A Christmas Gift. Sue Moorcroft

to keep her in view as the flow of students carried her along until she forked off right towards her room. He watched to check she went inside, then headed left for Oggie’s quarters.

      Finding the principal of the institution at his desk he whipped over to the coffee machine and helped himself to two cups of coffee with a breathless, ‘Sorry, Oggie. Explain later.’

      Oggie, who rarely looked anything other than serene, actually frowned. ‘Joe, you’re supposed to be—’ was all he got out as Joe, heart beating surprisingly hard and high up in his chest, set off in pursuit of Georgine.

      At her door, he paused, then stepped inside. ‘I brought you coffee.’

      From the other side of the large table, she gazed at him, her expression frozen into unfriendly lines. ‘You’re supposed to be—’

      ‘Accompanied, yeah. So sue me.’ He closed her door with an impatient foot. ‘You’ve obviously realised who I am. I’d like to explain.’ He put one of the coffee cups down on the table and pushed it across to her. It felt like he was creeping up on a wild creature and trying to gain its trust with food.

      Georgine’s eyes moved over his face. ‘This is beyond weird. Like a time warp crossed with the hall of mirrors.’

      He offered a smile. ‘I had a few reasons for not reminding you who I was straight away.’

      ‘You had planned to come clean at some time, then?’ She glanced at the cup of coffee but didn’t touch it.

      Her words rankled but he didn’t let his irritation filter into his voice as he pointed out, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong to “come clean” about. I recognised you. I can’t help it if you didn’t recognise me.’

      The green eyes were wary. ‘You’ve changed so much. I kept getting a strange feeling about you, but not knowing why. The penny dropped when you almost answered that kid when he said “Rich”.’

      ‘I was a ragged arse runt when you knew me. Becoming healthy after being underfed for most of your life is bound to prompt changes,’ he said with a hint of bitterness.

      ‘Your hair’s a lot darker now. You wear glasses. And, crucially, unlike me, you’ve changed your name.’ She took a few steps around the table, then paused as if not wanting to venture too close.

      He remained where he was, willing to stay out of her personal space but not by backing up. ‘Why don’t we sit down and I’ll tell you the story over coffee?’

      ‘Because I have to start ringing around the parents who are volunteering to act as house managers or to run the bar and refreshments counter during show week. Six shows means a lot of volunteers.’

      ‘Right.’ For an instant he’d forgotten he was in a ‘normal’ job. Maybe because he hadn’t had too much experience of normal. He spent a lot of his life on the road or rehearsing or recording. He didn’t think he’d ever had a reason to be in the same building five days a week since he’d left college.

      ‘I feel odd,’ she said, before he could speak again. ‘I’m supposed to be looking after you, but I actually don’t want to, not this afternoon. I want to concentrate on what I’m doing, not trying to solve the puzzle that’s you.’

      ‘I’m not a—’ he began.

      She held up her hands. Impatience seemed to be taking the place of shock. ‘No, don’t. I’ve got most of the notes together for you so I’ll walk you to the staff room. If you have your copy of the Very Kerry Christmas script you can begin adding your tech notes.’

      ‘OK,’ he said. ‘But it’s important we clear the air.’

      She nodded, though her heavy sigh suggested she regretted the necessity. ‘Could it be away from here? Maybe tonight, if you’re free. If we’re to work together a talk would be … enlightening.’

      ‘I can be free this evening.’ Until he made a decision or two, every evening on his calendar was free, with a question mark over Christmas week. His uncle and aunt, Shaun and Louise, usually invited him, but this year Shaun was working with a band in Australia and Louise had gone along for the whole Christmas-on-the-beach experience. ‘Here in the village? Is there a coffee shop?’

      ‘The Angel, but it’s only open in the evenings in summer or when there’s something on in the village. It’ll have to be the pub. Give me your phone number and I’ll text you details.’

      He shifted awkwardly. ‘I don’t have a phone I can use right now. Just tell me where and when and I’ll be there.’ His phone was off and as he’d no intention of switching it on any time soon it wasn’t a lie to say he couldn’t use it.

      She frowned, as if the fact that he didn’t have a working mobile phone made her even more wary. As if to show him what he was missing, her phone began to burble. Reaching for a notepad, she tore out a page and scribbled The Three Fishes, Main Street, 8 p.m. on it, shoving it towards him as she answered the call.

      ‘I’ll be there,’ he murmured.

      ‘OK.’ Then, into her phone, ‘Hello, Maddie. Yes … no, I wasn’t going to, but I can come along if you want me to.’ She reached for her production file and laptop, pausing to grab the cup of coffee he’d brought her then waiting for him at the door. He followed as she walked briskly up the corridor to the staff room and saw him inside with a nod and what passed for a smile.

      The door swung closed.

      He’d been dismissed.

      Irritated, Joe opened his locker to get the laptop Fern had issued to him, a battered old hand-me-down ‘from the pool’, though he would have thought ‘the shit heap’ a more accurate description. It was a far cry from his own state-of-the-art Mac Pro, but he supposed Acting Instrumental had a policy on what computers they made available to which staff and he was a very new, lowly volunteer who could be temporary. A shit-heap computer was evidently his level.

      Also, he wasn’t turning on his own laptop, to avoid the siren call of his inbox at present. Raf, Nathan and Liam from the band were probably trying to contact him, not to mention Billy, but, though he felt slightly ashamed for ducking them, he hadn’t formulated answers to what he knew would be their very real concerns.

      He cast a jaundiced eye over the overheated staff room. It boasted the kind of low chairs that seemed designed to make a tall person uncomfortable. A peek out of the door revealed not a single student, so for the second time since lunch, he broke the unbreakable rule that he shouldn’t be alone until his DBS checked out, and left. Soon he was unlocking a door that led him out of the building directly beneath the outside stairs that clung to the side of the building. From either side, the door looked to be the kind that led to a cupboard or some utility and had presumably been used to access staff accommodation in the days when the building had been a private residence. The flight of stairs was obscured by the bulk of the big rehearsal room and it had only been by chance that Georgine had caught him there on his first day. Wrong-footed at her presence, he’d hovered indecisively as she’d turned and spotted him. Letting her think he had no business being where he was had seemed the easiest way out.

      But now he ran up the steps, tapped a number into the keypad and let himself into a corridor with three doors, two on the left and one on the right. He opened and went through the one on the right, kicking off his shoes and hanging up his jacket.

      The apartment, apart from being as big as the other two put together, had appealed to him because it was so white and clean looking. Its impressive kitchen area held a battery of built-in equipment, making him appreciate why whoever had planned the apartment had gone with open plan. That kitchen was a work of art and shouldn’t be hidden behind a door.

      He crossed to the fridge and helped himself to a bottle of water, then moved into the living area and dropped onto the sofa, taking off his glasses and swinging his feet up onto the coffee table. Opening the shit-heap laptop, he emailed Oggie to let him know Georgine had recognised him, then fetched the photocopies of her storyboards from where he’d left