Page 100 of The Village of Lost and Found

‘What about the armchairs?’ asked Lucy.

Del rolled his eyes. ‘Give us a minute,’ he said, puffing and panting. ‘It’s 30 degrees out there!’

Lucy glanced outside and sent up a silent prayer that the good weather would hold for the summer fete in ten days’ time. The days were currently long and hot, but she was grateful for the somewhat cooler, lighter evenings as she had been working so late getting the place ready.

‘Come on,’ said Tom, giving Del a nudge before getting up. ‘Let’s get this over with.’

Soon the two armchairs had joined the sofa and Lucy was thrilled with how good it looked.

‘What do you think?’ she asked Molly whose desk was nearby.

‘It’s great,’ said Molly, smiling. ‘Remind me to take a photo later.’

That was another change, thought Lucy. Molly was so much more confident now in her social media role that she no longer checked each and every post with Lucy before uploading them. Slowly the number of followers forThe Cranbridge Timeson all the social media sites was beginning to grow. The word was starting to get out there.

‘Thanks, Del,’ Lucy said, once the armchairs were in position.

‘You’re welcome,’ he said, looking around. ‘The old place is looking really good. My nan says she wants to pop in here and see it when it’s open.’

‘Everyone’s welcome,’ she told him. ‘That’s the idea.’

‘Are you having a grand opening?’ asked Del.

Lucy looked at him a bit nonplussed. ‘Er, no. I don’t think so.’

‘You should,’ said Del, nodding enthusiastically. ‘It would make a bit of noise about the place, wouldn’t it?’

As he wandered outside, Lucy looked at Tom. ‘What do you think?’

‘It’s certainly newsworthy,’ he had said. ‘And why not? As Del said, it would get the word out there, wouldn’t it?’

‘I agree,’ said Molly, standing up at her desk. ‘It’d make a great post. I know! We’ll do a ribbon-cutting ceremony.’ She broke into a large smile.

‘What, now?’ asked Lucy, glancing down at her slightly grubby clothes.

‘No, silly!’ said Molly. ‘How about at 9 a.m. on Monday morning. The Mothers and Toddlers group will all be here. It’ll be like a fresh start. What do you say?’

Lucy looked at Tom, who was nodding and smiling.

‘OK,’ she said, shrugging her shoulders. ‘Why not?’

‘Excellent!’ said Molly. ‘I’m just going to check with Amber. I seem to think she had some ribbon somewhere.’

As Molly dashed out, Lucy looked down at the sofa area once more. It really did look comfortable and inviting.

‘What’s left to do?’ asked Tom, coming to stand next to her.

‘Just the decorative touches, I think,’ said Lucy.

She had framed a couple of the old versions of the newspaper to hang on the long wall behind the sofa. Then there was the new window box outside the front window to be filled.

They both watched as Keith went over to sniff the sofa before slowly climbing onto it and settling down on one of the seats with a big whoomph of air.

‘It’s not for you,’ said Lucy, rolling her eyes as the dog settled down for a nap.

‘You did say that the hub was for everyone,’ said Tom, with a grin.

‘I suppose so,’ she told him, laughing.