‘Yes,’ Lisa said hurriedly. ‘He’ll be on in a minute. You are coming, aren’t you?’
‘Of course,’ I said, grabbing my keys and encouraging Nell out of her basket. ‘You’re coming too, aren’t you, Chloe?’
‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ she said, standing up and stretching out her back.
Luke had bagged a spot on Radio Norfolk to promote Winterfest and everyone who could was going to listen ahead of walking into the city together for the festive switch-on later that evening. I hadn’t been all that keen to go and see the lights – a bath and an early night had been much more tempting – but Poppy had looked so disappointed when I turned the invitation down, that I changed my mind.
‘I’m so pleased you’ve signed up to help with Winterfest, Freya,’ Lisa said as we walked to the house. ‘I wasn’t all that keen myself, but when Carole said you weren’t sure about doing it alone, I willingly stepped into the breach.’
‘She said that, did she?’ came Chloe’s voice behind us.
‘Yes,’ said Lisa, twisting round to look at her. ‘That is right, isn’t it?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘not really. I was nabbed by both Carole and Poppy. According to them, you were the one feeling jittery about flying solo and needed a partner to extend your session with!’
Lisa shook her head. ‘The sneaky mares,’ she tutted. ‘I might have known, but never mind, hey?’ she grinned. ‘I think what we’re planning will work really well together. I’m looking forward to it, aren’t you?’
‘I’m sure it will be fine,’ I agreed, resigned to the situation now there was no going back. Luke was about to announce the event to the nation, well, the Radio Norfolk listeners anyway, so it was too late to change my mind. ‘More than fine.’
‘That’s the spirit,’ said Chloe with a laugh.
The three of us joined Carole and Graham, Ryan, Heather, Mark, Harold, Kate and a collection of children, cats and dogs around the radio in the kitchen and grinned as Luke’s name was announced.
His smooth, deep voice was made for radio and the presenter was clearly smitten. She gave him far more airtime than I was sure was necessary and listening to him reminded me of the day I had asked Eloise for a sign and had been led to Norwich.
It brought a lump to my throat as I looked around the kitchen at everyone’s faces as they listened eagerly to what Luke had to say, and I wondered if there were any listeners about to find their own lives transformed by a trip to Prosperous Place, just like mine had been.
By the time the interview ended, Ryan, whose phone was set up to receive Grow-Well social media notifications, was inundated with messages, posts, shares and retweets.
‘Something tells me we’re not going to have a problem with numbers,’ Carole beamed.
‘Just as well you got so many of us to sign up to help out then, isn’t it, Carole?’ Lisa said meaningfully.
‘Poppy helped too,’ our clever coordinator quickly pointed out. ‘And it will be wonderful to have everyone involved.’
I supposed I couldn’t argue with that, although I would have been far happier taking a back seat and handing out materials and making tea.
‘Right,’ said Kate, once everyone had finished scraping chairs and chatting, ‘Let’s all meet in the square at four fifteen, shall we? That gives us an hour to get there before everything kicks off and hopefully time to grab some chips from the market.’
She and Luke had kindly offered to buy food for everyone and, from what I’d heard from Carole about the traditional switch-on, the city centre was going to be packed.
‘Sounds perfect,’ said Heather, gathering her brood together.
‘Don’t worry if I’m not there on time,’ said Lisa. ‘I will be coming, but it might be a stretch to get my lot back from school and changed by then. If I don’t manage it, I won’t be far behind you, and John’s finishing early so he can help.’
‘And I’ll meet you all there,’ said Chloe. ‘I want to go home for a quick shower first.’
We all went our separate ways and I wondered if Finn would be joining us. I hadn’t seen or heard him all week, aside from his shadow in the corridor on Monday and then I was still assuming that that had been him. I hadn’t seen anything of Zak either, but I didn’t mind about that.
* * *
In total, including children (but not dogs, as they were staying home