straighter in the passenger seat. ‘Well, Owl, I simply must sing you their number one hit – it’s a sort of electronica, yacht rock fusion and it’s called “In a World of Hot Hot Dance”.’
Then to my shock and delight he starts to sing, complete with accompanying dance moves that are so utterly terrible they should technically give me the immediate ick.
But they don’t.
Not at all.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
*
When we get home, I’m laughing so much at River’s rendition of ‘In a World of Hot Hot Dance’ that a surge of optimism, combined with the brief reprieve from the anxiety that’s been knotting my stomach for weeks, leads me straight to my laptop to see if our ‘learn something new and have fun learning it’ experiment did in fact loosen my brain up like the library books said it might.
I perch on the edge of the sofa, poise hopeful fingers above the laptop keys and wish and pray that Cassidy will do something, say something.
That the movie I’ve had running in my mind for so long will get the hell off pause and kick back into action.
Come on …
I squeeze my eyes shut. ‘Please, please, please,’ I mutter.
Nope.
Nothing.
My characters are still completely stuck, static in the town square, Ethan awaiting Cassidy’s reply to his proposal.
My shoulders sink. ‘Fuck,’ I mutter.
‘No luck?’ River grimaces as he switches the kettle on.
‘Nothing.’
When the doorbell rings, I close the laptop lid and answer the intercom.
‘It’s Bridget,’ she says, her posh voice tinny through the speaker. ‘Can you let me up?’
I buzz her in and head out into the hallway to meet her.
She looks busy and mildly harassed as usual, but her hair is now back in its usual perfectly neat red bob, her cream sleeveless trouser suit is so pristine I wonder, not for the first time, how someone who traverses smoggy old London on a motorbike manages to always look so immaculate.
‘Can’t stop!’ she says, refusing my invitation to come inside the apartment.
‘But your phone still isn’t working and I figured it was probably best to tell you in person.
’ She exhales a quick short breath and meets my eyes, ‘So … I tried my darndest to extend your deadline and I’m afraid that no matter what I said – and I said many things – your publishers were simply unwilling and unable to budge on the date – not even by two weeks.
So unfortunately, unless you die before the deadline, you now only have nine days to deliver this book. ’
‘Fuck. Fuuuuuuuck.’
‘Agreed,’ Bridget says, reaching out to give my shoulder a game pat. ‘I’m sorry, Gertie. Will you be okay? I would say no pressure, but it seems that would be a lie and maybe it’s time to admit to myself that it was always a lie. There is now, in fact, much pressure!’
I nod dumbly.
‘Oh yes!’ Bridget adds, lowering her voice a tad. ‘If your editors ask about your recovery from scabies, just tell them you’re on the mend and move on, okay? Right. Must go. Meetings abound! Egos to tend to! Deals to be done!’
‘Scabies?’ I screw my face up. ‘Bridget, why would my editors ask me about scabies?’
‘Don’t worry about it!’ She starts down the stairs, the clip of her heels echoing in the cavernous space.
‘Bridget,’ I shout after her. ‘Did you tell my editors I have scabies?’
‘I’m sorry, okay!’ she shouts back from the bottom of the stairs.
‘I know it sounds extreme, but it’s never failed.
People usually back well away from any mention of scabies.
In my experience it’s the only way you get people to leave you well alone, no requests for in-person editorial meetings or even Zooms. Plus it worked the last time I said it! ’
‘WHAT LAST TIME?’
‘I can’t hear you, I’m all the way at the bottom of the stairs now! I’ll check in tomorrow!’
‘brIDGET?!’
‘Bye! Good luck!’
For fuck’s sake.
I slump back inside and tell River that it’s a no-go on the extension. He presses his lips together.
‘So your deadline is in nine days and the land auction is in thirteen. Is there any world in which—’
‘It’s impossible.’ I take my glasses off and rub at my eyes. ‘It’s literally impossible.’
River places his hulking workman hands on my shoulders. ‘Look at the situation we’re in, Owl. We both know there’s no such thing as impossible.’ He bites his bottom lip and I think, despite my current panicked state, that I would like to join him in the endeavour.
River’s eyes become serious. ‘Looks like it’s time to bring out the big guns.’