Chalk Dust & Broomsticks, Chapter 30

Shirley & Ranjit are enjoying a picnic on a hilltop and Geoff & Nick are in the pub.

The Picnic

Shirley Midnight stretched out her legs in the long grass at the top of the hill, enjoying the warmth of the Autumn sun, so precious now that the leaves were beginning to turn. Her companion was her dear friend Ranjit. Below them, a flying field was busy. She watched gliders, pulled aloft by a tug plane, taking off into the blue sky before the tow-rope was released. She felt a profound sense of peace: she felt like a glider herself, pulled along by a strong rope, (Ranjit) and supported against any unexpected puff of wind.

Ranjit Singh had become very special. She felt comfortable; they shared the same humour, taste in books, and films. The weeks had flown by, enriching the relationship. In his simple way, he healed the hurt she felt at being a widow too soon and also the uncertainties at the school and the worry of the forthcoming redundancy.

Ranjit spread a checkered cloth on the grass with his strong, brown hands. As he leaned closer, she caught his delicious musky smell, suffused with cleanliness and manliness. Her senses leaped. He poured iced tea into two glasses. As he handed one to her, he smiled, and she felt lost in the dark pools of love in his eyes, but even as she felt herself drowning in desire, she had doubts. Ranjit was ten years younger. How long before he tired of her?

"Cheese and lettuce, or cheese and beetroot?" he asked, his perfect white teeth showing in a broad smile.

"Oh, cheese and lettuce, please. Did you bring any crisps?"

"I certainly did." He handed her a packet of plain potato crisps, the ones with a small blue bag of salt inside.

"You think of everything!" she congratulated him. She giggled, feeling ten years younger; her worries about the school contrasting sharply with the joy of being cared for by a man who saw her beauty.

"You are deserving of being spoiled. You must know by now how I feel about you?"

"Yes, of course. I can feel your attraction, but our cultures are so different. Do you think our union would be accepted?"

"I don't much care," Ranjit insisted. "Tell me you feel the same about me, I beg you. Please don’t disappoint me."

The thought of her cottage at Woodend, a site of refuge, healing, and hospitality, floated into Shirley's mind. The sharing of food was the sharing of love and bonding. She watched as a small robin flew back and forth, fetching food for his mate, who was sitting on a nest of eggs in hopeful expectancy. Shirley felt for the robin – what if he doesn’t come back? – how would his mate cope?

"I have a present for you today," Ranjit said, reaching into his jacket pocket and taking out a small box.

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Nick Blunt and Geoff Padstow walked into the bar at The Jolly Gardener Public house.

"What's yours then, Geoff?" asked Nick.

"I'll have a pint of bitter, please mate."

Geoff took his time choosing a comfortable seat near the window. This conversation will not be rushed, so we may as well be comfortable. He sat down and gazed around. Every woman in the pub was watching him. He gave a slightly ambiguous smile, enjoying the attention he always received. His eyes lingered on the prettiest woman, following the line of her body from her earlobe to the elegant black high heels pointing toward her husband. He then averted his gaze and concentrated on the menu.

Nick carried two pints of beer to the table.

"It's so great to see you again. It's almost like old times." Relief saturated his voice. "I could do with a friend right now. Thanks for coming all this way to see your old mate."

"Not so much of the old. You're not forty yet. Come on, give it up, what's troubling you?"

Geoff sat back against the upholstery, pushing against the seat in a gesture of withdrawal. His words offered friendship, but his mind harboured a grudge. Nick didn't know and Geoff was not about to tell him, that Geoff had discovered how and why he had been encouraged to leave Primrose Primary School at the very moment he had most felt like staying. Geoff knew that he would have been an excellent choice for Headteacher of the combined school, but whispers down at the Local Education Office soon told him that another person was in line for the prestigious post so he had decided not to apply, as had his deputy, also eminently suited to the post. Geoff wondered why Nick had not been more supportive of his application.

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Shirley opened her hand and received the small box Ranjit was offering. As he gave it to her, he smiled, and his teeth sparkled like the diamonds inside.

"Shall I open it now?" she asked, a slight warmth infusing her cheeks.

