Ramsey Campbell by The Overnight

Author:The Overnight [Overnight, The]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-01-02T13:16:09+00:00

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GREG

He has taken the fog into account, of course. It used to be a

leisurely twenty minutes’ drive from Warrington to where the slip road for the retail park is now, but since his first visit to Texts, when he almost let himself down by arriving late for his interview, he has added seven-two more than five, to be safe. He brakes as soon as he sees fog basking in the afternoon sun on the motorway ahead. Some of the cars in front don’t slow until the fog is almost thick enough to put their lights out, and none of them heads down to Fenny Meadows. He knows management couldn’t have predicted how fog would settle in the area-it never did last winter when he used to drive past en route to work at the library in Manchester-but the world is changing to nobody’s benefit. He’ll keep that in mind if he’s ever called upon to judge a location for a branch of Texts.

He’s travelling at under thirty by the time he reaches the slip road. As he steers the Rover onto it a car on the motorway swings out to overtake, blurred both by speed and the murk. Greg braces himself to hear a screeching skid and an impact, and when neither penetrates the

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upholstered whitish air he nevertheless drops his speed to compensate. He coasts off the roundabout and cruises behind the unfinished buildings to Stack o’ Steak, beside which a large grey dog or some wild creature about as tall is digging its face into a garbage bin. He would stop to focus on it and, more to the point, to suggest to whoever’s in charge of the diner that they should make their rubbish secure from animals, but he has come to work early to release his colleagues for Lorraine’s funeral. If they’re going to insist on attending, it’s only right that they should be punctual. It would be hypocritical of Greg to join them when Lorraine’s attitude to the job couldn’t have been more unlike his own. If he were a manager he might have felt required to put in an appearance, though he understands that Woody doesn’t feel comfortable with leaving Greg’s colleagues unsupervised in the shop. Greg did consider pointing out that he’ll be there but doesn’t want Woody to think him presumptuous.

Beyond Frugo he lets the fog dictate his pace, which gives him a chance to observe who’s parked where. He doesn’t recognise any of the very few cars in front of the shops as belonging to a workmate. He’d refrain from telling Woody if he did. Not only does Woody have enough to deal with, but Greg believes in giving people the opportunity to mend their ways; he always did when he was a school prefect, for minor offences at any rate. He drives behind Texts and parks alongside several vehicles beneath the name the fog has rendered invisible from the motorway. Briefcase in hand, he locks the steering wheel and then the Rover before marching around the shop.

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