To Market – Wayne 35

[For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and certainly this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Ordinarily, the German outdoor market was an exciting bustling place, full of the warmth, sights and smells of a Christmas around the corner. The colours of the stalls and accompanying lights would be enough to reassure anyone that there was hope and good will for the future. And a pretty good chance of turning a profit as well. Wayne had already riffed with Dave about the absurdity of the entire thing, centring around the triviality of the products on offer. Sure there were some stalls that were genuinely giving their heart and soul to making Christmas special, but there were others who seemed to have just received a job lot of a bizarre cut price items straight out of a container shipment and were now doing their best to present it as unique and authentic. Single furry oversized slippers you could put both your feet in appeared to be the main item fitting that category this year.

Overall however, the market was empty. There were fewer stalls, more spread out, and of course fewer people. They were masked on the whole and heads were bowed staring at the yellow marks on the ground to make sure they never got too close to anyone else. There had already been warnings that if people got too carried away the entire market would be closed without notice as had happened elsewhere. Piped music from stereo systems in each of the stalls clashed with each other around the site – there was no brass band playing carols this year, maybe tier regulations expressly forbade the playing of wind instruments in public or the authorities were worried the Sally Army would draw an undistanced crowd of supporters. Perhaps the Sally Army players had welfare concerns of their own.

Today Cassie was not late. She was already there. Pulling the baseball hat further over his brow, he adjusted his mask and went to sit on the other end of the bench from her.

"Not as cold as it sometimes is," said Cassie, her eyes wrinkling a little as she smiled under her mask.

He grunted back. He really didn’t want to say anything at this point.

“I didn’t know if you’d come,” continued Cassie. “Glad you did though. Can clear the air a bit and decide what next.”

Her gaze took in some of the stalls opposite them. “You used to love mobiles,” she said. “I put one over your cot when you were a baby. And gradually I could see that you were able to see it. Not at first of course, but slowly I guess it came into focus and made you smile. You had the best smile.”

Sentimentality was fine, but it could still be fake. The whole thing could be fake as far as he knew. Cassie registered the pause and that she wasn’t going to get an easy conversation out of Wayne today. Part of her had hoped it would be easier or even become a friendly affair. She was kidding herself.

“I’m not sorry I did it,” she said. “I’m not really sorry. I guess it’s unfortunate but you’re my kid and part of my life, so this is my story too. I’ve not had it easy, you know, especially not at the moment and when Phillis told me… Well, I didn’t want to do this at first. I didn’t mean to but then I thought why not? You made a song about it. And we could have worked together, right? But you didn’t want to so…”

He sighed and tutted under his breath, looking around uneasily. Cassie sensed his impatience so cut to the chase.

“How much would you give me to stop it from going any further?” she asked, bluntly. “Make me a good enough offer and I’ll walk straight out of your life again. You haven’t needed me to get here, so why should you care anyway? Bit of money from you and you’re a free man. Make me an offer.”

He got up as if to go.

“Walk away and it’ll get nasty. So how much?”

“Nothing at all,” he said. 

“No, you want to reconsider that. Otherwise it will get nasty. Never mind you and Dave I can tell them about you and me,” she said. “And that won’t be good. At all.”

And then Wayne turned, and took off his baseball cap. And it wasn’t Wayne. It was Dave.

“Try it,” he said. “Me and Wayne have deep pockets and a fantastic lawyer. Say what you like, do what you like and then we’ll take you to the cleaners.”

He spun on his heel to address an unseen photographer he knew was out there: “And I hope you got the pictures you wanted too!” he yelled, and walked home the way he came.