Devon's Island by SI CLARKE

Author:SI CLARKE [CLARKE, SI]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916287815
Publisher: White Hart Fiction

Earth, Scotland, Bodotria

‘Hey!’

I jerked my head up in the direction of Gurdeep’s voice. ‘Sorry, babe. I was miles away.’

She chuckled playfully. ‘I know. But I thought your physical self might want another pint.’

I grinned. ‘You know me so well. Yes, please!’ She squeezed my arm gently and got up to head to the bar. ‘Oh, er…’ I called out.

She turned around with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. ‘And a bowl of chips?’

‘Yes, please.’

‘As if I wouldn’t have got you them anyway.’ She laughed as she walked away.

I turned back to the group. Iulia, Qiang, and Lisa were engrossed in an intense conversation. Iulia was crying with laughter in a way I’d never seen before. Lisa was clearly telling a hell of a story, her face lively and expressive.

It caught me completely off guard. Suddenly I felt something poke me in the ribs. I turned to see Tom. ‘Quite a sight to behold, eh? It’s not often we see Iulia laugh.’

Iulia tossed a wadded up serviette at Tom without breaking her focus on Lisa. Qiang asked what sounded like a question, while laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

I turned back to Tom. ‘I didn’t know Lisa spoke Mandarin.’

‘Cantonese.’

‘What?’

‘Yeah, my years bumming around Asia weren’t entirely useless,’ he replied. ‘I picked up the odd word in a few languages and can distinguish between a load more if I pay attention. Lisa’s telling them a story about a dog, I believe. I’m not sure to be honest. It sounded like the dog was reading a book.’ He shook his head. ‘Maybe my Cantonese is worse than I thought.’

‘I thought Qiang and Iulia spoke Mandarin, no?’

He nodded. ‘To one another, yeah. But Lisa speaks Cantonese. Her dad, you know.’

Like many people, Lisa had spent her formative years being shuttled back and forth between parents. Her father had been an immigrant from Hong Kong, whereas her mother was from one of Canada’s many Indigenous peoples.

The way Tom watched a conversation he couldn’t quite understand made me suspect he was turned on by it. Well, to each their own.

I felt Gurdeep plunk herself down on my other side. ‘Sorry, bit of a queue at the bar. Beer’s here. Chips are coming.’

I stroked her cheek. ‘I love you, babe.’

She put her arm around me as she leaned back in her seat and took a long drink of her ale. ‘I know,’ she replied with a crooked grin.

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