Impossible to Forget(34)

‘Tomorrow?’ said Jax, disappointment thick in his voice.

‘I know. It’s a bummer, but he’s only just got back to the UK and he’s got nowhere to go. I’ll sort it, though. I promise.’

Jax sighed, a slightly impatient sound tinged with irritation, but he didn’t complain as he followed her up the stairs to the flat.

Angie was pleased to see that Tiger had indeed moved the bottles, tucked his rucksack behind the sofa and was sitting cross-legged on the floor when they walked in. He stood up at once, proffering a hand to Jax who took it and shook it.

‘Hi. Sorry about this, mate,’ he said. ‘I had no idea Ange would be entertaining. But look, I can get out of your hair. Where’s this pub that you mentioned, Ange?’

‘Don’t worry, mate,’ replied Jax. ‘No need to race out on my account.’

Angie felt aggrieved. Of course, Tiger should be going out. It was beyond question. ‘It’s the Masons Arms, Tiger,’ she said. ‘Just down the road, by the zebra crossing.’

‘Oh, right,’ said Tiger enthusiastically, but his body language suggested that she had told him to go and take a late-night dip in the River Ouse.

‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Jax. ‘There’s really no need. You might as well just stay here.’

His body language also belied his words, but what could Angie do if Jax was determined to be noble? She could hardly manhandle Tiger out on to the street. She went to the fridge, removed three bottles of beer from her dwindling stash and handed them out.

‘Now you’re talking,’ said Jax and fell into the sofa, which objected loudly as if it had had just about enough of people abusing its springs.

‘So, how was the journey?’ asked Angie, positioning herself in Jax’s lap so that there was no question of Tiger sitting anywhere but on the floor, which was where Tiger promptly placed himself.

‘Long,’ said Jax. ‘I blame TV. I’m sure that before we had all this wall-to-wall crime drama it was much easier to hitchhike.’

‘Definitely,’ said Tiger, nodding fiercely. ‘You used to be able to get a lift pretty much as soon as you stuck your thumb out, but now you can be standing about for hours before anyone picks you up.’

‘You don’t think it’s got anything to do with the fact that neither of you are handsome youngsters anymore?’ Angie asked with a smile. ‘I think people are more reluctant to pick up adult men, and who can blame them? You could be serial killers for all they know.’

‘Who are you calling a serial killer?’ laughed Jax.

‘Yeah, who are you calling a serial killer?’ echoed Tiger. It made him sound like a child aping the adult in the room and Angie felt a bit embarrassed for him, but if Tiger noticed the awkwardness, he didn’t show it.

‘So, where did you two meet?’ he asked.

‘Up a tree,’ replied Jax, throwing a grin at Angie that made her stomach flip.

‘Well, not quite,’ she clarified. ‘We were both at Newbury.’

Tiger looked at them blankly and shook his head as if this meant nothing to him.

‘The bypass protest? God, Tiger. Do you not watch the news?’

Tiger shook his head again. Angie supposed he didn’t. He was rarely in the country long enough to get much of a grip on what was happening, and it was feasible that he might have missed the entire thing.

‘So, they wanted to build a bloody great bypass,’ said Jax. ‘It was going to cut through whole swathes of Berkshire green belt. One hundred and twenty acres of ancient woodland destroyed just like that. Sites of scientific interest, the works. The road just went straight through the middle. Ten thousand trees massacred.’

‘Bad news,’ replied Tiger.

Jax rolled his eyes. ‘You could say,’ he replied sarcastically.

‘So, loads of people went to protest,’ said Angie, taking up the story before Jax had time to. ‘There were all kinds there, from vicars and the WI to women left over from Greenham Common, and some that had been at Twyford Down. You’ve heard about that, right?’

Tiger shook his head again and Jax tutted.

‘Even Johnny Morris was there!’ continued Angie. ‘You know, from Animal Magic? You must remember Animal Magic?’

Tiger began humming the distinctive theme tune.

‘Yeah, that’s the one.’

‘And so, you two just ran into each other?’

Angie looked at Jax and smiled. ‘Jax had been on site since the summer. Him and the others built themselves this whole village in the trees. Twigloos, they were called, their little houses. Dead cute. And clever. A feat of engineering really, the way they all lived up there. They could move about from tree to tree without ever having to come down.’

Jax nodded. ‘Yeah. We stayed up there for months. There was like this real solidarity, you know. Anyway, then one day Angie showed up in the tree next to mine and we got talking and . . .’

‘Not that convenient,’ said Tiger. ‘Love up a tree! Did you . . . ? I mean, up a tree!’

‘For God’s sake, Tiger!’

Tiger shrugged as if the question was just begging to be asked. ‘So, what happened?’ he asked. ‘You must have come down eventually. Did you win?’

‘In the end they cut the trees down,’ replied Jax. Angie could still hear the bitterness in his voice.