John Vir owns a newsagents in Southampton. Lucy and Paul are his favoured customers. They live next door, above Snook's Electrical Store, soon to become the Bluebird Cafe. With the opening of the cafe, Gilbert drifts in. Meanwhile John Vir thinks of little else but Lucy.
‘Huh,’ said Frank when Posy told him. ‘What kind of a holiday would that be? You might as well go to the school playground at 3.15. What kind of getting away is that? Scoop them all up and take them in a giant dumper. I’d bloody hate it.’ ‘It’s not their holiday. They’re going to France in August...
‘Judy,’ he had said, ‘I have looked you up. It says that you are a native perennial of the rocky places near the sea. You were eaten by the Scots to prevent scurvy. You are often found on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland but are not elsewhere. I think I shall go to Scotland and Ireland. Perhaps...
He’d stuff a samosa with some and give it to Paul when he came into the shop on his own. Who could resist just one samosa? It wouldn’t get anywhere near Lucy. If that failed he’d ask Paul to help him with some decorating and push him off a very tall ladder. The way to Lucy’s heart would be clear....