The last person Lyn wants to run into is the key lime lady from Mulberry House.
No. The last person Lyn wants to run into is Jan.
Jan wants to know what happened last night. How she gave them the slip. Jan wants to know which bloke it was. Him! Jan wants to know e-ver-ry-thing that happened. Jan wants her to come to Moca Mocha, Jan wants her to come to Trinity, Jan wants her to come out later, Jan wants her to see these divine little cakes in Wood Street Market with book covers on. Jan wants the others to know. Jan sees the bags, Jan sees the shopping.
Jan says, ‘Bloody hell.’
Jan says, ‘I’ll leave you to it love’ and puts her tongue in her cheek. ‘Bye for now.’
The key lime pie lady is sitting on a bench talking to a black guy.
Lyn walks up the Wood Street looking at the stalls and ducks into a pop up shop when she sees Jan coming back down, half a cake in one hand, the other half crumbling on her lipstick.
Lyn pretends to be absorbed in the … art? Yes, art, and realises she likes just words on glass, on wood, on card, in the floor dust:
WELCOME
UNEXPLAINED THINGS
PROMISE ME YOU WON’T
NURTURING THE PEOPLE NURTURING THE CITY
She likes the maps made into trousers – she wants Pete now, out of his.
She likes the little shoal of gel fish and hearts on the window.
She doesn’t like the clown outside talking to a small angel. Whenever she sees a face painted white, she wants to slap it.