‘Uh, seven pounds?’ ventured Carmen and by the way the woman’s face lit up, she instantly knew she’d made a terrible mistake. Oh well. Too late now.
‘Where’s the card-reader?’ she hissed at Mr McCredie, who, it became immediately obvious, had no such thing.
‘Um, we take cheques,’ he said, prodded into action. The woman and Carmen looked at each other, Carmen giving an apologetic smile. Finally, after the woman handed over a ten-pound note, she managed to count out three pounds in small change from a battered grey tin underneath the till.
The bell rang as the woman manoeuvred the large pram out of the doorway.
‘Oh,’ said Mr McCredie. ‘Because the really interesting thing about Pookie is he became a complete word-of-mouth success after the war. There were so many rabbits, you know, but this one had wings. I’ve filed him with all our rabbit books. Sub-species wings. Such a special title.’
Carmen looked at him.
‘You don’t separate children’s books and adult books?’
He blinked, not really understanding.
‘But books are for everyone,’ he said. ‘Who knows what you’ll love? How dare you tell children what to read?’
Carmen rolled her eyes.
‘Well, technically I agree with you,’ she said. ‘But … should we try selling a few first?’
He looked at her. ‘Well, your sister tells me I have to let you do your thing.’ He leaned forward. ‘I’m sure you’re going to be excellent. Right, I am off to do some reading. I’m so glad you’re here to save the shop.’
‘What?’ said Carmen. ‘What did you say?’
‘Your sister says I’m going to lose the shop if it doesn’t make any money, and I’ll be out on the street. They’re putting up the rent. If we don’t make money over Christmas, the bank is going to take everything. But you’re here to save the day.’
‘What?’
‘What?!’ Carmen was still shouting as soon as she got back to Sofia’s. Well, she wasn’t quite shouting, but it was close.
‘What were you thinking? It’s closing down! You dumped me in some absolute piece of filthy crap – it’s filthy, Sofia. It’s awful. It’s completely useless and this guy is going to be homeless unless I – what? – perform miracles?! He won’t let me into the stockroom! Says it’s his own system!’
‘I thought you’d take it as a compliment,’ said Sofia, who had hoped dearly that this might be the case without in any sense actually expecting it. ‘Only you can turn it around.’
‘I can’t turn it around! It’s an absolute … It’s a disgrace! You can’t find anything and there’s nothing recent and no money for stock and now it’s going to get shut down and he’ll end up on the street and I’ll have failed again. Thanks a bunch.’
‘I think there are better ways for us to manage our outdoor voices?’ said Pippa in an officious tone, and Carmen managed to stop herself snapping at a child, but very much only just.
‘I mean, what were you thinking? Fob off my useless sister in a pigsty for a month and get some free babysitting?’
‘No! That’s not what I meant at all!’
‘I’ll just head down to my cell, shall I? So you and Skylar can go to yoga?’
Sofia reflected that it would have been slightly more useful indeed if she hadn’t been in full yoga kit, which cost way more than Carmen’s normal day clothes.
‘I thought you could save it,’ said Sofia. ‘I have faith in you.’