The Ned Wood Archive

A yellow moon lit up the sky
And left me happy enough to cry

Cosmic Rough Riders, 1999

Ellie

Ellie is stunned. “Wow, that was beautiful,” she says quietly, mostly to herself. She’s not even sure whether Joe heard. She stands, staring at the stage as the musicians start to pack their instruments away. One or two of them chat to each other, the others focus on putting away their violins and violas and cellos and horns and clarinets and whatever. One lass on the left just sits and stares at the departing crowd. As transfixed as Ellie. But the stage is just an ordinary scene now. To Ellie it seems totally unrelated to the experience she’s just had.

She didn’t know classical music could be so joyful, so uplifting, so beautiful. She recognises a couple of bits from adverts or somewhere, but she’d never immersed herself in music like this before. She wants the moment to go on forever.

“What did you think?” asks Joe. She realises he’s standing in front of her. She didn’t realise that she’d closed her eyes and now she opens them, he’s looking at her, smiling.

She reaches out and grabs his arm and presses it firmly. “Thank you so much,” she says.

They are still on the bank in front of the stage. Almost everyone else has drifted away. Dissolved into the night. She’s wondering whether he wants to go somewhere. Does he feel peaceful like she does? Does he just want to sit and relive the music? She becomes aware of just how tired she’s feeling. She doesn’t know how much longer she can stay awake. Come on Ellie, shape up! It can’t be that late! It would be romantic to climb up to the Glastonbury sign again and sit next to Joe just looking out at the lights, but her legs feel too heavy to drag her up the hill. Subconsciously she starts moving down the hill.

“Can I get you a cup of anything? I know a good place for a nightcap. Hot chocolate?” asks Joe. He’s picked up her movement and is walking beside her. She smiles at him without answering. She’ll just see if they pass anywhere; however, she kinda knows that she’ll turn left at the bottom of the Park and head back to her tent. I’ve gotta pace myself! It’s only Friday. We’ve still got two days left. Oh, god, did I just say that?

“It’s been a perfect day,” she says as they stop. “Thank you.”

He wraps both of his arms around her and gives her a big wet kiss. She uses up all of her remaining energy in responding. They break. A short clinch. But long enough.

“See you at the showers tomorrow,” he says, making it just enough of a question to stop him from appearing too presumptuous. Of course she’ll be there.

“Same time, same place,” she says.

He smiles. “Great,” he says and gives her another hug. Then: “here, let me give you my number…”

She takes out her phone and shows it to him. “Sorry, it died half way through the afternoon. I forgot my booster. I’ll give you mine.”

He shows her his phone. “Same issue here,” he says. “It didn’t charge properly last night.”

“No worries,” says Ellie. She takes the cover off her phone and gives him a scrap of paper. She could never remember her own number, so she’d written it out for those occasions when she’d been asked. Cos she could never remember how to get it from Settings. Not that it happened often these days, but it was a habit from Uni. He takes what looks like an old oyster card wallet out of a pocket and puts the scrap inside it.

“I have written you down, now you will live forever,” he says.

“What?”

“Shakespeare. Your name from hence immortal life shall have.”

“Er, OK,” she says with a laugh. Then: “E. L. E. N. A. Make sure you spell it right!” That makes him smile. He gives her another quick hug and another big smile and, saying, “until tomorrow” walks off. She watches for a second or two, then turns, smiling to herself, feeling warm inside as if she had drunk that hot chocolate. She’s tired, but she’s happy. She can’t wait for morning.