The Ned Wood Archive

How I can’t wait to tell you this story

Grace Petrie, 2015

Ellie & Joe

The sun reigns benevolently from the generous blue sky. Far below, the beautiful ones recover from the party weekend, cracked up, stacked up, loved up, doved up. Relaxed and satisfied, exhausted and recharged, the early ones emerge from their tents. It’s the beginning of a new day.

Joe and Ellie are sitting next to each other on the bags on the trolley. He’d come along to lend a hand as promised. Of course he had. She never doubted it. The others relax briefly around them, some on the grass, some on other makeshift seats. Taking a break before the long trek up to the coach park.

An hour before, Ellie’s phone had pinged with a message from Joe. A wondrous message. She’d shown it to Phoebs after she’d read it three times. She knew what the answer was, but she wanted Phoebe to agree.

“‘Dearest Ellie’,” Phoebe, had read from the text. “What the …”

“I think it’s nice,” said Ellie before Phoebe could go off on one.

Phoebe continued reading aloud.“‘Dearest Ellie, Will you allow me to drive you back to London today? There’s a lot of stuff I’d like to talk to you about’.”

“‘PS Just me. Tom’s staying in Bristol tonight’,” she’d continued. “‘PPS. I Love You.’

“Oh Ellie!” Phoebe had said. “Carpe DM!”

“What?”

“Carpe DM! Seize the direct message. Go with him.“ Phoebe paused a beat. “But you’re taking the bloody tent.”

Joe had agreed to help the girls carry their stuff up to the festival coach station right up at Gate A. Of course he had. He’d do anything for Ellie. He’d brought his trolley from Pennard, past Arcadia, and into their camp site and he’s brought Tom with him. Tom had also pulled a trolley over, this one’s Duncan’s or Alex’s – Tom doesn’t know exactly which. Since Ellie had said yes to going back in Joe’s car, he’d got Tom to come with him, the plan being that Tom would ferry the heavy stuff back to where he and Joe are camped so that Joe and Ellie can take it back when they drive back in the afternoon. Provided that is, that the girls don’t mind some strange blokes taking their stuff. Of course they don’t. No way are they lugging that stuff back on the coach with them if there’s any chance of someone else doing it. So that would leave Joe free to load the rest of the girls’ stuff on his trolley and take it up to Gate A. A bit of a slog, but it’s worth it. Like Angel Clare said to Tess: he’d do three-quarters of the labour entirely for the sake of the fourth quarter.

Thing is, he needs to talk to Ellie because he’s made a decision. He’s worked out the best way to follow his heart. It may not work, but he’s gonna try it. He’s going to take a sabbatical. Assuming she’s happy with what he proposes. He has a feeling she might be. It won’t be popular at work, but it’s in the Ts and Cs. He can do it if he wants to. He doesn’t know how soon, but he’ll push for early as possible. He’s been thinking through what he needs to sort. It’ll be fine. Anyway, what he’ll do is take the time off. Six months at least. He’ll come out and spend time in Milan. Quality time. He can afford it. Find a cheap place. Stay a while. Help her settle. Go places at weekends. Whatever. Really give it a go and make it work.

Of course, it could all fall through. She might not want to be tied down out in Italy. They might fall out quickly if he did go out there. They might decide that they weren’t that compatible anyway. She could say no way and please let me out at Basingstoke for that matter.

One thing he’s sure of, though. He’s got to try.

When they’d got to Ellie’s camp, him and Tom, the girls had already done most of the packing. All that was left was the tent and that was half down. It was important that they finish the job without Tom or Joe’s help, thank you anyway, but when they’d done it, Ellie gave Joe a long slow kiss and a massive beaming smile. Joe announced his suggestion for transporting everyone’s gear home which goes down very well and ends up with Tom having far more to take than Joe. Of course it does. The girls ain’t stoopid.

“One thing we’ll need to do first, though, is empty this box here before we can load the trolleys,” said Joe pointing to the cardboard box that he’d brought on his trolley.

