"Nothing more," Eliza grinned.
"Nothing less," Shannen replied.
Then together, "Love is the best."
Then they collapsed into laughter and thrust the mic at Pete, whose own grin clearly symbolised his excitement to the enlivening of the mid-week karaoke. He'd doubted anyone was going to take properly tonight, it being Wednesday. In truth, he'd only set it up because Kaylie, his daughter had been pestering him about singing. She had taken to the idea of performing during Cairnryan's Got Talent and had anxiously awaited every karaoke night ever since. Pete's surprise, therefore, that the machine was getting its best workout since Valentine's was only to be expected.
As the Madness song drew to a close, Shannen and Eliza shuffled to the bar, where Shannen ordered a vodka, lemonade and lime, holding it close to Eliza's face then pulling it away just as it looked like she was offering it to her.
"You really are Satan, you know that?" Eliza smiled.
"Sorry, Eliza, I am not serving you. If you want alcohol, go get a fake ID. There's a shop on the corner that'll probably serve you."
"Actually we're probably not staying very long. We're heading on a ... treasure hunt ... tomorrow. I doubt we'll have time to quench Eliza's thirst to break the law."
"This about Joanne?" Pete asked as he poured the drink.
"Yeah," Shannen replied, "Her and Ben are gonna try and hear what they can from the soldiers because the terrorists don't know Ben has Twitter. They think they're both completely isolated from the world. They're going to try to help us find themselves."
"So you two've been recruited, like, you're the people on the inside?"
"Not exactly," Eliza admitted, "But the government is useless! They never get anything done!"
"I'll give you that. And I can't exactly call your parents to tell on you. Here," he handed Shannen the drink, and they migrated back to the karaoke floor.
Together, they belted out, "One day. When I came home. At lunch time. I heard a funny noise. Went out. To the backyard. To find out. If it was one of those rowdy boys. Stood there. Was my neighbour. Called Peter. And a flux capacitor. He told me he built a time machine like one in a film I've see-een. He said 'I been to the Year 3000'..."
"Checkmate," Ben announced.
I scanned the board for a moment, "Dammit."
"You're getting there," he assured me, "That one lasted over five minutes."
I grinned at him as I snatched back my army and built them up into a protective clique around my King. He, doing the same, smiled back, then leaned backwards on the picnic bench and drank in the sunlight. I followed suit, not because I wanted to imitate him, but because he was right to do so. We'd finally convinced the terrorists to let us outside, claiming that we might die without sunlight, and that our cold lifeless corpses wouldn't make for good leverage. This was utter crap, of course, since it's more likely we'd just have god all emo and moody and gone very pale - though I've got a huge headstart on that front.
The trees scratched the sky, waving at the sun that was booming through their branches. We were hidden behind the cave, but not from the sky, not from the birds that circled obliviously overhead, with no idea that their home was playing host to some of the cruelest traits exhibited by mankind: greed, heartlessness, disregard for the wellbeing, comfort, or in general the feelings of humankind.
It felt good though. It felt amazing. It was like a proper picnic, a proper picnic with someone I could have been brilliant friends with, discounting chronology, geography and this rather unfortunate set of circumstances. Ben really isn't as posh as his full eleven syllable name would suggest. I mean, he likes classical music and stuff ... I don't understand that but I do respect it ... as in I didn't make quite so many jokes now ... but he really can't be classified as high-brow.
Fig. 2
No, Ben does not frown upon the silly.
"Shh," Ben murmured, "Play, but shh."
I nodded and finished setting up the board.
At the corner of the tent, a guy called Conrad was complaining about having to go into 'town'.
"It's the damn beach!" he grunted, "It lets in all the wind and cools the place right down. I tell you, this place is like back home compared to in there."
"Shut it," another on snapped, "They'll hear you."
"Forgot they were out here."
"Right, well they are, so shut up."
"Who're they gonna tell the weather patterns to anyway?"
I swear, I have never exercised such self restraint in my life as I did at that point to avoid collapsing in an all-consuming fit of giggles. As Shannen would say, I was 'criyinf' at the irony. :)
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