Wounded Beast (Gypsy Heroes)

‘Want me to wait with you?’

I shake my head again, touched by the kindness of this stranger.

He raises his hand in some kind of acknowledgment and, turning around, starts to walk away.

‘Hey,’ I call out.

He turns back.

‘Thank you.’

‘It’s all right,’ he says, and with a backward wave returns to his car. I watch him drive away. I sit by the side of the road, and, with the engine of my car still running, I burst into a flood of tears. When it’s all over, I get back into my car and drive home. There, I stand in the shower and let the water wash away my pain. I wrap myself in a robe and call Anna. I tell her everything.

‘I’m coming over,’ she says. ‘Put some shot glasses in the freezer.’

‘Oh, Anna,’ I sigh, tears filling my eyes.

‘We need to get drunk. It’s been ages.’

She arrives at my doorstep with two bottles of her father’s homemade gooseberry vodka. She gets the cold glasses out of the freezer and pours us a shot each. The sweet, sharp taste is like summer in a glass.

I down another shot and put the glass on the coffee table with a thump. One bottle is rolling on the floor and this bottle is almost half empty.

Anna claps her hands excitedly. ‘I know what. You should become the coffee beans,’ she slurs.

I frown blearily. ‘The coffee beans?’

‘You know. From the story on the Internet about the grandmother, the broccoli.’ She stops, her eyes narrowed. ‘No, wait. It wasn’t broccoli. It was carrots. Yeah, that’s right, the carrots, the eggs and the coffee beans.’

‘I don’t know the story.’

She sits straighter. ‘This woman gets cheated on—’

‘That’s not my situation,’ I protest immediately.

She waves her hand airily. ‘Just wait for the end, will ya?’

‘Go on.’

‘She goes to her grandmother and asks for her advice. The grandmother puts three pots of water on the stove. Into one pot she puts broccoli.’

‘Carrots,’ I correct.

She nods sagely. ‘I was just checking to see if you were listening.’

‘Yeah, right.’

‘Now that we’ve established that you’re paying attention, we’ll carry on. And in the other two pots she puts the other two ingredients.’

‘Eggs and coffee beans.’

‘Exactly.’

I sigh. Even though I am so drunk, I can’t get Dom out of my head.

‘She lets all the ingredients boil for twenty minutes.’

‘Why twenty minutes?’