Gangs and Roses

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

By the time lunchtime rolled around I was planning on giving up. I had not found the house I was supposed to deliver the package in and was even wondering whether to just post the package in the mail and pretend I had delivered it. 

I say in a coffee shop on the same street from the car park Will had dropped me off. I slurped at my hot chocolate, the map spread out across the table. I had to find a Hancock Lane...and there were precisely zero on the map Will had given me. I wasn't just being stupid. I had checked the map. Nine times.

"Excuse me?" 

I looked up to a face of a younger man I had never seen before. He had short-black hair and soft, hazel-coloured eyes and was watching me with a concerned look on his face. 

"Yes?"

"You seem troubled."

I laughed, taking a sip from my hot chocolate. "I am a little," I admitted. 

"You need any help?"

"Er," I thought for a moment. "Okay." I was seriously stumped right now and maybe this guy would be able to find this road name that I had been missing nine times in a row, to be precise.

The guy came over and pulled up a chair. He tilted the map a little so he could see it properly. "What are you looking for?"

"Hancock Lane," I said.

Not even a flicker of amusement came across his face as he started searching on the map. I searched along with him, more confident now that two pairs of eyes were on the map and it wasn't just me being an idiot. 

It was five minutes before he said anything, but when he did I knew that he hadn't found anything because he leant back in the chair, holding his coffee in one hand and taking little sips from the steaming mug. "I can't find it," he said eventually, making me groan.

"Why'd you need to be there, anyways?"

"I'm - delivering something," I said vaguely, folding the map and slapping it onto the table with a sigh. "What am I going to do?"

"Maybe you need a bigger map," the man offered.

I considered this for a moment. Maybe I just needed a bigger map. But where from? I didn't know where anything was in this time. "Do you know where I could find another map?"

"WHSmith's," he said, his eyes sparkling as the name popped into his head. The way his eyes shone almost reminded me of Mack back at the warehouse, just after he'd pulled away from Will.

"Could you take me there?" 

"I wish I could," the guy replied with a sympathetic smile. "I'm meeting my sister in here in a minute. I can direct you, though."