Page 86 of The Village Shop for Lonely Hearts

The woman sighed with relief. ‘Thank you so much. I don’t know what to do.’

‘Have something to eat and drink and you’ll feel better,’ Amber told her.

‘Who wants to give me a hand with the hot chocolate?’ asked Grandma Tilly, leading the children away behind the counter.

‘Wow, that smells good,’ said another stranger as he came in.

‘Bacon buttie and a coffee?’ said Amber, with a smile.

‘I’ve not got my wallet on me,’ he told her, patting his trousers. ‘I’ll go back and get it.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Josh told him. ‘This one’s for free today, OK, folks?’

The man smiled gratefully. ‘That’s great. Thanks so much. My head’s all over the place.’ He looked around the shop. ‘I don’t know what I need to start to clear up.’

‘We’ve got loads of rubber gloves,’ said Josh, grabbing a nearby box. ‘You don’t want to be poking around in that filthy water in bare hands. It’s not sanitary. Have you taken photos of everything? Marked where the water came up to for the insurance company?’

The man shook his head. ‘My phone battery’s dead.’

‘Bring it in here to charge whilst Amber makes you a bacon sarnie. I’ve been reading about it online,’ said Josh. ‘You want to make a note and take photos everywhere.’

‘OK,’ said the man, nodding. ‘Thanks. I’ll grab my phone and I’ll be back.’

‘Did someone say that you’re able to charge a phone?’ asked a woman who had just come into the shop.

‘At the back here,’ said Josh, pointing to a socket in the wall. ‘I’ll grab an extension lead,’ he told Amber.

‘There’s some Post-it notes here,’ she said, remembering seeing them under the till at some point. ‘I’ll write down whose phone is whose.’

‘Brilliant,’ said Josh, dashing off.

At some point later in the morning, people began to come in for essentials, such as nappies, dustbin bags and cleaning materials, as well as biscuits and any kind of food they could eat whilst they started to clean up.

Amber had barely sat down all morning and could feel herself flagging by lunchtime.

‘You OK?’ asked Josh, as they briefly stood in the shop alone.

Grandma Tilly had headed upstairs to put her feet up for half an hour, on Josh’s insistence as she too was fading.

‘I’m fine,’ said Amber. ‘Just a little weary. But at least we have a warm bed to go to tonight. Some of these people have lost everything.’ She frowned, suddenly realising something. ‘Have you seen Stanley today?’

Josh shook his head. ‘I’m sure he’s just busy.’

But Amber was suddenly terribly worried. ‘He always comes in here. Always. Dead on half past nine.’

They looked at each other and then at the time. It was almost twelve o’clock.

‘You stay here and man the fort,’ he told her. ‘I’ll go round and see if he answers the door.’

‘Hey up,’ said Dodgy Del, coming through the front door. ‘What’s this about free bacon butties?’

‘That might have to wait. Do you know Stanley?’ asked Josh. ‘Comes in the pub every Wednesday for his pint?’

‘Of course,’ said Del. ‘He was my old headmaster. Why? What’s up?’

‘We haven’t seen him and he always comes in every day without fail.’

Del frowned. ‘He’s down Larch Avenue,’ he said. ‘It’s been pretty bad down there, from what I’ve heard. I’m not sure who checked there last night. Come on.’