“Yes, but I can’t do that now. Why did you want to make people laugh?”Joe already knew but he wanted to distract him.
“Ah, the big question. I’ve been asked that a lot. My mum thought I was funny. She encouraged me to tell jokes and make people laugh. It made my anxiety shut up for a bit.”
“You were anxious?”
“I wasn’t popular as a kid. I was a bit geeky. Then having my dad as a teacher at my school was hard. When I came out as gay in my teens, I dropped even further down the social food chain. But if you can make a room full of strangers chuckle, suddenly there’s common ground. Shared understanding. You’re not alone anymore. I think of my mum in the audience when I perform and she’s so happy.”
“It’s brave to stand up in front of strangers and hope to strike the right note.”
“Once you’ve stood in front of a sea of blank faces and survived whether they smiled or not, then you can survive anything.”
“Do you want to be famous?”
“Not for stand-up. I just enjoy turning the absurdities of life into something fun and happy. But Iwouldlike to be a famousauthor. Very unlikely to happen, though I am a well-known journalist.”
“How about being a famous fossil hunter?”
“Even less likely. You’re already ahead on that.”
“But I gave the tooth to you.”
“That’s true.” Kaden laughed. “But I didn’t find it so it doesn’t count.”
“I’ll have it back then.”
“Oh no you won’t.”
Joe smiled.Teasing is fun.
They grabbed sandwiches and bottles of water while buying the ingredients for dinner, then ate sitting on a wall with their feet dangling and their shoulders brushing just often enough to feel intentional. It made Joe’s heart soar. He hoped Kaden was feeling the same as him.
“Could you write an article on fossil hunting?” Joe asked.
“Maybe.” Kaden wiped crumbs from his fingers.
Were there fossils everywhere in the world? He’d have to look it up. “Do you like being a freelance journalist?”
“I like working from home, being in charge of my own destiny, not having to commute every morning. I like the variety of work. Different people, different places, different stories. But it can be lonely with no colleagues to chat to while standing by the photocopier, no one to spin ideas off. And editors can be absolute shits. They say they’ll call back and they don’t. I’ll pitch an idea to someone I’ve worked with for years and they still don’t reply without a lot of reminders.” Kaden shook his head. “But you have to learn when to push and when to stop.”
“Something I’m also learning,” Joe said.
Kaden glanced at him and held the look. “I’ve had to develop a thick skin, which you’d think would help in stand-up. I suspect that was why my mum pushed me that way when I wasyounger. But people not laughing at somethingIthink is funny, is always hard. And the way I earn a living means my finances are complicated. I have to be organised. Keep all receipts. Note my expenses. Along with chasing payment when someone mysteriously forgets to pay me. At least Alistair is reliable.”
“You could easily write an entertaining piece about fossil hunting.”
Kaden chuckled. “The obsessive searching. The thrill of finding something that died millions of years ago only to stick it in a box under your bed.”
Joe laughed properly then.
“Let’s be honest,” Kaden said. “Ninety-nine percent of finds are—” He paused dramatically, “—rocks.”
“But that one percent…” Joe prompted.
“Makes it all worthwhile. Kids are the best at looking for fossils. They don’t mind getting dirty or wet, they’re happy to crawl everywhere without looking like an idiot, and are genuinely delighted by a pretty stone or a piece of sea glass, or even better, an intact shell.”
“You once found what you thought was a dinosaur egg and it turned out to be dried up dog poop.”
Kaden laughed, then stopped short, staring at Joe. “How are you doing this? How do you know these things? Stuff I haven’t thought about in years? How do you know so much about me when I barely know anything about you?”
