Silent Treatment by David James

Author:David James [James, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2020-03-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty Five

Sarah woke from a fitful dream. It made no sense, even for a dream, but it had been disjointed rather than frightening. She was at least sure that she hadn’t got up and walked around in the night.

As she clambered out of bed, she noticed on the table were a couple of what looked like brochures. She wondered if the village was big enough to have a tourist information leaflet. It turned out that the writers of the leaflet felt that it did. She flicked through it briefly, it wasn't exactly long, and realised that it would be useful as a reference for the places she would ask around about Ben.

Her stomach was reminding her that she was hungry and she decided to start with the cafe that had been mentioned in the leaflet.

She emerged into the market square. It was just as you would expect an English country village to look. Everything was laid out off the square; the centre had a small green area of grass, almost surprisingly no duck pond Sarah noticed. There was a butchers – Sarah couldn't remember the last time she had been in a butchers – a small bakery and the café, or more correctly tea shop.

One large building had clearly once been the post office, and was now a private house. The new owners had thoughtfully left a few remnants including the old post box. Clutching her flimsy guide she entered the tea shop.

She felt immediately as if she had been transported back to the nineteen fifties, or what she imagined it would be like then. There was an explosion of white frills and she suddenly felt horribly under dressed.

The waitress smiled and said 'Window seat alright?' and ushered her towards the seat.

'Thank you,’ said Sarah as she settled herself in. She had a wonderful vantage point to view the comings and goings of the village.

'Ready then? What will it be?'

Sarah placed her order, and the waitress wandered away.

As she looked out of the window she began to discern patterns in people's behaviour. People would start at the bakers, emerging with bundles of bread, head next to the butcher then emerge and go lastly to what looked like a small newsagent. A few would go to the former post office, disappearing behind the door that was opened for them.

Sarah's breakfast arrived accompanied by a pot of tea. As she ate she kept an eye on the village’s movements.

Villager number six entered the old post office. She hadn’t seen anyone actually leave yet.

This was beginning to seem a little strange to Sarah. But maybe she was reading too much into things. She decided that she would gently ask the waitress about the old post office when she returned. It would give her a nice lead in to what she really wanted to ask her about. Moments later the waitress duly arrived.

'Everything alright for you?’ she said pleasantly.

'Yes, delicious, as you can see.' Sarah indicated towards the plate which was completely empty. The waitress leaned forward and started to clear the plate away.

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