Page 73 of Second Verse

A big ‘Ooh’ noise moved through the crowd. The hyperbole was officially out of control. Poppy was not going to like that description at all. She turned to see Susan, who looked right back at her and shrugged. She didn’t look even slightly embarrassed. Oh, to be so shameless.

‘Who is it?’ someone yelled.

Mrs Lock looked down at her clipboard. ‘Umm... Poppy Jennings of Velvet Smack.’

There followed a dreadful silence.

Mrs Lock cleared her throat. ‘Ticket number two-hundred-and-sixty-eight.’

A woman with a tiny crying baby strapped to her front headed for the stage. As the woman passed Norah, she heard her mutter to herself, ‘When the bloody hell would I have the time for that!’ But she wasn’t going to make a public nuisance out of herself like Norah’s voucher winner, and she headed up and grabbed her prize with a fake smile.

‘Right. That’s your lot!’ Mrs Lock said, thrilled. She fiddled with the mic, trying to turn it off. But as it turned out, all she’d done was turn the volume up because then she said, incredibly loudly, ‘Fiona,youcan do that next time,’ to her deputy. Realising everyone had heard it, Mrs Lock turned to the crowd. ‘Because it’s so much fun,’ she added with a toothy smile. She handed the mic to the deputy, who turned it off with a click.

Everyone began to disperse. Norah stood and scanned the crowd. She found who she was looking for quickly. ‘Come on,’ she said to Freddie, grabbing his hand. She ran up to the woman with papoose and said, ‘Hey, I’d buy those guitar lessons if you don’t want them?’

The woman looked surprised. ‘Oh, yeah? How much?’

‘How much do you want for it?’

She looked down at the slip of paper, mulling. ‘A hundred?’

‘A hundred!’ Norah exclaimed.

The woman shrugged. ‘If it’s worth that to you.’

Norah sighed. ‘Gimme your email. I’ll send you the payment.’

They fussed over that for a moment, and then, when the woman was certain she’d been paid in full, she handed over the voucher.

‘Do you want to learn to play the guitar?’ Freddie asked, confused.

‘Why not?’ she replied.

‘That’s weird,’ Freddie noted.

Well, yes, it was. But Norah didn’t want the lessons to go to someone who didn’t want them. That was actually still sort of the case since Norah had never wanted to make music in her life,but she’d take those lessons anyway. Poppy had made Norah’s voucher go from a total dud to a semi-desirable item. Norah wanted to give her the same thing.

Norah pulled Freddie through the throng, outside, where he found Poppy and Luna.

Poppy held up her voucher triumphantly. ‘You owe me a portrait,’ she said with a grin.

Norah held up her voucher. ‘Snap.’

‘What?!’ Poppy exclaimed.

‘I bought them.’

‘Why?’

‘I want to learn guitar?’ Norah lied.

‘You chased down the woman who won them and bought them off her?’ Poppy asked.

‘It’s weird, isn’t it?’ Freddie said.

Poppy looked at him. ‘Very weird, Freddie. Very weird indeed.’

Twenty-Eight

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