Chapter 27
Beth spent the whole of Saturday poring over her notes for the stargazing night. She knew that for it to be a total success, it was a question of getting the right balance between imparting wisdom and knowledge versus complete boredom.
Convinced that everyone was going to think it was a total snoozefest, by late afternoon she could feel her nerves rattling and wandered into the snug to get away from the hotel guests, all of whom kept telling her how excited they were about the upcoming evening.
‘What am I going to do?’ she asked, slipping onto a bar stool and watching as Frankie prepared the bar for what was hopefully going to be a busy evening.
‘About what?’ asked Frankie, who was busy cutting up fruit for all the drinks she would be serving later.
‘When I make everyone so bored later,’ said Beth with a heavy sigh.
Frankie fixed her with a brief but stern look. ‘That’s not going to happen. But if it does, then I’ll make them all an extra-strong cocktail and they’ll instantly forget everything that came before that,’ she replied.
‘Does that work for my bookkeeping as well?’ asked Ben, coming into the snug with Lily close behind him.
‘There you are,’ said Lily to Beth. ‘Where have you been hiding all day?’
‘Preparing my speech,’ said Beth, with a grimace.
‘What’s with the face?’ asked Lily, looking concerned.
‘She thinks she’s going to bore everyone to death,’ Frankie told her. ‘Here, do you want one?’
She held out a mug full of steaming hot liquid for Beth to take.
Beth shook her head. ‘I don’t want any tea, thanks,’ she replied.
‘Oh, it’s not tea,’ said Frankie. ‘It’s an Irish coffee. Think of it as an emotional support beverage.’
Beth continued to shake her head.
‘Listen, it doesn’t matter if you’re nervous,’ Lily told her. ‘Everything’s going to be absolutely fine. Trust me.’
Ben took a sharp intake of breath. ‘You may have spoken too soon,’ he said, out of the corner of his mouth as he stared at the doorway.
Beth turned to see Dodgy Del walking towards them, pulling a trolley full of boxes behind him.
‘Told you I’d come good,’ he announced, with a wide smile.
‘With what?’ asked Lily, bewildered.
‘With all the space stuff for tonight,’ replied Del, stopping to unfold the top of a box. ‘Here you go! I reckon they’re going to sell like hot cakes.’
Ben peered into the box and brought out what appeared to be a small telescope on a short tripod stand.
Intrigued, Beth slid off her stool and went to inspect it. She took it from Ben’s hands and studied it closely. It certainly wasn’t a brand she had ever heard of which concerned her. Worse was when she peered into the lens and immediately drew back in alarm.
‘There’s no way you’re going to see any stars with this magnification,’ she said. ‘It’s too weak and doesn’t appear to be set up properly. Are there any instruction leaflets?’
Del shook his head. ‘They just came like this,’ he said, with a shrug.
Ben had taken a tripod out of the box and when he stood it on the snooker table, it immediately fell over. He looked at Del with raised eyebrows.
‘Okay, so the telescopes are a bust,’ said Del quickly. ‘What about these?’
He opened the next box with a flourish and brought out a handful of different-coloured spectacles.
‘They’re eclipse glasses,’ said Beth, taking a set from him.
‘Yeah,’ said Del, nodding enthusiastically. ‘So your audience can view the moon.’
‘But there isn’t an eclipse tonight,’ Beth told him.
‘And these are actually regular sunglasses with the word eclipse stuck on the side,’ said Lily, holding one up.
Del sighed. ‘I was trying to help,’ he said.
‘As cheaply as possible as per usual,’ murmured Ben.
‘I suppose you don’t want the posters either,’ muttered Del, his shoulders sagging.
‘Posters?’ asked Beth, now feeling even worse than before.
Ben unrolled a couple of posters from a tube. ‘This is for Star Wars,’ he said.
‘It’s set in space, isn’t it?’ replied Del.
‘Don’t tell me, they’re all for space movies?’ said Ben, unravelling the next one which was for Muppets from Space.
‘Everyone loves the Muppets,’ muttered Del.
Beth shook her head and wondered whether she could feel much worse.
But then Lily began to unroll a much larger poster. In fact, it turned out to be a full-length cut-out of an astronaut. She then quickly rifled through the posters and drew out another one.
‘Oh yeah,’ said Del, looking at them. ‘I think they were for a school project. I put them in at the last minute.’
Beth looked at Lily and expected her to look despairingly back at her. How could this possibly help her talk later? But instead, her best friend was grinning.
‘I have the most brilliant idea,’ she said. ‘Del, you’re a genius!’
‘I am?’ asked Del, goggled-eyed.
‘He is?’ Even Ben looked shocked.
‘Absolutely,’ said Lily, clapping her hands. ‘This is going to be such fun!’
Still not understanding, Beth exchanged a confused look with Ben.
‘Houston, we have a problem,’ said Ben, with a shrug.
Beth was still looking at her friend, wondering why Lily was laughing, when she felt something warm being placed into her hand.
She looked down and saw that Frankie had just given her a mug.
‘Thought you might need this after all,’ said Frankie, nodding at the Irish coffee.
Beth was inclined to agree with her and wondered whether the evening was doomed before it had even begun.