Angry Moon

Chapter 28b

     He smiled, showing yellow teeth stained with nicotine. “So, who's the kid?”

     “Lily. My daughter.” Lily, hearing her name, opened her eyes and squirmed around to look at Dave. She was getting a bit heavy so Samantha put her down. “So, what's this queue for?”

    “You don't know?”

     “No. I thought, if I’m going to be just standing around anyway, I might as well be standing in a queue. There’s bound to be something useful at the end of it.”

     “It's the registration queue. We give ‘em our names and addresses in case there’s people looking for us. I'm here so we can get our dole money.”

     “You have to pay for food here?” asked Samantha in sudden fear. “I haven't got any money! I lost all my cards!”

     “Food's free,” Dave replied, grinning again. “Other stuff ain’t. You see that guy over there?” He nodded towards a man wearing a trench coat talking to two teenage boys. “That's our dealer. Oh, don’t worry!” he said, seeing the look of shock on Samantha's face. “We won't smoke it in the tent. Not where your little kid can see. We'll go outside. I'll make sure the others understand.”

     “That's very considerate,” said Samantha drily. “Are there any bank terminals around here? I just need to get in touch with a bank and I can get a new card. Then I can buy whatever I need. Food, a phone, a car...” She stared around at the tents and the milling crowds of people as if a terminal might have sprung up out of the ground.

     “Got money then, have you? Lots of people here have got money. Doesn't do ‘em any good, though. Anything you want to buy, someone's bought it already.”

     “That sounds about right.” She was hungry, she realised, and if she was, then Lily must be as well. She swung the knapsack off her back and rooted around in it until she found the tin of biscuits. “Have some of these,” she said, opening it and offering it to her daughter. “We'll find some proper food later.” Lily selected a bourbon cream and nibbled it unenthusiastically. Samantha picked out half a dozen more and stuffed them in the pocket of the little girl’s coat. She then offered the tin to Dave.

     He shook his head. “Reckon you need that for you and your kid,” he said. “I'm not taking food from a kid.”

     Samantha smiled, and was surprised to find herself warming to him. Maybe he's not so bad, she thought, closing the tin and putting it back. Maybe I could have done worse.

     Dave looked up at the moon, looming huge overhead. A widening crescent, rimmed with fire, as the sun gradually moved away from it. “Ain’t that something,” he said. “Who'd have thought I'd live to see something like that.”

     “I could have done without seeing it,” said Samantha.

     “Yeah, I know what you mean. They say there was a tsunami on the east coast.”

     “A what?”

     “Yeah, a tsunami! The whole eastern half of England washed away like sandcastles. They say it's worse in Japan, though. They had three tsunamis over there. Briny’s got a radio and they were saying it on the news. And a whole bunch of Japanese volcanoes erupted, all at the same time! There's not much left of the country they say, so I suppose we got off lucky over here.”

     “Always important to keep a sense of perspective,” said Samantha. “No matter how badly off you are, there’s always someone who's worse.”

     “Right. At least we don't have volcanoes in this country. But then, they also said we don't get earthquakes in this country, and you know what happened in Scotland. Right?”