"But of course," he replied. "That will finish the anticipation and I need to know if you like what I am offering you."

"I'm sure I shall."

Slowly, she opened the little red box and peeked inside. A beautiful diamond ring was spinning love inside the velvet lining.
Keeping her head bowed, she raised her huge brown eyes to meet his own, and he read the answer in them.

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The Jolly Gardener Public House sits at the crossroads of Langwich High Street, a real old English pub dating back to the mid-1500s.

The barmaid, Carole, picked up the empty glasses. "Can I get you some more beer, gentlemen?"

"Yes, please, Carole. Two more pints," said Nick.

Nick looked at his friend Geoff. "Do you remember Alex, my P.A.?" he began.

"You mean that dish with the long, shiny black hair, down at the office?"

"Yes, that’s the one. She's gone missing, and it's been so long now that it's looking suspicious.”

“And no-one has heard from her?”

“Nothing, only Althea Gardner thinks she is in Marrakesh."

“How does she know that?”

“Search me. I think she’s prevaricating.”

“Well, can’t the police interrogate her?” asked Geoff hopefully.

"She's already been questioned, but now she's in the hospital with amnesia. She can't even remember her own name."

"What brought that on?"

"The blow on her head she got when she was attacked."

"Looks like I'm way behind with the local gossip. You'd better start from the beginning, mate."

Geoff leaned in, watching Nick's agitated face as he recounted the events leading to his police questioning. Geoff's thoughts flashed back to his own similar feelings of anxiety a year ago.

Nick explained his affair with Alex, confessing, "Gina and I were having problems I felt such a failure over not getting her pregnant. Then Alex came into my office, wearing an intoxicating perfume. She mesmerized me. She must have cast a spell on me."

"Hmmm," Geoff mused, knowing the feeling well. He also feared he was the one who had gotten Gina pregnant, not Nick.

"I have a low sperm count, apparently!" Nick continued. "Anyway, let's leave Gina out of this. It's Alex. I fell in love with Alex, and then she went missing. Nobody can understand what I've been through." He sighed in exasperation.

Some people would say you have got what you deserved, Geoff thought, concealing his secret knowledge and his grudge against Nick for engineering his departure from Primrose Primary.

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The picnic over, Ranjit and Shirley decided to call in at The Jolly Gardener to celebrate their future.

"Look, isn't that Geoff Padstow over there," Shirley remarked.

"Yes, that's him. He's talking to Nick Blunt from the Office. Shall we join them?"

Ranjit bought two soft drinks and carried them over. "Mind if we join you?" Shirley asked.

"Shirley, great to see you again, and Ranjit, hello mate. Come and join us," replied Geoff, always glad of beautiful company.

"Thanks. You can be the first to know that Ranjit and I are engaged to be married."

The two men looked from Shirley to Ranjit with surprise and pleasure. "Congratulations. Hope you'll be very happy," said Nick.
Nick, ever the opportunist, quickly steered the conversation back to the problem at hand. He asked Shirley if she had seen Althea Gardner recently.

"I'm going to visit her tomorrow, as a matter of fact," Shirley told him. "The staff has been taking it in turns to visit."

"Do you think you could try and bring up the subject of Alex and where she might be," asked Geoff.

Shirley knew more about Alex than she cared to reveal. What she saw in her crystal ball had to be dealt with carefully. Her knowledge of Alex's true fate was a weight on her mind.

She thought about the staircase in her cottage at Woodend, a place for movement and connection, a place to move from one level to another, step by step. Now, she was in possession of a few critical facts, but the way she presented them could totally change the outcome. She would walk up the stairs and reach for inspiration.

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Nick stood up and went to the Gents, frustrated. He knew that if he wasn't careful, he would take the rap for Alex's disappearance. There was something else bothering him, too. He kept getting text messages from an unknown caller, no words, just squiggles of punctuation, and they were becoming quite persistent. And there were the dreams He kept having - odd dreams in which he saw a white light snaking across the ground like a sidewinder.

He leaned against the white tiled wall of the Gents toilet, and a sweat broke out on his forehead. "Am I going out of my mind?" he wondered.

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