The Piano Man Project Page 0,41

really? Take Don, here.’ She smiled encouragingly towards Don in his wheelchair, and he raised a slow, shaky hand at the crowd. ‘I’m sure Don won’t mind me telling you that he’s the home’s oldest resident. He’s lived in this place for almost twenty years. Twenty years. And what do you know of him, besides the fact that his wheelchair sometimes takes the paint off the walls in the hallway?’ Honey had heard Christopher complain on more than one occasion about the cost of redecoration because of Don’s chair.

‘Look at the medals pinned to Don’s shirt. He was a pilot in the war, a flight lieutenant, a courageous soldier who fought for his king and country.’ Don bowed his head at the gentle ripple of applause, his hand over his medals. ‘Every single one of these people has a story. Look at Mimi and Lucille,’ Honey said. ‘You dismiss them as two crazy old ladies, but you couldn’t be more wrong. They’re brilliant, vivacious women who deserve your respect and your kindness. They were both Land Girls, keeping their family farm going to provide food for their neighbours during the war, and even now they give up their time every day to help me run the charity shop.’ Honey looked from Lucille’s tearful smile to Mimi’s fierce nod, and was reminded of Mimi’s earlier words about her generation.

‘You were quite right when you said that these people have amassed over eight hundred years on this earth between them. But that’s something to be celebrated, not mocked, Christopher. Eight hundred years of experience, and of sacrifice, and of hard work. Eight hundred years of love, and of sadness, and of loss. Eight hundred beautiful years of brilliance, and I won’t let you belittle what they’re doing here today.’ Honey looked along the line of residents tied to the railings haphazardly, knowing she sounded like a soapbox politician at an election rally, but forged on regardless.

‘Yes, they might look odd. Yes, their picture will make an amusing front page for the local newspaper. But their reason for being out here tied to the railings isn’t funny at all. They’re out here because they’re scared. This place isn’t just a business, it’s their home, their safe haven, and they don’t want to leave it. And why should they have to? Why is it right that they should have to be scared at their ages? It’s not fair and it’s not right, and our town needs to stand with them and do something about it.’

Breathless, Honey finally stopped speaking, and the street erupted into cheers and clapping, and Nell stepped forward and held her hand out to help Honey down from the stone, her makeshift soapbox. She pulled her into a tight hug.

‘My God, Honey, I’m so proud of you,’ she whispered fiercely. ‘You were magnificent. I thought your boss was going to have an actual heart attack when you swallowed that key. For your own sake I’m never going to tell you where that’s been.’

Honey found she was shaking a little, a delayed reaction to having inadvertently made herself the Svengali of Hope for every resident caught up in the battle.

‘Three cheers for Honeysuckle, our very own Boudicca!’ Billy shouted, and the photographer’s flashbulbs almost blinded her when Nell turned her gently to face the expectant crowd, murmuring ‘smile’ in her ear as she stepped away.

Honey smiled tremulously, shaking inside, trying not to think ahead to the consequences of her actions. Or to wonder what Nell and Simon had done with the sex-cuff key before she’d swallowed it. She might get a tetanus shot, just in case.

‘Er, Honey dear?’ Mimi called out. ‘I think someone better call the fire brigade. I can’t get these cuffs off and my hands are going numb!’

The fire crew turned up in record time, and as one advanced towards Mimi with the bolt cutters, another questioned Honey on the nature of the issue.

‘So … you chained an elderly woman to the railings with your kinky sex cuffs and then ate the key?’

‘They’re not my kinky sex cuffs,’ Honey tried to explain for a second time.

‘That’s what they all say, love,’ he said with a cheery wink. ‘Although to be fair, these things usually happen in the bedroom, rather than in the street with little old ladies.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m a broad-minded sort of fella.’

On that, Billy ambled up.

‘Alright, chaps?’ he said, slinging an arm around Honey’s shoulders.

Honey smiled gratefully. ‘This is Billy,’ she said. ‘He was the one