“Apparently they’re amazing,” said Yazzie sullenly, because she had bought a new orange dress for this and told all her mates about how she’d managed to pull that hot Scottish NPL they all liked, and now she was standing on a sidewalk with a guy who looked like he’d rather be on the moon than here.

If it was warm in Kirrinfief, there was a little hidden bay down by the loch where you couldn’t drive, only walk, and as long as you took all your rubbish away, the police (Gregory Duncan from Hart’s farm; they’d all been to school together) would turn a blind eye to it, and they’d light a bonfire and drink cider and watch as the sky barely darkened as the hour neared midnight, and they could play their music as loud as they wanted, nobody was anywhere near to hear them, not for miles, and they watched the stars pop out, one by one, never too bright, for the night wasn’t long enough for them to shine; the north of the planet had tilted too far on its axis.

Stars were for a different season; this was their season of light. Someone would sometimes bring a guitar, and everyone else would groan and throw stones and call them a James Blunt fud, but even so, if the gentle chords of “Caledonia” or “Sunshine on Leith” started up, well, it wouldn’t really be possible not to sing along to that, would it, as the moon reflected on the calm waters of the loch and its endless rippling glory. And as soon as the sun was sunk on one side of the dark shapes of the mountains, it felt the lightest rays of the dawn were just appearing once more.

They had been such happy nights. Cormac found himself wondering if that’s where Jake would take Lissa and whether she’d like it. Just a bonfire, some cider, a bit of music, some hamburgers and marshmallows. Nothing fancy. Occasionally a soft toy someone had won at the fair, which would get to sit on a proper throne made of sticks, after the year Gordon Lowrie had thrown one in the fire, and the nylon had sparked and melted horribly and the plastic eyes had dropped down the edges of the pink bear, and all the girls had screamed and gotten upset with him. After that, stuffed animals had pride of place.

He smiled to himself. Yazzie cleared her throat crossly.

“Ach. Where were we?” he said, looking up. The queue hadn’t moved at all.

“Meat buns,” she said.

Chapter 53

Meanwhile, three miles across town, two people had, amazingly, found a very quiet space.