The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan Read Free Book Online Page B

just really bizarre to see them in there among all that girl stuff. Why are you in there? Whatare you looking for? Who are you looking to supply? So it was best to tread with super caution.
    Erin F put the book she was reading back on the shelf and made her way to the Learning Section. Big relief. Neutral territory. She picked up a learning book – How to Speak a Foreign Language in Two Weeks – and began flicking through it. I wondered what lingo Erin F wanted to learn. Maybe I could teach her too?

    MENTAL MEMO: WHEN ERIN F REPLACES HOW TO SPEAK A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN TWO WEEKS , TAKE IT OFF THE SHELF, HAVE A GOOD GANDER AND WHIFF OF IT. MAYBE EVEN BUY IT, IF IT’S IN MY AGE RANGE.

    I followed her movements. With her back to me she ran her hand across the spines of books like a piano player would do for their final crescendo. She stood on her tippy toes and tried to look at some top-shelfers, stretching her Achilles tendon to do so, which was sensational to see; it made the butterflies dance away inside my stomach. I heard her cough once, a tiny cute-as-a-button cough. Poor soul. A piece of dust maybe. Or the dry air we were breathing. Our shared air. I did a tiny cough as well, in solidarity. Perhaps she had a slight cold and that’s why she couldn’t be around her mum that day? Makes sense. I did another little cough.
    ‘Charlie, I know it’s you.’ Erin F’s voice floated over my head.
    Elevator Engineering throughout the Years: The Ups and Downs had failed me.
    ‘Charlie, stop hiding behind that awful book.’
    I froze as if I’d been left in a freezer for twelve days. Everything froze, even that . A frozen twig.
    ‘I know it’s you so there’s no use denying it,’ she said. Her voice was closer. I lowered the book.
    ‘Oh, hi, Erin F, I didn’t see you there.’
    I could hear the crack in my voice.
    ‘Don’t talk garbage, Charlie.’ She shook her head. ‘You’ve been totally gawping at me for the last ten minutes.’ She wasn’t angry. Praise be for that. Result!
    ‘Have I? I wasn’t aware that –’
    ‘Yes, you have.’
    ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to gawp. But you know when you think you know someone and you do a double take and it is that person you think you know and then you don’t know what to say to them after that but you’ve already moved closer to them and the only reason you’ve moved closer to them is because you thought you recognised them in the first place. Know what I mean?’
    Erin F looked confused.
    ‘I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re going on about, Charlie.’
    ‘I just wanted to say hello, Erin F, but I didn’t know how to go about it, that’s all.’
    ‘Just say hello then. It’s no big deal, is it?’
    Now wasn’t the time to tell Erin F that she was the last thing in my head when the lights flick off at night. Now wasn’t the time to mention to Erin F that together in my dreams we have snuggled up in a chilly igloo, snowboarded in our swimming togs through a giant mudslide and heave-hoed, heave-hoed during a mighty one-on-one tug-of-war session. Or that every time I laid eyes on her my heart suddenly became the fastest, highest and longest triple jumper in all of Little Town.
    Hopping.
    Skipping.
    Jumping.
    Bouncing.
    ‘No, you’re right, it’s no big deal,’ I said. ‘I should’ve just come over and said hello without all the cloak and dagger stuff.’
    Erin F looked confused again. I knew the look by now. It was her usual expression whenever we had our brief chats. This, in fact, was the longest chat we’d had since her mum became unwell.
    ‘You should have,’ she said. ‘I don’t bite, Charlie.’
    ‘How’s your mum doing, Erin F?’ I wanted to punch myself for jumping right in with two giant feet, especiallywhen she was probably trying to forget about all that stuff for a few hours.
    ‘Fine. Yours?’ she said.
    ‘Erm … yes … fine too … So are you buying a book then?’
    ‘Just browsing. You?’
    ‘I was after a good lingo