The sudden blast of noise nearly knocked him off his stool. Another goddamn bell.

Its ring was rapid and constant, like a town crier calling for everyone’s attention.

The interviewee bolted up from his chair as though the bell had summoned him home for dinner. Judging by his eagerness, it must have been a whole lot tastier than boiled cabbage. The man could probably lift an iron cauldron and drink it back like a mug of soup. He threw aside Ben’s makeshift door as if it were made of flimsy cardboard, not bothering to close it behind him.

‘Thanks for that,’ Ben called out, wiping the weariness from his eyes. ‘Good talk.’

Beyond the drapes of hanging ivy, the sinking sun bled through a light scattering of lavender cloud. It must have been approaching six o’clock.

When Ben returned outside, he saw the man responsible for the racket, pacing around in a circle, constantly twisting his head towards the sun. Any villagers that had scarpered during Ben’s interviews were returning. They dragged their feet like mindless bodies enslaved by the bell’s hollow toll.

Then he heard the slamming of wood on stone. Ben hadn’t noticed until then, but every cottage had those window hatches, like the two they had passed on their approach to the village. Their creak and knock echoed from all sides. Meanwhile, men and women were dashing back and forth, sharing baskets of food and weighty jugs of water.

‘What’s going on, Benny Boy?’

Chloe had just rounded the corner into the village.

The sun cast her long silhouette across the path as another shutter was heard to lock in place. Ben jogged over to meet her halfway. The sight of her brought a smile to his face that he’d forgotten the feel of.

‘What’s everyone doing?’ she asked.

‘They’re locking down their homes,’ he replied.

‘They’re doing what now?’

‘I think it must be the night. They don’t want to stay outside after dark.’

‘Why?’ she asked. ‘What happens when the sun goes down?’

They looked back towards the nest of cottages where the last few men were exchanging words.

‘I guess we’ll find out soon enough,’ Ben replied.

The villagers had sold themselves as the most unimaginative people he had ever sat with and yet clearly there was so much they hadn’t told him. There were rules and traditions here that he had never encountered.

‘Hello!’ a voice said, causing them to flinch forward in surprise.

The child from earlier had crept up behind them.

‘Jesus, kid,’ Chloe said, ‘you have got to stop doing that.’

She skipped in front of them, dancing to a song only she could hear. Her eyes retained that mischievous glint, all the darker now that the sun had sunk behind the hedgerow. Unlike the others, the girl didn’t seem troubled by their impending curfew.