The Ned Wood Archive

Ellie

Ellie said that she’d get dinner.  She knew just the place.  The Lebanese opposite Sweet Charity in the Park.  The one where you can get loads of different stuff. And not just because she loves the food.  But also because they could sit and eat it at that same table that Joe was sitting at when she first saw him.  Or, technically speaking, when he first saw her.  

And Joe said that it was an excellent idea, not just because the food was fantastic, but also because he would also remember sitting there outside Sweet Charity on the Wednesday for as long as he lived.

They get a massive plate with one of each of the items on sale which they share and then argue over which is the tastiest.  Joe’s very fond of the fateyer, but Ellie’s more of a batata person.

Ellie asks him whether he’s going to watch all of the festival goers passing by to see who he spots.  He misses the reference and instead tells her that he’s more interested in the rubbish bins.  At least, this time round.  He’s spotted something.  He points out that the ones nearest to them have all got the same theme.  They’ve all got paintings of flowers where the centre of each flower is a face.  

“The flowers can talk,” he says, “when there’s anybody worth talking to.”

“Have they told you anything?”   

“Not yet,” he has to admit.

Then…

“This one reminds me of you,” he tells her, pointing out a massive yellow daisy.  “It’s like the sun.  The sun came out when you walked past on Wednesday.  And the sun came out when I saw you yesterday.”

“No it didn’t.  It absolutely tipped it,” she points out.

“Really.  Are you sure?”

She smiles.  “Stupid Fucken White Man,” she says.

Not far from where they’re sat there is a giant chess board marked on the grass. Up above Sweet Charity, not as far as Scissors, near that tent with a piano that you can play. They can see figures moving backwards and forwards around the board. There are a couple of queens, obviously, extravagantly dressed, one white and one red. There’s a bishop with a mitre and a crook, a knight walking around in a metallic suit, more like the tin man from Oz than a mediaeval knight, and there is a geezer with a brick-patterned tunic, who must be a castle. These various characters are entertaining a few kids and their parents. They get the kids to play the pawns and the parents to pretend to be the other pieces and have them move round the board, although as far as Ellie can tell, they aren’t strictly following the normal rules of chess.

They are both watching now, appreciating the fun that the kids are having. It soon becomes evident that the main purpose of this particular game is to get each child to the last row so they can be promoted. There is one girl that Ellie notices. She’s jumping up and down, obviously excited at the prospect. When she gets her turn, one of the queens takes off her crown and gives it to the child. The girls immediately casts it aside and rushes over to the pile of props that is lying on the far side where she picks up a sword and waves it in the air.

“I’m a knight,” she squeals in delight.

Joe and Ellie smile at each other. Joe says that the kid obviously knows what she wants. He says she’s transformed. Ellie thinks it isn’t transformation, it’s realisation. Actualisation. Not that she’s played chess much or anything, but, I dunno, maybe it’s like life. She tells Joe that when you get to the end of the board, it’s like growing up. You become yourself. Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. You turn into what you really are. At least, that’s what she hopes happens. Maybe growing up is all about getting to the end of the board and finding out what you really are. Is that what those Alice stories are all about? She’ll have to read them again.

She’d been sending messages to the group chat so that they’d know not to wait around for her.  Sometimes they’d split off, her and Phoebe, and go to the punkier gigs. With her being with Joe, it meant that Phoebe would hang out with Abi and Lauren. Ellie knew that she hated going to gigs on her own. It meant Phoebe having to go see Ellie Golding when Soft Play were on.  I dunno. Maybe Phoebe wouldn’t mind. Sometimes all four of them would hang out together anyway. And they mostly agreed, though, on who they wanted to see.

She’d been sending messages direct to Phoebe too. More personal.  Phoebe would be able to tell what was going on.  Maybe. She’d be desperate to discuss it when they saw each other.  It would help Phoebe understand what had been going. It would help Ellie work out her real feelings too. Ellie had been saying like it could be after lunch, or meeting up for Holly Humberstone, or later that afternoon, or in the evening.  Each deadline had passed and each potential rendezvous was missed.  Each message Ellie had sent being another cryptic clue as to what she was thinking. Fragments of a monologue. She’d just gone with the flow, seeing what happened with her and Joe.  I mean, you’re at Glastonbury, right. You’re supposed to have fun. To be or not to be. Put the pieces together, it might give Phoebe enough insight. What does Ellie really want? Her assignment to Milano is so fundamental to her planning that it kinda puts a limit on how far she’ll let her emotions go. Consciously, that is. What happens next? Who knows, he might want to see Lady Gaga tonight.

“What’s the one act you absolutely must see this weekend?” he asks.  Maybe he was reading her mind.

“It’s not an absolute just see or die, but we’re all going to see Bastille on Sunday.”

“Really?  Are they still any good?”

“Yeah, no.  They’re OK.  Yeah, they’re good.”  To be honest, she hasn’t listened to them in ages.  They were big fans, really big fans, all of them, ages ago, when they started.  Especially her and Phoebe.  They went to a signing at some record shop and met Dan.  Phoebe was in love with Dan.  So was Ellie.  Then she was in love with Kyle, the keyboard player, cos he had a cute ‘tache.  Phoebe’s mom took them to see them at Brixton.  That was her first ever gig.  Sat upstairs.  Any time she hears those songs – Laura Palmer,  Pompeii, Overjoyed – she’s back in 2013.

“So when are they on?”

“Sunday evening.”

“I might go and see them if they don’t clash with Hamish Hawk.  I saw them at Strummerville once.”

So he tells her about when he saw them at the Rabbit Hole.  About how he was walking past and heard this band and thought they were interesting and went in.  And how they were dressed up in tiger costumes.  And how they were really good, especially the teletubby song he called it.  And they announced that they’d be playing Strummerville that night, so he went to see them there.  Only the stage was so small at Strummerville, they didn’t all fit on it.  She’s not sure whether she believes him, especially when he says it was 2011 because she didn’t think they’d started then.  Anyway, she’s never been to Strummerville, so she doesn’t know about that bit either.  And he told her that the band had only got passes for three of them that year and had to smuggle the keyboard player in.  The one that plays keyboard most of the time, cos they all played keyboards on and off, didn’t they? Hidden in a sofa or something. 

Now she knows he’s fibbing.