A Year and a Day: Book Three: Summer

Look down. Between England and France. Yeah, in the sea. Zoom in. More. More. I know you can't see it yet. Lower. Nearer France. There, zoom. Nope, that's Guernsey. A bit lowe- Stop! That's it. That's Jersey. I told you! Zoom in more. More. Okay, now it's the north-west of the rock where we're going to. Zoom in there. More. See that main road? Follow it up. There it is! There. Okay. Go through the car park. That's it, across the disabled parking bays. Get to the door. You sure you want to do this? You don't have to. Once you step inside... The automatic doors have opened. You got too close and you've triggered the sensor. You may as well go in. You'll look silly walking away now. A decent selection of magazines by the window. Three aisles. It's bigger than you thought it would be. They even do hot food. You look around. It's quiet. Very quiet. There's no music. Between the two tills there's a newspaper spread on the countertop. Half a Sudoku has been filled in. Blue Biro, but there's nobody here. It's like the Marie Celeste but a convenience store version. And on the land. You're suddenly afraid and you want to leave, but before you can a door opens and out of Enrique's office strides Jamie. Jamie is excellent at Sudoku and too good to be working in a shop. He should be a famous writer but it's difficult when you live in Jersey and not London. He's as startled as you are but eventually he manages to smile. You don't know what to say. Jamie raises his eyebrows to you. His eyebrows are on his handsome face. You still don't reply. You can't. "Okay then," says Jamie with a nod. "There's a customer!" he shouts to the office door. "So?" comes the reply from inside. This is a chronicle of life.