✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

61. A Simple Apology

Tess didn't know what to get Spike for his birthday. Choosing gifts was always hard, and it was even harder when she didn't know what shape their relationship was going to have over the next week. But an impromptu shopping trip had provided her with a perfect option. Following the group's movie night, there had been a lot of conversations on Clatter about the plot twists, with everybody trying to make the most outrageous bluff about what they had seen coming. A few days before, Tess had found it appropriate to share pictures of the comic books Ffrances was lending her, speculating a little about what might be in each one before she started reading it.

Spike had been interested, of course. She was starting to realise that he seemed to be interested in just about everything she shared, like he could understand everything that interested her, and every aspect of her life. And over the weekend, he'd said that he might like to start reading the books too; so they could chat over comparing the movie to the original. After mentioning the French movie as well, and explaining what Ffrances had told her about its origins, he was certain that he wanted to know more.

On Monday afternoon, her history class had been cancelled. That was a big surprise, and she was sure that Mr Minchin hadn't gotten proper permission from the school administrators. But he said that they had completed the syllabus for this particular module, and it made little sense to start studying a completely different era in the last week before Christmas. So he gave them an oral quiz, structured like some kind of TV gameshow. If they could answer the teacher's quickfire questions about everything they had studied in the year so far, they could earn enough points to leave school early. Ashli and Tess had ended up facing a head-to-head tiebreaker. And after all the effort Gabby had put in to help her learn about revisionist histories, the words "William the Bastard" had earned Tess her freedom. So now, a short bus ride later, she was walking around the smaller shops on the back streets of Greater Ashfields, hoping to find something quirky enough to pique Spike's interest.

That was where she'd found Malarkey & Sons, a shop whose windows only showed the backs of various posters, giving no clues about what they actually sold. But Tess recognised the name today, and that inspired her to take a step closer. Beyond the heavy wooden door, she had half expected to find an elderly pawnbroker, trading in all kinds of stolen or outright illegal goods. But instead she found her second guess; a temple to comic books, with lavishly illustrated covers staring at her from every direction. And she knew exactly which story arc would grab Spike's attention right away. If they had the right ones, she thought for a second. But after another look around, she suspected that wouldn't be a question. The shop must have been as large as all the others along the street, but she couldn't see more than a couple of metres down a narrow aisle lined with boxes and filing cabinets. She would be willing to bet that the shop contained more books than air, packed solid with colourful reading matter.

"Looking for someone, young lady?" The voice came from a figure bundled up in a faded sweater at the end of one of the aisles. He was sitting in an old rocking chair that barely fitted between the cabinets, so she had to guess that he worked here.

"Mr Malarkey?" she said with a smile. "If you're not threatening to drink my blood, I think I might have found the right place. I'm looking to start a collection."

* * *

Tess was late for dinner by the time she got home. She had set off at the same time school usually finished, but had forgotten again to account for the fact that from Greater Ashfields to home was twice as far as from Raybridge, or that there wouldn't be a bus leaving just as she reached the stop. She had panicked and sent Gabby a text when she passed the high school and saw most of the lights off and the busses long gone. But she was still expecting that she would have to explain where she had been when she got home, and she wasn't disappointed.