Excerpt: Going Away

The inside of the cafe was shabby and dark. It smelt a little of the proprietor’s cigarettes... or maybe the cigarette of bygone customers. The fact that the smell lingered there in the dull green and red attired room, was disconcerting enough. Over the unused fireplace hung a portrait of Henry VIII and by the bar were various posters advertising past concerts in Teignmouth, the nearest big town. Nothing lived up to the name of Cafe Pascal. There was no French theme, or even a mathematical or philosophical theme. It was just a very dull room, with mesh curtains shielding the clients from the dull exterior. Tina and her mother were the only clients on that particular morning. When they walked into the cafe, the room was empty but they could hear Mrs Wisby trudging around somewhere out back. They stood patiently. There was a bell on the counter but they had once made the mistake of pressing said bell and discovered that Mrs Wisby was not a woman to take kindly to being hurried by her clients.