“I know you.” Her eyes narrow, and her forehead just creases a tiny bit, the skin still smooth, and kind of delicate. Her hair is this golden color, a bit like, a bit like… Well like sunlight. Or maybe more accurately dry Marram grass, but only when it looks beautiful like at the end of summer at sunset. Sunset in the sand dunes…
“I saw you on TV.”
I snap quickly out of whatever it is I’m thinking and try to focus.
“I did, didn’t I? You were that kid who stopped the – some drugs assholes. Only when they interviewed you on TV you only wanted to talk about the sizes of sharks. You confused the hell out of the reporter. It was hilarious.”
Now it’s my turn to frown. It’s true I did end up helping to get some drug smugglers arrested about a year ago, well – in some cases arrested, in other cases killed, but that wasn’t my fault. And while I did give a couple of TV interviews about it, and used the opportunity to try and explain the mitigating circumstances behind Steve Rose’s scientific fraud, they definitely weren’t funny. But you just try explaining all that to a girl you’ve just sent flying.
“Over on, erm…” She turns away and snaps her fingers. “Lornea Island, wasn’t it?”
Dumbly, I nod.
“We have a house on Lornea.” She smiles suddenly. Her whole face lights up, like the sun just came out. “My family I mean, it’s just a holiday place,” she wrinkles her nose.
I’m still holding her books, and though I don’t know what to say, I don’t want to give them back. It might mean she walks away, and I don’t think I want that.
“So is that where you’re from? Lornea Island?”
I nod again, although actually my background is kind of difficult to explain. “Yeah.”
“Billy!” She exclaims suddenly. “It’s Billy, isn’t it? I remember now. I have one of those memories.” She holds out her hand, and I have to clasp her books to my chest in order to free up mine to shake it.
Then her forehead creases again into a frown, but one of amused confusion, not anger.
“It was actually my books I was hoping for there Billy, but if you insist. I’m Lily.”
So then I pull back my hand, just as she goes to shake it, and then I stick mine out a second time, and eventually we shake hands. Her hand feels delicate, the skin cool and soft. Suddenly she bursts into laughter.
“What are you doing?” I’ve no idea what she means, but I drop her hand at once.
“I’m sorry, I was just…”
“Don’t worry about it.” She stares at me for a moment. “Actually what are you doing?”
I pause. “I’m not. It’s just your hand felt nice…”
“No, I mean – that was weird but - what are you doing now? There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
I freeze. I’ve got my class. But then there’s this girl. This incredible girl. But I haven’t missed any classes yet. I have my attendance record to think of.
“I have my class.”
“Physical and Chemical…something?” She smiles again. “Processes of the Ocean. I told you, I have that sort of memory. Is it hard? It sounds hard.”
“Oh no. I’ve studied all the topics for the whole year, back when I was in high school… I mean, it wasn’t a subject my school offered, I just studied it anyway.”
“When you weren’t catching drug smugglers?”
“That’s right. Or murderers.”
Her eyebrows shoot up.
“I also caught some murderers. Just a couple.” I turn away and count in my head. “Actually three.”
“Three?”
“I think it was three.”
“You’re even funnier in real life than on TV.”
I frown again. “Do you want your books back?”
“You can carry them for me.”
“What?”
“You can carry them. You’re coming with me.”
“But I have to get to…”
“No you don’t. You just said it was easy, and I’m about to expand your education significantly in other directions. Come on.” She turns and starts walking away, and I can’t help but see how well her jeans fit her. Her hair swishes as she turns her head, and she sees where I’m looking.
“Come on Billy.”
So I follow her.
Chapter Ten
She walks fast, so it’s hard to keep up, especially since I’m still carrying her books clamped to my chest, and my back pack too.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
I do soon enough, when we come to a little café. It’s tucked away in the basement of a block of apartments on a street just off the Harvard campus. She skips down the steps and pushes open the door and a bell tinkles as she does so, and inside most of the customers look up to see who’s come in. There’s only about ten people, and it’s one of those places where they let you linger and lounge about. Most of the seating is old leather couches. Against the left wall there are two facing each other over a low table, and three other people slouched in them.
“Hey guys!” Lily says brightly. Then she reaches behind her and grabs me by the arm, and pulls me forward, like she’s presenting me as a prize.
“Who’s that?” It’s a man who asks, well, he’s only a couple of years older than me, I’d guess, but he looks much more mature than me. Physically I mean, I don’t know about mentally. I haven’t had the chance to tell.
“I bumped into him,” Lily explains. I assume she’s using the term literally and metaphorically, but she doesn’t explain how. “His name’s Billy, and he’s really funny.”
They all – the man, and the two others, who are another man and a girl – look at me, as if I’m about to launch into a comedy skit, but obviously I’m not, so I just stand there.
“He doesn’t look very funny,” the first man says, but at once the other man interrupts him.
“Oh I don’t know, James, the way he’s dressed looks frankly hilarious.” This second
