Page 50 of The Village Shop for Lonely Hearts

‘I lost,’ said Josh.

‘Yeah, well,’ said Belle, still looking around in shock. ‘I’ve got to say, I’m rendered almost speechless.’

‘First time for everything,’ drawled Josh.

‘What do you think of the tractor?’ asked Amber in a hopeful tone.

‘Do you have to put 10p in it to make it work?’ asked Belle, peering into the driver’s seat.

‘What are you talking about?’ asked Josh.

‘Isn’t it one of those rides for kids?’ said Belle, straightening up. ‘You know, like a Noddy car or something?’

Josh shook his head. ‘No. It’s an actual tractor.’

Belle looked at Amber and then back at Josh. ‘You two aren’t high on the fumes, are you?’

‘I wish,’ groaned Josh.

Belle picked up her pint of milk and placed her money on the counter. ‘Well, you’ve got to admit. It’s going to be the talk of the village! See you later.’

As she left, Josh turned to raise his eyebrows at Amber. ‘Was that the reaction you were expecting?’

To his amazement, Amber shrugged her shoulders. ‘Didn’t you get the most important bit?’ she told him. ‘That we’ll be the talk of the village. So people are going to come in here and see the tractor, aren’t they?’

‘And then they’re going to turn back round and run away in horror,’ he told her.

She frowned. ‘Then let me try and convince you again.’

Amber unfolded a piece of paper from the pocket of her jeans and lay it out on the till counter between them. She turned it around so that the drawing was the right side up for him to look at it.

‘What’s the problem?’ she asked, coming around to stand next to him.

‘That,’ said Josh, pointing at her drawing of the tractor in the middle of the shop floor.

‘I see,’ she said, turning to lean up against the counter so they were face to face. ‘Let me tell you what I know. A shop needs staging. Like a window display, in that respect. Only bigger.’

He frowned. ‘Staging?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows in question.

‘You’re trying to entice people inside,’ she told him. ‘That’s what the fancy window displays are for. You know, in the massive department stores anyway. So I don’t see why it should be any different here. There’s no use having a pretty window display to entice people inside if the place looks, well, like this inside.’ She waved her arm around at the mess surrounding them.

‘You do remember that it didn’t look like this a few days ago,’ he told her. ‘It was just messy. Now it’s a garage and rubbish tip.’

‘It was always going to look worse before it looked better,’ she replied.

‘It wasn’t supposed to be this much worse,’ he said. ‘With a tractor in it.’

She shrugged her shoulders as if the fact that a dirty old farm vehicle in the middle of the shop was a mere trifling inconvenience. She held up her hand to stop him interrupting. ‘Yes, it’s a tractor. But it’s a small one, not the usual size. This one is only waist height, so you can still see across it. The space still works. I think it’ll make a great feature.’ She pointed at the design on the paper once more. ‘Look at it. It looks bright. Modern. Fun. Interesting. Enticing.’

He looked at her drawing and wondered how best to make his point without upsetting her. For once, she seemed determined and brimming with confidence. He really didn’t want to burst what little self-belief she had in her abilities, but her ideas were just too far.

‘Look, they’re good ideas,’ he said. ‘Apart from the tractor, obviously. I mean, I like your window displays. They’re great. But all this…?’

‘The pretty windows are designed to draw customers in, which would affect sales. That was the point.’ She looked at him. ‘I know you’re concerned, but I’ve done this before. I’ve done displays throughout shops. Successful ones. This is on a much smaller scale, but it doesn’t have to be.’

Josh stayed silent, looking at the paper once more. Her drawing looked amazing, but he couldn’t see how it was ever going to achieve anything.

‘Let’s stage the shop whilst we’re sorting it out,’ Amber went on. ‘It needs better lighting. This strip lighting is so harsh and awful. And it definitely needs painting and brightening up. It’s so dull in here. And we’ll need decorations to match the autumnal ones in the window.’