Ellie had looked inside and seen that it was full of pastries. Joe had been over to the stall by the Acoustic Tent to stock up first thing. Breakfast for everyone. So now they were all sat around, Ellie and Joe on one trolley, Abi and Lauren on another, Phoebe and Tom on the grass, all of them enjoying the morning sun, surveying the remains of the camp, and polishing off the produce from the excellent bakery near the Acoustic Tent.

Even though she’s not going on the coach, Ellie resumes mother mode to make sure that the other three are on time. She checks the time using her phone. She tells them to finish their meal. She jockeys them into getting up and moving. Tom heads off with what is by far the bulkier half of the kit: the tent, all of Ellie’s kit, most of Phoebe’s, and Abi’s, and Lauren’s kit, plus the chair that Lauren had managed to wangle from the lads next door who decided they didn’t want it, and also some other stuff they’d found and thought could be useful one day. And Tom, bless him forever, takes it all the way over to Joe’s car rather than just back to Joe’s tent, and loads it up because he’s got Joe’s spare car keys with him for safe keeping and because he’s an angel.

Ellie, Abi, Lauren, Phoebe, and Joe head up through the disintegrating camping fields, over the river, and up to the coach park. Joe pulls the trolley some of the way, but Lauren and Abi share the work. After all, they are maybe stronger than Joe. Lauren could defo beat him in arm wrestling. Abi could too. She always wins everything she does.

Ellie hugs and says goodbye to Abi, Lauren, and Phoebe, even though Ellie will see them in a day or two and for sure before she goes out to Italy. Joe gets a hug from each of them too and is told some nice things about how good he’ll be for Ellie, even though he’s only known them for maybe forty seconds total. Then the three of them go join the line for the coach while Ellie and Joe saunter back to his campsite with just the unburdened trolley and a little day pack with a couple of things of Ellie’s. Just the stuff she wants on the journey.

They’ll hang out at Joe’s campsite on and off for the next four or five hours, sometimes strolling around the remains of the festival, other times taking it in turns to guard what remains as the others – Duncan and Joe’s workmates, Meg and her friends, Max and the Bristol crew, and George, Gorgeous George, the hero of this tale – rise from the dead and do their packing of tents and saying of goodbyes.

They’ll go over to the Healing Field so Joe can introduce Ellie to Penny.

“This is Elena, is it?” Penny will ask Joe and then she’ll tell him that “she’s every bit as wonderful as you described her.”

“No, she’s better than I can do justice to,” Joe will say.

“If he can learn when to use his heart and when to use his head, the two of you will go a long way,” she will tell Ellie.

“I think he has learned,” Ellie will say.

They’ll bide their time sheltering under the one remaining fly sheet when the sun gets too hot, waiting for the early evening when all of the traffic has died down maybe just a little and they can get away more easily. It’s a fine day. They’d much rather be sitting in a field in Somerset going nowhere than sitting in a car in Somerset, also going nowhere.
And before they leave, they’ll walk over their area clearing up all of the rubbish, and will do the same for the space about five or six yards around them, just to be on the safe side, because Tom always insists that they leave their place better than they found it, and because everyone else buys in. Even Charles and James.

Then, as the last of the campers drifts off from Pennard Hill to let the countryside return to the farm, they’ll trek over to the car, along the railway line, down the track past West Holts, up muddy lane to the gate for the last time.

And as they exit the gate, maybe they’ll bump into Sam, who will also be taking his final leave of the farm and will also be on his way to his car. They’ll be happy to see that the flow of cars is moving steadily now. That the crush of earlier that day is over so it’s much quicker driving off the farm onto the metalled road that skirts the eastern end of Pilton towards the A361. And maybe they’ll chat to Sam as they walk to their cars, and tell him what an excellent time they’ve had and how wonderful life is going to be in the future. And he’ll tell them something very similar. Then they’ll wish Sam well and he’ll wish them well and they’ll all join the steady stream heading away from paradise for another year.

And Sam will drive north, crossing the A361, passing through Shepton and Bristol and onto the M5. And he will dream and hope and wish.

And Joe and Ellie will head east through Bruton and Wincanton and onto the A303. And they will talk and talk and talk.

It’s the beginning of a new age.

The End

(of the Beginning)