All That She Can See(36)

‘There is a little bit of Honesty in there, yeah.’ She expected Chase to be cross but he just laughed harder.

‘Of course there is!’

‘But I haven’t had any so at least you know I was being honest because I wanted to be,’ Cherry said.

‘True. But even so, I would have been honest anyway. I can’t seem to lie to you.’ He knelt down by her side and nudged her knee. ‘Look, we can fix this.’

‘We?’ Cherry sniffed.

‘Well… yeah. If you want?’ Chase found that he couldn’t look at her and that his palms had started to sweat.

‘Why?’ she asked, and the realisation hit him: it was because he didn’t like being apart from her. Not only because she understood him in a way no one else ever had but also because he enjoyed the way she smiled. He liked the way she looked in pyjamas and he both loved and hated the way he never wanted to be anything but honest to her. All his life, other people’s feelings had been thrust upon him but now his feelings for Cherry were all his own. ‘I still want to be the best! If you give me lessons and make me better at… whatever this is you do, we can put this town back together again. Shouldn’t take too long!’ Chase stood up and brushed the crumbs off his trousers. He held out a hand for her and she gratefully took it.

‘On one condition,’ she said. ‘You have to wear pyjamas.’

‘That had better be a joke,’ Chase warned and just as Cherry parted her lips to tell him she was, in fact, being deadly serious, someone knocked at the door.

‘The police! I totally forgot I’d called —’ But when Cherry turned around and looked through the window, there was no policeman at the door. Instead, standing with immaculate posture and a stony face was a woman in a yellow sundress and a big circular blue floppy hat, with a brown briefcase by her side. Her hair was golden and plaited in one long fishbone plait down her back, the tip of which reached her waist.

‘Hello?’ Cherry opened the door.

‘Hello,’ she said.

‘I’m ever so sorry, but we’re closed,’ Cherry said apologetically.

‘I can read, dear. I’m not here for confectionary. I’m here for damage control.’

‘Damage control?’ Chase said coming to stand next to Cherry.

‘Yes, dear. I’m Happy from the Guild of Feelers and thank whoever’s watching over us that we’ve found you.’





14





A Meeting With Happiness





Happy wasn’t happy. At least, nothing in her face gave away what she was thinking or feeling and Cherry wondered if she were to push Happy she would even flinch. She highly doubted it, although she would never dare try to find out.

In truth, Happy was happy. She had a loving husband, a son, a dog called Limbo and a wonderful job at the Guild of Feelers.

‘So what exactly is the Guild of… what was it again?’ Chase asked, sliding onto the bench at the table and sitting opposite Happy. Cherry came out from the kitchen with pot of tea, three mugs and a plate of cookies, and she sat down next to Chase.

‘They’re non-feeling, I promise,’ she whispered, trying not to interrupt.

‘I should hope so,’ Happy said, pouring herself a mug of tea. ‘The Guild of Feelers,’ she repeated as though that was explanation enough. Cherry and Chase shared a blank look.

‘Which is… ?’ Chase tried again.

‘Sorry… Happy,’ Cherry said. ‘I think you’re going to have to start from the beginning.’

‘You’ve not heard of us? Oh. That explains an awful lot.’ Happy rattled her teaspoon against the inside of the mug, swishing the tea and three sugars she’d heaped in. ‘The Guild of Feelers is an organisation for those of us who can see people’s feelings. Some can see good, some can see bad, some get a fuzzy mixture of the two. We all see them differently. Colours and shapes for those with mild cases. Monsters, angels, animals and people for those in the more advanced stages of SF.’

‘Advanced stages of… what?’ Chase asked.

‘SF. Simply short for seeing feelings. We once had one girl who saw all feelings as different coloured cats. That’s the better end of the deal.’

‘What do you see?’ Cherry said, trying to process all this, and stirring her tea so fast it sloshed over the sides.

‘I used to see a haze of the two. They looked like ghosts and it was hard to decipher what was what.’ Happy sipped her tea, her pinkie finger raised.

‘Sorry, used to? You said used to.’ Chase’s heart started beating so quickly that Cherry could feel it through the bench they were sat on.

‘I now have these.’ Happy delicately put her index finger and thumb around her eye and stretched the socket open wide. Cherry looked closer and saw some kind of film, a lens, sitting over Happy’s eyeball. It glinted a rainbow of colours as it caught the light. ‘These lenses were specially designed by our paranormal science department. They can detect what’s normal from what’s paranormal and filter out the feelings you don’t want to see. Clear vision means a clear mind.’ Happy flashed her hands across her deadpan face and wiggled her fingers. ‘That’s their slogan. Catchy, huh?’

‘Filter out? How you can just get rid of something in someone’s vision?’ Cherry asked.