Page 24 of All Wrapped Up
I glanced over at Jeanie who gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up from behind the bar, and as much as I appreciated it, it wasn’t consolation for the lack of people. Yes, I’d been worried about facing a crowd, but the show of disinterest was embarrassing and not at all what Lizzie had prepared me to expect.
‘I thought you said you were going to tell everyone about tonight and that more locals would be available if we waited until midweek?’ I rather tersely said as we looked across at the many empty tables. ‘I thought the autumn festival idea was a popular one around here and that folk were keen to see the idea Moses had actually come to something?’
‘It was,’ she said, looking around again and sounding confused. ‘It is. They are.’
‘Where’s Joanne?’ Jemma asked.
‘On a video call with Aiden,’ Lizzie told her. ‘For once, she didn’t seem all that excited about it, but she did say she’ll try and come along later if she can.’
‘I don’t think we’ll be here later,’ I muttered.
Just at that moment, Bella came bustling in with a woman I didn’t recognise. They had a dog each and I could see that the cute spaniel with a sparkly pink collar that Bella led in was far better behaved than the other woman’s terrier.
‘Jasper,’ she scolded as he pulled at his tangled lead. ‘Come on. Settle down.’
I hoped I wasn’t poised to be heckled by a pooch, because he looked intent on creating mayhem.
‘Let’s give it a few more minutes,’ Lizzie said with concern.
Fifteen minutes after the official start time, we decided that the few people who had bothered to turn up to hear what I had to say, were going to lose interest if we didn’t kick things off, so Lizzie cleared her throat and made a start.
‘So,’ she finished up, having explained that the autumn festival had been miraculously saved and would now be going ahead, assuming there was more interest in it than was represented at the meeting. ‘Without further ado, let me introduce you to Clemmie, who is going to be in charge of running the festival, with Ash working alongside her.’
I shakily got to my feet and looked at the few faces in front of me. Aside from Bella, her friend and Jeanie, there didn’t look to be much in the way of enthusiasm or interest exuding from any of them.
‘Where is Ash then?’ a guy at the bar asked gruffly.
Sitting slightly away from the rest of us, I wasn’t sure if he was part of the meeting or not.
‘Good evening,’ I said, hating the wobble in my voice that let everyone know how nervous I was. ‘I’m Clemmie and, as Lizzie has just said, I’m going to be taking on the idea Moses had to celebrate autumn in the area and overseeing the Wynbridge Autumn Festival this year.’ Lizzie let out a whoop which, mortifyingly, no one joined in with. ‘And, as she also said, I will be running it with Ash but he has unfortunately been delayed this evening and can’t now join us.’
‘Along with everyone else, by the looks of it,’ the guy then laughed.
‘Oh, shut up, Jason,’ Evelyn, the pub owner, snapped.
‘With time being so short to get things up and runningnow we’re already into the ber months,’ I pressed on, laying a hand on my notebook for a boost and looking to Lizzie for further support, ‘we thought it would be a good idea to get going as soon as we can and gather as many people together here tonight to—’
‘Not many people.’
‘Are you going to pipe down, or am I going to have to throw you out?’ Evelyn barked and we all winced.
The guy, Jason, shrugged and shut up, but still looked belligerent and given that he was right in my eyeline at the bar, the sight of him put me completely off my stroke. I had no idea what I had been going to say next.
‘So, what have you got in mind?’ Bella kindly asked, when I didn’t say anything. ‘Will it be a weekend of events or are you planning for things to happen right throughout the season?’
She could have guessed the answer, of course, because we’d discussed it during my first visit to the pub, but I appreciated the question as it pulled my focus away from the heckler and back to the ideas written in my notebook.
‘If we can drum up enough interest,’ I began, ‘and before you say it,’ I loudly said, looking directly at the jeerer, ‘I know the number of you here tonight doesn’t bode well,’ that raised a bit of a laugh, ‘I was thinking it would be great to have things running right through the season and with some whole community events scheduled for half term when all age groups could be more involved throughout the day. Ash and I have been working hard to come up with suggestions that will hopefully appeal to everyone.’
‘But is that what Moses had in mind?’ someone asked.
‘As you well know, Moses didn’t have time to come up withmore than the idea of piling some pumpkins up in the market square and auctioning them off,’ Evelyn pointed out.
‘But I’m certain his vision would have grown, just like Clemmie and Ash’s already has, if he’d had the time to develop it,’ Lizzie added.
‘Fair enough,’ sniffed the person who had asked.
‘Can you give us some examples of what you have in mind, Clemmie?’ the woman with Bella asked with a kind smile.
