There but for The_ A Novel - Ali Smith [55]
She waved, and a middle-aged woman leaning on the bonnet of a car waved back.
—and at one o’clock exactly we activate the pulley and swing the basket down and over, and he opens the window and puts his hand, his arm, out and takes what he wants out of the basket, Anna said.
Wow, Mark said. Who’s paying for the provisions and everything?
When she saw him getting his wallet out she sent him over with Brooke to a teenage girl and a thin and beautiful older woman, both sitting on a rug on the grass outside one of the tents. Someone had pinned a piece of paper above the door of the tent with the words Smokers’ Area on it; they were both smoking. They were interested to hear that Mark had been one of the original guests—even the morose teenage girl, who looked as if a state of being interested in things might constitute a severe life-change.
The girl’s name was Josie, Brooke told him. She had constant access to the house. She’d deliver the note under the door.
Would you? Mark said.
Yeah. No sweat, she said.
The woman sounded very upper class. She introduced herself as the acting camp treasurer.
I’ve only £30 on me in cash right now, Mark said, but I can nip to a machine and get a little more, if that’d be a help.
The treasurer told him they’d had so many offers of donations recently that they were joking about getting a PED.
What’s a PED? Mark asked.
Pin Entry Device, the posh woman said.
Chip & Pin thing, the teenage girl said flicking at the ashy end of her cigarette with a finger.
A small girl was kicking a football against a sign that said No Ball Games. A group of women of all ages were sitting in a circle, knitting round a camping stove. A good-looking man was cooking what looked and smelled like paella in a huge pan over another stove. Three dogs sat nearby, watching. A man came over with a tray of cups of milky tea and offered Mark one.
They’re good as gold, the dogs, he said, though nobody seems to own them, and we get all manner of birds and squirrels, all from the park, I’ve never seen so much wildlife, even the odd parrot, and there’s a fox that comes at night and all, pretty tame, and I’ve never seen a fox and dogs that don’t go for each other’s throats, but they haven’t. Some of them, the more hippy ones here, say it’s because Milo attracts animals to him, like St. Francis. But it’s the cooking and the bin bags, I’d say. Beautiful, the fox I saw. A big red. Came right up to the edge of the grass.
Mark asked the man how long he’d been camping here.
Three weeks at the weekend, the man said. I was a day tripper for three before that. Then I thought, well, this is interesting, isn’t it? I wanted to see what was going to happen. I was worried every time I went home that I’d miss something. What if something happened and I wasn’t here to see it? So my son, that’s him there, said, look, Dad, here’s the sleeping bag. Don’t know how much longer we’ll get away with it (he nodded at the signs in the windows). It’s not like we’re noisy or anything. We’re good as gold. They’ve tried to rout us three times regardless, twice with the police. But I’m here till the end.
Just one thing, if I may, Mark said. It’s Miles, his name. Not Milo.
Yeah, I know, Anna’s always going on about that too. But Milo’s better, Milo’s got something about it, hasn’t it? the man said. It’s catchier. It’s catching on round the camp, Milo, where Miles sounds a bit, well, wet. A bit middle class, you know?
But his name’s Miles, Mark said.
When the man heard that Mark had been at the original dinner party he got very excited.
Everybody’ll want to know this, he said. It’s like real contact. It’s the one thing. I mean, we even sent him up a laptop in the basket one day, but he sent it back. Untouched. We’re, like, starved, really. You’re, like, one degree of separation.
He went loping off to gather everybody in the camp together to come and hear Mark tell them what it was like to really know Milo. Mark took his chance and headed back