Chapter 7

My circuitous route into Dale's arms had been like one of those yarns about a stranger in town who goes tramping down street after street, eventually to find the place he sought was round the corner a few yards from where he started. Having at last crossed into the territory of physical love, I felt that everything between us was right, exactly as it ought to be. From that first night together, it was to be the two of us against the world.

The next day, just after one, he rang me at the bookshop. His voice was so soft and deep that it made me long to touch him. 'You all right?' he asked.

'I'm in a daze. Jeremy's noticed. He saw me gazing out of the window, sneaked up and startled me by slamming one of the big encyclopaedias shut behind my head.'

'I'm as bad. In the staff restaurant, I went up to the counter but couldn't face eating anything. All I had was a cup of tea.'

'You can't not eat.'

'I'll recover.'

Later, Jeremy called me into the little office at the back of the shop to help him with some figure work, and I explained the cause of my dreamy abstraction. 'You, Dale, ah ... I see! Good. Steady, dependable type. I'm pleased, hope it all works out for you. You must both come over for a meal at my place, Sunday after next if you're free. Actually, Ben, there is something I have to tell you, another development with the business.'

'Oh?'

'Well, development might not be quite the right word, it's not going to affect you all that much. You know that empty shop a couple of doors down that used to be a funeral parlour? Well, someone I know has taken it. As a matter of fact, in a way, you are partly responsible. Remember those astrology books Dale's aunt had? I contacted an old friend who is fascinated by the paranormal, to see if she might be interested. She told me she had been thinking of setting up a little business, a psychic shop or something of that sort. When I mentioned the old funeral parlour, she decided to come and see it. She has wasted no time, she's taking possession next week. She'll be on her own at first, most of the time anyway, and she's hoping we will be able to cover for her if she has to slip out somewhere during shop hours.'

'A psychic shop? Does that mean making appointments for people to have their fortunes told?'

'No, not fortune telling ... well, possibly, I'm not sure. More likely Alicia will sell things. Books, crystal balls, magic potions, I don't know, whatever nonsense that kind of shop sells.'

'Sounds a bit eccentric.'

'Now don't pull a face. It's a matter of business. If a customer came in here wanting a book about racehorses or famous casinos, I would try to find it for him even though I think gambling is a waste of time, effort and money. We may not think much of astrology and crystal ball gazing, but if others attach importance to it, who are we to sneer? Actually, Alicia is quite an expert in all things Egyptian. She's been engaged as a professional ... been on archaeological digs in the desert sands, can translate the hieroglyphics. Anyway, wouldn't be a great problem to keep an eye on her shop for half an hour or so if she has to pop out, would it?'

'Well, if she's a friend of yours obviously ... but we are trying to build up the business here.'

'She will reciprocate when she's settled in, I'm sure. Should make it possible for me to show you more of the book trade, take you along to some of the book auctions, that sort of thing.'

'Oh, good.'

'We mustn't be over-critical of paranormal fancies, ' he coaxed. 'Ask yourself how rational and logical a lot of our own trade is? We make sales to collectors desperate to get their hands on books on arcane subjects of no importance or relevance to the world we live in. Think of the Victorian good housekeeping guides. Aren't they merely curiosities from a bygone age? Are we entitled to sniff at the items a psychic shop sells? Alicia's a good sort. Outspoken, but a good sort.'

Whether she was a good sort or not, what would wags like Smiles at the Give and Take say if they found out about me helping in a psychic shop?

The appearance of a sign saying 'Hatshepsut's Pavilion' above the old funeral parlour's window warned me that Jeremy's friend Alicia was about to manifest herself. She was a woman in her forties with large brown eyes and shortish hair, fawn but tinted to a darker shade of brown in places — or it might have been the other way around. When Jeremy introduced us, she gripped my right hand firmly in both of hers for so long I wondered if she meant to keep it. I said, 'Unusual name you've given your new shop?'

'It's Egyptian. Everyone has heard of Cleopatra and Nefertiti. Well, Hatshepsut was the only female Egyptian pharaoh, from an earlier period, a highly successful woman, well regarded as a ruler, and she ought to be better known. Glad you asked. Has Jeremy mentioned the possibility of giving me a hand?'

'He has mentioned minding the shop for five minutes if you have to pop out anywhere.'

Jeremy nodded.

'Well, that would be a help, but I've got boxes full of books on astrology and other occult subjects. Jeremy says you're an ace at organizing stock. Loads of stuff is being delivered over the next couple of days. Be a change for you from the worm-eaten old tomes Jeremy fills his shelves with. What do you say? Are you up for it?'

Jeremy showed no reaction on hearing his valuable rare books described as worm-eaten old tomes. Offended for him, I said defensively, 'Jeremy buys things that his business sense tells him are in demand. What do you mean, am I up for it? I've got a boyfriend.'

'I was not referring to your sex life. Are you willing to give me a hand with my stock?'

Jeremy said, 'I did tell Alicia we would find space in the basement for her books while the shopfitters are in at Hatshepsut's. If you have time, she would appreciate it if you would go through what she has.'

Wanting to sound unenthusiastic without actually refusing, I said, 'No problem, though I'm not familiar with the subject area.'

Alicia's boxes of books were too heavy for me to manage on my own, and Jeremy was gasping for air after helping me manoeuvre one of them down to his basement. I got him a chair and took the rest of her books down by myself in manageable quantities. Most had come from a bookshop in Hay-on-Wye that had closed, and luckily the owner had compiled a list in alphabetical order, everything from Astrology to Zend-Avesta. They were a mix of second-hand books and new ones that had been published years ago and had not sold. Checking the market value on the internet and updating the prices, some of which were still in pounds, shillings and pence, took me hours.

