Page 42 of The Making of Jonty Bloom
When Jonty turned to head towards the water, Devan followed. “What about your parents?”
“I told my dad I liked boys and he beat the shit out of me. Five days in hospital.”
Devan stumbled to a halt. “Oh God.”
Jonty turned to face him and walked backwards. “He didn’t beat the gay out of me, but he never stopped trying. I’ve had more broken…” He faced forwards again, then gasped. “Wow, look at that.” He ran forward, bent and scooped something from the sand, then held it out to show Devan.
“What am I looking at?” Devan asked.
“Sea glass. You don’t often find it on a sandy beach like this. Check out the shape.”
Devan took the small piece of green glass in his fingers. “Hmm. A warped heart.”
“Is there no romance in your soul?”
“Only in my cock.”
Jonty laughed. “This heart just needs a bit of love and an imagination. I adore sea glass.”
“What do you do with it?”
“Collect it. Hoard it. Imitate Gollum. So bright, so beautiful, my precioussss.” Jonty coughed. “Make things with it. Feel how smooth the edges are.”
“It’s like a pebble.” Devan turned it in his fingers.
“Pebbles are formed in the same way, rocks that get broken up and smoothed over. The sea is nature’s big tumbling machine. It took about forty years to make a piece like that. There’s a beach in Russia, near Vladivostok, that was a tip in the Soviet era, and truckloads of broken vodka bottles and cracked porcelain were dumped there. Over decades, the sea has created a beach of sea glass. The photos are great, but I’d love to see it for real before it disappears.”
“Why will it disappear?”
“Erosion. People taking souvenirs. No glass being dumped to replace it.”
Devan dropped the heart back into Jonty’s palm. “Why do you like it so much?”
Jonty held it up to the sun. “Once upon a time, this piece of glass was sharp enough to draw blood, now it’s been tamed by nature. Cruel turned kind. A useless fragment reformed into a thing of beauty. Every piece is different, but they all have a frosty look, see?”
Devan nodded. “Are some colours rarer than others?”
“Orange is the rarest, then turquoise, red and yellow. Green and white are common. Sorry little heart.”
Jonty tossed it in his hand and looked as though he was going to give the piece back to Devan, but instead, put it in his backpack. “It’s getting harder to find because glass isn’t used as much as it was in the past and we no longer dump at sea. My friend, Tay, used to help me collect it.”
Devan caught the shuttered expression on Jonty’s face and wondered why. “But not now?”
“He can’t anymore. It’s so hard to find. You could spend all day and not discover a single piece.”
Which made it even more strange it had been on this sandy beach.
“Do you like hotel work?” Devan asked.
“Since I’d never make it as a supermodel, yes.”
Devan gritted his teeth. Jonty had no idea but…
Jonty whined. “You haven’t got the hang of this conversation at all, have you? You’re supposed to disagree.”
“I’m glad you’re not a supermodel.”
Jonty raised his eyebrows. “Well,I’mnot. All that posing, pouting and lazing around? I’d be good at that. Instead, I’m supposed to do things like be pleasant to difficult guests who want to check in far too early, or demand meals after the kitchen is closed. Oh wait, I’m so good at that.”
