I gave a sharp intake of breath. ‘Oh. My. God.’
‘She’s quite something, your mother,’ David said, laughing as he glanced over to where Mum was shepherding Ren, Colin, my slightly bemused husband, and a whole load of drag artists into position whilst wielding a megaphone. ‘A force of nature.’
‘She’s certainly that,’ I said. ‘And god help whoever thought it was a good idea to give her a megaphone.’
Chapter Thirty-Six
By midday the smaller outlying library teams from Sunnyhill and North End had joined us and we had what felt like an enormous crowd of protesters waving posters and banners aloft in the sunshine. Javid had nearly given himself a heart attack running between people, distributing drinks and sandwiches, many of which he seemed to be giving away for free.
‘If the library goes under it’s another nail in the coffin for any small business around here,’ he said as he handed me a now tepid cup of tea. ‘I get a good amount of passing trade from the mums and toddlers after story time mid-morning, and a lot of your regulars are my regulars too. Do you want a flapjack?’
I accepted his kind offer just as there was a loud ‘Helloo!’ amplified over the heads of the gathered protesters. I recognised that voice.
‘Ahem,’ my mother began, her mouth a little close to the megaphone. ‘Good morning one and all. If I could have your attention, please! David would like to relay some very important information prior to the march.’ There was a rustling noise and I could just see David’s face through the crowd. He was laughing as he accepted the megaphone from Mum.
‘Uhm, thank you Meredith,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t sure how to go about getting everyone’s attention and you managed it very politely.’
I could see her smile graciously and bat her hands towards him in ano bothergesture.
‘Meredith here,’ David continued, ‘is the mother of one of our newest members of staff, Hattie. Where are you Hattie? Give us a shout.’
‘Here!’ I said, raising a hand from my position in the middle of the crowd.
‘Ahh,’ he said, his eyes lighting on me. ‘Yes. There you are. Well, now. Hattie may only be a recent recruit to our library cause, having worked here for just the past six months, but she has been instrumental in gathering us all here today, as has Ren. Where are you Ren?’
‘Here,’ Ren shouted from a little way behind me.
‘Both Hattie and Ren have worked tirelessly to raise the profile of this protest march and to raise awareness of what we stand to lose if the library services are cut any further. I want to thank them both for their commitment to the cause, their boundless enthusiasm, and their unshakeable belief that this project will succeed.’
‘Not sure about unshakeable belief,’ I whispered to Joe. ‘Good thing he didn’t see me last night.’
‘When you were slumped in front of the television, crying over an advert for the Dog Trust while eating a frozen crumpet and saying there wasno point to anything…?’ Joe asked innocently.
‘Well,’ I said. ‘I suppose I am allowed the odd low moment.’
He squeezed an arm around my shoulders. ‘You are,’ he said. ‘And he’s right, you totally deserve to have your hard work recognised.’
Mum had obviously wrestled the megaphone back. ‘And I’d just like to add,’ she said, ‘that an enormous debt of gratitude is due to David himself for remaining at the helm of this wonderful institution for as long as he has – navigating a course through the various obstacles that successive governments have thrown in the way of public services,and, Hattie tells me, working for free for the past few years to secure the library’s future.’
A great cheer went up and David was back. ‘Well, yes, anyway,’ he said. ‘We’ll save the rousing speeches for when we’re outside City Hall, but for now I just wanted to thank my staff and everysingle one of our valued customers, and to thank all of you for turning up to support us. It means a lot. Now, let’s have Hattie and Ren out at the front… And we’ll be on our way to City Hall!’
Ren and I made our way through to the front of the crowd to join David and Pilot, who were both standing with stoic expressions as they considered the cordoned route stretching out into the distance.
‘Is your hip going to be alright?’ I said in an undertone to David.
‘Hmmm,’ he said, his voice contemplative. ‘Should be fine if I take it steady. I’ll hang back with Nathan and the people from the shelter. Nice for Pilot to be part of theDogs Love Librariesside-campaign. You stay here though. We’ll reconvene at City Hall.’
As he made his way around the left flank of the ever-increasing throng I took Mum to one side. ‘Do you think you could stay with David,’ I said. ‘He won’t let on to any of us if his hip’s causing him a problem, but I don’t want him overdoing it just because he doesn’t want to be seen as a burden.’
‘Sounds a bit like your father used to be,’ said Mum with a wry smile. ‘Of course I will darling. Although he’s a good few years younger than me so I’m just as likely to slow him down as he is me. I suppose we can prop each other up. Nice for me to have a bit of toy-boy eye candy on my arm!’
I took the megaphone off her and passed it to Ren as Mum went to follow David, thinking that I’d never heard my boss described aseye candybefore.
Ren turned to the crowd of protesters, megaphone poised. ‘Are we ready?’
There was a muted cheer.
‘I said, ARE WE READY??!!’ Ren’s voice bellowed through the megaphone in true holiday-rep style and this time the responding cheer was much louder.
