Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

The distance from Clacton to Frinton was just over 7 miles using the normal route for cars. It would take a car about 20 minutes to get there. By bicycle the distance was only 5.5 miles, and Gabriel could do that in about 30 minutes. It was a straight route along the coast, down Kings Parade and along the back of Frinton Golf Club.

Gabriel kept the bicycle that Barney had lent him in his mum’s flat. It wasn’t safe to keep it outside, even if he chained it to something. At 8:45 am he had pushed it down the hallway and nudged the flat door open with the front wheel.

Thirty minutes later and he was cycling through Frinton, not far from the Gazette office, when he heard a girl’s voice calling his name. He stopped and looked around. The young girl he had seen at John’s care home was standing just across the street. She was smiling and waving at him. Instead of the grey smock she had been wearing the previous day, she was wearing a T-shirt, denim shorts and hiking boots with fluffy green hiking socks. Her legs looked long and tanned ... but not from sunbeds, he guessed. She looked like she maybe walked a lot. Also, when he had seen her the other day, her hair had been tied in some sort of ponytail, but it was loose today. Her hair was quite long and very blonde. As she walked towards him, a slight breeze ruffled her hair up and around her face.

“Oh God, what was her name,” Gabriel muttered to himself.

“She is called Ginny,” Vicky whispered back to him.

Gabriel started. He had forgotten that Vicky was listening to him.

Ginny was crossing the road, walking over towards him.

“Hello Mr News Reporter,” she called out.

As she got closer, he could see that her T-shirt had a quote on the front, saying

Don’t let anyone

drive you to madness

The walk will

do you good

Suddenly Gabriel was aware that she was watching him looking at the writing on her chest, and he flushed with embarrassment.

“Seen something you like?” she said, with a cheeky grin.

“Your T-shirt ... it’s very ...,” Gabriel mumbled.

“I printed it up myself,” she chuckled, “you know, using one of those ‘print your own T-shirt’ things.”

She was smiling expectantly at him, and Gabriel didn’t know if he had told her his name when he had seen her at the care home. Maybe he had, or maybe she had forgotten it.

“You going somewhere important?” she asked, her eyes sparkling at him.

“I’m ... er . . I’m going in to the office, er . . the newsroom,” Gabriel said, feeling his old familiar nervousness with pretty girls overwhelming him.

“Your name’s Gabriel isn’t it?” Ginny stated. “I asked John after you left the other day.”

“Did you?” said Gabriel, unsure what to think.

“I’m not working today, so I thought I would come and look around the town for a bit,” she continued. “I might stop around lunch time and have a coffee and a sandwich over at the Golden Egg.”

She pointed at a little coffee shop over the road.

Gabriel felt that he should say something, but he wasn’t sure what.

“What time do you have lunch?” Ginny asked.

“Erm ... about 12:30 usually,” Gabriel croaked. “For about an hour.”

“Ok then,” said Ginny. “I’ll see you in there about 12:35 then, and you can tell me what an exciting morning you’ve had.”

“Uh ... fine then,” said Gabriel, but even as he was speaking, Ginny had spun away and was walking down the street. He watched as she strode away, a strong, purposeful stride, her hips swaying gently, her hair gently moving to the turns of her body. She had maybe gone twelve feet when she turned back to him, pirouetting lightly on the balls of her feet.

She gave him a cheery smile and a wave, and then off she went again.

“I wonder how she knew I would still be watching her?” Gabriel muttered under his breath.

Maybe Vicky didn’t hear him, or maybe she thought he was being rhetorical.

In any event she didn’t reply to Gabriel’s question.