This Time Next Year(106)

Hamish looked up at her with a serious expression, his eyes welling up.

‘I had a ten once,’ he sniffed. ‘His name was Roger and he moved to Amsterdam. He said I should move with him, give up my job on the buses, learn Dutch. I can’t even roll my “r”s.’

‘You never told him how you felt?’ Minnie asked.

‘No, I let him go. I never met a ten since.’ The man looked up at Minnie, he scratched his stubble with a knuckle, a new resolve filled his eyes. ‘Out of the way Shaylene, I’m pulling a double shift tonight.’ He waved her out of the way, and she and her half-eaten Snickers bar clambered out of the driver’s seat.

‘You want to do my shift, be my guest,’ she said, waving a hand in his face.

Hamish pressed the tannoy button. ‘This is now a non-stop, unregulated service to Westminster Pier. Anyone not going that way, I suggest they disembark immediately.’

Minnie turned around. Everyone else had long since disembarked. It was just her and the human leprechaun who was now clapping his dog’s paws together in excitement.

‘Let’s get the lady where she needs to go!’ he yelled.

Hamish pulled the bus away from the kerb and the bus bumped along at a rollicking pace.

‘Buckle your seatbelts!’ he cried. ‘Make way for the number ten love bus!’ yelled Hamish, as he sped out, overtaking the car in front.

‘I don’t think we have seatbelts on these buses,’ said Minnie, clinging on to the pole for dear life, while she tried to get herself into a seat, ‘and isn’t this the eighteen?’

‘Now it’s the ten. We’re going to get you your ten, hen, if it’s the last shift I do!’

As the bus screeched up the kerb at Westminster Pier, Minnie could see the boat was still there; she had made it with a minute to spare.

‘Thank you, thank you so much,’ she yelled to Hamish and the human leprechaun as she leapt through the double doors.

‘Go get him, kiddo!’ shouted Hamish.

‘Call Roger in Amsterdam – tell him how you feel! It’s never too late,’ Minnie yelled back as she ran across the road to the pier.

It was one minute to ten. She jumped over the turnstile and ran up the ramp onto the boat. It was surprisingly quiet on board – no music, no people for that matter; maybe the party was below deck? She ran around to the front, trying to find a way down, where she found a solitary woman quietly sweeping the deck.

‘Is this the party boat?’ Minnie asked, trying to catch her breath.

‘No,’ said the lady sweeping. ‘This boat’s not in service. You shouldn’t be on here. Party boat left five minutes ago.’

She pointed to a boat out in the middle of the Thames. It was four times the size of this boat. Lights flashed from the interior and music boomed out over the water. Women wearing sparkling dresses and men in black tie were out on deck laughing and dancing with drinks in their hands.

She had missed the boat. She was too late.





New Year’s Eve 2020





Minnie took the night bus home. She sat dejected, staring out of the window, watching Londoners preparing to celebrate. A group of girls wearing hairbands with glittery pom-poms tottered down the street, and a couple wearing matching red and green jumpers stumbled out of a pub kissing, as a swaying man urinated against a letterbox.

She could call Quinn tomorrow, of course she could. Logically she knew this, but she still felt that she had missed something important tonight. She’d missed the chance to prove she wasn’t the superstitious, fatalistic girl from a year ago. She’d missed the chance to prove to herself that the jinx wasn’t real.

As she got off the bus near her house, a car driving past opened a window and threw out a polystyrene container. It bounced off the kerb and spattered her green Capri trousers with a warm yellow gunk, something that smelt like curry sauce.

As she turned the corner of her street and got closer to her front door, she saw that it was hanging open. Oh great, she’d been robbed. The perfect end to the perfect evening. She walked cautiously towards the doorway and heard a noise inside; whoever had broken in was still there. Oh god, where was Lucky? Would he have escaped through the open door? She should call the police; she shouldn’t try to confront the intruder alone. She paused, conflicted. Her warm, hooded parka was just there on the peg, visible through the open door. She was freezing; she could grab it and then run and call the police. She reached out to take it, just as a figure emerged from the kitchen. Minnie screamed and threw the coat she was holding over the figure’s head.

‘I’ve called the police!’ she yelled, running back out into the road.

‘Minnie?’ she heard a muffled voice calling after her.

How did the burglar know her name? She slowed down and turned to see Quinn, in black tie, holding her parka in his arms.

‘It’s you? Oh god, I thought someone was robbing my flat,’ she said, holding her chest, breathless with the adrenaline.

‘The door was wide open,’ said Quinn. ‘I was worried something had happened so I went in to check. Sorry I scared you.’

Minnie looked at him and blinked, she couldn’t believe he was here.

‘You’re shivering,’ he said, wrapping her coat around her shoulders and guiding her inside.