Seeing Stars by Christina Jones Page B

drink?’
    Amber nodded. The evening seemed to be growing even hotter and the thought of something long and cool was irresistible. Everyone
     else was already stampeding towards the pub. And, not that it mattered of course, but Fern had been with Lewis, earlier hadn’t
     she? Which meant that he might still be in the pub. And it would only be neighbourly to thank him again for collecting her
     from the station, wouldn’t it? Even if he was with the ever-present Jem.

    She looked at Gwyneth. ‘Is it OK if I—?’
    ‘Course it is, duck. You run along with young Fern and ’ave a good time. Me and Ida will have a nice cuppa in a minute, but
     you need to get out and socialise. The door’ll be on the latch if you’re late coming home.’
    Amber smiled her thanks. Coming home … Hmmm. Maybe … Maybe Moth Cottage was going to be home – at least for a little while
     – anyway it was the only one she had now and she did love it and Gwyneth and Pike the dog who slept on her feet and the cats
     and the hens.
    Thank goodness her friends couldn’t tune into her thoughts. Barking they’d said she was, and now, having made a green-cheese
     wish and considered, without a second thought, that dark-ages Moth Cottage was actually
home
they were probably right.
    Fern linked her arm through Amber’s and led her towards the pub. There were small pockets of people dotted around the green
     still chatting, laughing, gazing up at the moon, and dozens of children splashing in and out of the stream and dangling over
     the rustic bridge, their parents smiling on fondly without any hint of nanny-state concern for their safety.
    ‘I bet this all seems odd to you,’ Fern said as they slithered off the green and crossed the road, kicking up puffs of dust.
     ‘You being a city girl.’
    ‘Odd doesn’t come close,’ Amber grinned. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.’
    ‘Get used to it. We have all sorts of get-togethers like this through the summer nights. Personally I reckon most people just
     join in for the eating and boozing, but in the olden days, well, they really did worship the stars and the moon. And –’ Fern
     paused and looked at Amber almost seriously ‘– things have happened here, you know. And not just in the past. Recently. As
     a result of the star-wishing and moon-baying.’
    ‘Get away.’
    ‘No, really. Some really impossible things havehappened with no rational explanation after Fiddlesticks astral parties. I don’t reckon anyone should scoff. There’s more
     stuff going on out there –’ Fern gestured vaguely above her head ‘– than any of us understand.’
    ‘You mean little green men – oh, ha-ha, very appropriate for tonight – and all that?’
    ‘No,’ Fern giggled. ‘But seriously weird things have happened. Oh, maybe some of them would have happened anyway, without
     the intervention of Cassiopeia or Andromeda or St Bedric or whoever – but until someone proves that it’s all hokum then I’ll
     happily go along with it.’
    ‘As long as all your dreams come true?’
    ‘Something like that,’ Fern laughed. ‘And you’ll get used to it. I promise. By the Harvest Moon shindig at the end of September
     you’ll be calling on all the ancient goddesses to make things happen and be as addled as the rest of us.’
    By the Harvest Moon shindig, Amber thought, I probably won’t even be here.
    ‘Maybe …’ She looked at Fern. ‘And as you clearly believe in all this, did you make a green-cheese wish tonight?’
    ‘Course. The same one as last year and the year before that and the year before and … St Bedric must know it off by heart
     by now. Ah well, maybe one day the damn man’ll come to his senses and realise that there’s more than one woman in the bloody
     world.’
    Aha, Amber thought. Another Lewis-devotee. Another Jem-rival.
    She recollected that Fern had been on the phone to Lewis during the van journey from Reading station. She’d mentioned Jem
     a lot