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13. Bookpop - A Talking Head

OK SO I WATCHED A FEW OF THE TALKING HEADS MONOLOGUES A WHILE AGO AND I THOUGHT THEY WERE ACTUALLY PRETTY INTERESTING AND AN EXCELLENT IDEA FOR A ONESHOT LAYOUT
this oneshot is nothing but dialogue.

It all began when I was entering her shop, I suppose. She had a few cakes in the show window that really tickled my fancy, so I thought I'd browse. Friendly woman... smiled at me and asked how my day was going as soon as I entered. Very few people do that nowadays. So I smiled in pleasant surprise and said I was doing ok, and I just had to pop out to get the girls at the post office some early presents. Christmas is coming, you know. They just get closer and closer together every year. I won't be surprised if, in the coming years, each Christmas merges together into a huge year-long festival of snow and ice and flamboyant gifts and hideous sweaters and clay nativity scenes. Just imagine! We would all be quite sick of it.
The lady is obviously a clever thing. She suggests a couple of biscuits from the front row of the display: ginger ones, I think, freshly baked, and said if I wanted to come back a little closer to the date she would keep me some if I wanted. A tactical businesswoman it seems. She won me over immediately! I paid upfront for ten adorable little bags of them decorated in red, gold and green. We talked about life and family as she counted out the little circles with such care that I couldn't look away the whole time. She was born with a strict Victorian father and a traditional mother. Nine siblings! I always thought I had a whole lot and I only have three... anyway, she loathed her life of being pretty and having to dress up for the boys, or not dress up for the boys, which I suppose was her father's way of thinking women should go about things. I quite agree. Men are an absolute pain in the backside sometimes. Occasionally, a woman needs her freedom, and what better thing to do than rebel? I would sometimes protest at wearing dresses when I was young, so I know a little bit about how that feels. I told her and she laughed. I felt such a surge of excitement at having made her laugh. Oh, my dear - it was then I realised how much I envied her! Such a steady, stable job that she had built up herself, such a strong mindset. She is everything I wish I had been and more. I almost wanted to stay after I left that shop with a little slice of lardy-cake I took a fancy to as a treat. I recommend you go there sometime, it's on the high street three doors up from the library; I'll certainly be returning!

-

How have I been? Well... things have been quite odd as of late. I returned to the bakery for a pastry, as I have for many weeks now, and the person behind the counter was a different lady, a fact which disappointed me greatly. I've come to know and love the girl who's normally there. We chat every time I arrive. She's so friendly, and I imagine my life would lose some of its lustre had she quit jobs or moved. The new lady looks a little unseasoned and flustered by the whole host of errands she has to run to keep the shop afloat. When I walked in to glance at her in surprise, she had a fan of white napkins in her hand, and she looked like a deer caught in the headlights when I entered. Poor girl! She almost flinched at the tinkling of the little silver bell above the door. Turns out she's my friend's sister, and my friend is quite ill. She's keeping shop. I held her hand and thanked her desperately. I offered aid, but she refused.
Oh, what a strange and terrible day, but one in which I learned a lot about the pastry keeper, through the medium of her kin. It seems that she is older than she looks; she's around my age of thirty. I had thought she was at least five years younger than that, and I have realised I refer to her as if I am an old woman. I have an old soul, I think... she also informed me of her residence, which is just down one of the Tudor lanes at the top of a beautiful old townhouse. She's bedbound right now. I may go and pay her a visit some time, if that isn't too exhausting or strange for her. Oh, I do hope she's ok...

-

Christmas surely did roll around and die off fast this year! The girls loved their cookies, by the way, said they were the best they'd ever tasted, including Teardrop's mother's Christmas biscuits. Which is praise indeed! She brought some for us last year and they were exquisite.
My friend has been going on well. I stopped by her house on Christmas Eve to find her white as a sheet, and the door answered by the fretful woman I had met manning the bakery whilst she had gone. She ushered me in.
There was lovely Lollipop. So pale and frail under a pile of duvets and yet she still shook like a leaf. In that moment I regretted coming there. I wasn't close enough to her, it could be humiliating for one of her most frequent customers to be seeing her in such a vulnerable state... yet still when she perceived me she smiled and recognised me fondly. My apprehension was still rampant, but fading as we began to chat. Apparently she'd fallen gravely ill whilst locking up shop at night, fell down in the porch of the bakery and lain there until morning. She couldn't remember anything past rolling down the thick iron shutters and locking them with a key. Luckily no break-ins, and nothing was stolen. All she knew was one second she was feeling peaky at work, then she was tucked into a hospital bed. Oh yes, she was discharged very soon in favour of her familiar home bed, but not before tests were run. This was where she paused, a great sadness coming into her eyes. I gripped her hand tight, but she didn't tell me anything. Now, I am the one who is sick, sick with worry, even though she seems back to her normal self again these days. What if it's more than just a funny spell?
Nevertheless, I tried pushing those emotions as far away from my mind as possible. I visited her every day, joining her and her sister for a small Christmas roast in which none of us could manage more than a few mouthfuls, the New Year's celebration where we dropped down the second midnight struck, and a small, joyful, yet mildly melancholy birthday. Lollipop grinned throughout the whole thing, but not without the odd grimace of what could only be pain. Do go and get me a cup of tea, dear, I'm feeling chilly with nerves recounting this...
Thank you, you are so kind to me. Two sugars, milk? No milk? Oh, what a shame! I shall have to deal without. No, no, don't apologise! I know you're not the biggest fan of milky tea, of course you wouldn't have milk. Silly me. I suppose caring is making me stupid.

-

You have to promise you won't be angry at me.
I can't help it.
Neither of us can.
I am so surprised it took us so long to realise.
We've been friends for years, you're the only person I can confide in... you probably already know from how much I've told you about her. We are obsessed with each other, Lollipop and I! We went walking last night in the park, after the summer sun had set and the families with their noisy dogs had abandoned their picnic leftovers, and the crickets were chirping their last. It was deep twilight. The park can be wonderful at that time of evening, as I'm sure you know, what with the sleepy warbling of the birds and the cold hands of night just beginning to grip the town...
We were walking out to the bench to commemorate that lady who used to feed the pigeons on the corner you and I were children.
"A friend to birds!" she commented, "how lovely!"
I agree, it's a quaint memorial. We sat. The stars began to appear. She pointed at the clouds of cosmic dust with lights in the shining of her eyes, and I felt peculiar. I wasn't sure whether I was sad that she had relapsed into unconsciousness and being bed-bound so many times that I don't know when or if it'll happen again, or whether I'd eaten something that disagreed with me...
Then I realised no. It was no such thing as a bad sandwich or worry for her wellbeing.
We held hands until well past midnight, which is frightfully later than I usually stay out, just watching the shooting stars.

-

Are you coming too? Oh, wonderful. I'd always wanted to introduce you two together! Even though it's far too late, and even not in these circumstances it's a little later than I first imagined it would, I left it far too long. Yes, there'll be lots of people there... astoundingly popular woman. You'll have to excuse me. I don't think I'll be able to keep myself together for much longer. I'm just trying to be happy. Yes, stay happy, Book, stay smiling... well! I think I left my coat on the hook inside the front door. Yes, yes I'm fine. No! I'm not crying, what made you think that? Well, maybe a little. Should I just let it all out? I don't know if I should until an appropriate time during the service. Do my eyes look red?
I don't want to look tired at my own lover's funeral!

my eyes hurt I got suncream in them
WANTED TO GET THIS OUT BEFORE THE NEW II EPISODE