Page 29 of Light Up
So he can make eye contact.The breath caught in Corey’s throat and hope surged. “Try me out.”
They shared a long look and it was Tal who turned away first.
“Where’s all the snow come from?” Corey said. “Please don’t saythe sky.”
“But it has.”
“Yes, Mr Literal, but this wasn’t forecast. Is it just this area? Has it suffocated the whole country? All of Europe? The entire world? I wish we could google.”
“Are we still on your portal-cum-parallel universe theory?”
“That or it’s an ice age. Though they’re supposed to come on slowly, not overnight.”
“We’re already in an ice age. It began three million years ago. There have been five major ones so far. The Huronian, the Cryogenian, the Andean-Saharan, the late Palaeozoic, and the one we’re in now, the Quaternary.”
“Wow, you paid more attention in geography than me. I was too distracted by the teacher. Every time he turned to write on the board, all I could look at was his backside. I used to mentally cheer if he took off his jacket at the start of the lesson. Thatmight be the reason for the gaps in my knowledge. Ice ages and arctic mirages. I wonder what else I don’t know.”
“When did you leave education?”
“After A-levels.” Not quite true but to say anything else would lead to questions Corey didn’t want to answer.
“What did you study?”
“It’s the first time anyone has ever asked me that. History, maths and music.”
“Not geography?”
“Mr Jennings didn’t teach the sixth form so…” He smiled. “I would have done it anyway because I liked it, but it clashed with music and I wanted to do that more.”
“And you didn’t want to go to university or college?”
“No. If we’re in an ice age, why isn’t it cold all the time?” Corey needed the subject changing quickly. Things had happened. Disaster and… He had to fight to control his breathing. He didn’t want to have another panic attack.
“Despite what’s happening at the moment, we’re currently in a warm interglacial that began about eleven thousand years ago,” Tal said.
“How many years until it gets really cold?”
“Ten thousand.”
“Exactly?”
Tal rolled his lovely eyes.
“Are you a walking encyclopaedia?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“You seem the type who’d want to.”
“A pantomath.”
“That’s the word. Once upon a time, I wanted to know everything, but when I found pantomath was the way to describe it, I thought it sounded so ridiculous I changed my mind. Musical comedy and maths don’t seem to go together.”
“The word makes sense if you know ancient Greek. Panto is Greek for all. Math relates to learning and understanding.”
“I only know modern Greek.”
Tal frowned.