The shopfitters needed only a week to install shelves and furnishings for the new psychic emporium. After they had left, Alicia invited us in to see how it was progressing. Wind chimes suspended above the door tinkled ethereally as we entered. Shelves and glass display cases had been positioned so as to create all sorts of nooks and crannies, good for encouraging people to linger and inspect the curiosities on sale, but the hidden corners increased the risk of pilfering. 'Have you thought of getting a closed circuit TV system, ' I asked, 'to discourage the kleptomaniacs?'

'You're very cynical, ' she said. 'Don't you think people who are interested in the occult will be above that sort of thing?'

'I'd have thought the opposite. You're not relying on extra-sensory perception to find them out, are you?'

It was meant as a joke, but she said seriously, 'To be truthful with you, I'm not at all gifted myself. Not that I haven't tried, but... ' she shook her head. 'Oh dear. You've sensed something though, haven't you? Don't say there's a jinx, please. After all, the place used to be a funeral parlour.' I did not know how to respond to this. She turned to Jeremy. 'He's not keeping anything from me, is he?'

'Ben wasn't hinting at anything being wrong, Alicia. It's his sense of humour. You'll get used to him.'

'Well, let's hope so. It would be really useful if he could keep shop for me when I go to my Egyptology meetings on Wednesday afternoons.'

'What do you say, Ben?' Jeremy asked.

The hour helping out now and again had suddenly lengthened to half a day every week. Thinking quickly I reminded Jeremy he often went to a book fair on Wednesdays.

'He's right, Alicia. They're about once a month.'

'Sorry, ' she said. 'I asked you round to see the shop, not to twist your arm. One or two of my friends might help out if I'm stuck. Let's leave it for now. How about a glass of wine and some nibbles, as a little thank you for your help so far?'

She had only two chairs, so I cleared a space on the counter to sit on. Above my head hung a mobile with little ceramic tiles in the shapes of stars and planets. A shapeless black thing in one of the crates attracted Jeremy's eye. 'What have you got over there, Alicia?' he asked.

'My Cleopatra headdress!' She lifted out an Egyptian-style wig and positioned it on her head, the long black hair hanging down over her shoulders. 'What do you think?' Jeremy and I laughed, and she said with mock annoyance, 'Not meant to be funny. You might show a little respect, especially you, Jeremy. Ben is still young, he can be forgiven.'

Actually Jeremy himself had come in that day dressed rather like an overgrown schoolboy in a royal blue blazer with gold braiding; the pair of them made the place look like a fancy dress shop. At the centre of Alicia's headdress was a cobra's head, possibly stuffed, but certainly dead. I gave in to the temptation to hold out one of her Garibaldi biscuits towards it, and asked, 'Does it eat squashed flies?'

Patting the sides of the headdress she said, 'Isis, help me. Protect me from these heretics.'

On the way back to the bookshop Jeremy said, 'She's not so bad you know. Heart's in the right place. Half a day for a little while, Ben, to help her get started. We could take turns.'

'Wonder what her Egyptology meetings are like. Probably people sitting around a table, pretending to sharpen razor blades by putting them under a plastic pyramid.'

'You're wrong about that. She is recognised as an expert on the hieroglyphics of a certain period. It's not like you to be grumpy.'

'No, it's not. Sorry. Maybe it's sorting out at all those books of hers in the basement. Soon have them finished, anyway.' Working half a day a week in her psychic shop was a bit of an imposition, but not bad enough to risk Jeremy's good opinion.

'Anyway, ' Jeremy said, 'you know she's one of us.'

'What, Alicia's a shirt-lifter?'

'You know perfectly well what I mean. She's a lesbian.'

Hatshepsut's Pavilion opened six weeks before Christmas, a good kick-off time for any business selling what, to my mind, were trinkets and novelties. Alicia crammed the place with an amazing variety of stuff: porcelain phrenology heads, palmistry hands, peculiar-shaped candles, supposedly Egyptian artefacts, large sparkling crystals — a thousand oddities cluttered her shelves, the more expensive safely locked in a display case. The shop had bright sales areas under spotlights, and shadowy nooks where the intrepid might try on tribal face-masks or handle totemic figurines. In one corner rubber vampire bats and big hairy spiders hung from imitation webs.

The first time I went in for a stint of minding her shop it appeared to be deserted until, after a couple of minutes, the cobra's head became visible above an ornate screen. 'Ah, I sense a presence, ' she called out in a wavering voice from her hiding place, 'Have you come from afar?'

'I've come from Jeremy's bookshop.'

'Oh it's you, Ben. In good time too. Lucky, I'll be able to do your horoscope before I go. I've just installed a new software package that's been highly recommended. Come and sit down.'

'Afraid I'm just not into that sort of thing.'

'Help me try it out. It won't take long. Fortune telling by computer instead of astrological charts, you must admit it has a funny side to it. I need the exact latitude and longitude of where you were born, and the date and the exact time.'

'You're not serious. I was born in Southend in the early hours.'

'Isis preserve us!' she said. 'Early hours? You might have had more consideration for your poor mother. How do you expect me to produce your horoscope if you can't give the map reference and exact time?'

'I don't expect anything. Doing my horoscope was your idea. Forget it.'

'I've spent hours trying to get to grips with this damn thing. You might try to be a bit more co-operative. Oh never mind, I'd better be on my way.' She took off the Cleopatra headdress and placed it on one of the phrenology heads.