Trust by David Moody

How would I feel trapped some immeasurable distance away from everyone and everything that I held precious? How painful and frustrating would it be knowing that there were people back at home waiting for me? How would Siobhan feel? How would I feel waiting for her?
            After the shock of losing Mum and Dad my life had finally begun to regain some semblance of order and normality again. I was damn sure I was never going to let that control go.
           
           

13
           
            I was back in Dreighton by half-past eleven on Friday morning.
            I woke up and found myself alone again. Siobhan was working early and Robert had decided to spend yet another day away with his friends from university. With nothing better to do I ended up back at Porter Farm. Joe Porter was as pleased to see me as he normally was (I was, after all, free labour for him). He reeled off enough jobs to fill four days, never mind the four or five hours that I had originally intended to stay.
            Just after ten I was standing knee deep in manure, cleaning out a barn that had been used as a temporary shelter for Joe’s cattle while repairs had been made to another building. Joe interrupted my work to ask me if I would take him into Dreighton to pick up a piece of machinery that he’d ordered last week. There wasn’t much of a choice really - stay and shovel shit or get out into the sunshine for a while. Within ten minutes I was washed, changed and ready.
            Most of the conversation between Joe and I on the way to Dreighton was as sparse and monosyllabic as ever. I didn’t mind - that was Joe’s way. He only ever got excited about a couple of things (usually rugby and cattle) and as I had little interest in either subject I hadn’t expected to talk much. Nevertheless, my instinctive reaction to the silence in the car was to keep trying to say something anyway… `Rob and I were in Dreighton on Wednesday night,’ I said. `Oh,’ grunted Joe. `He was on at me all day to go and see one of the aliens.
            Wouldn’t shut up about it until I agreed.’ `Oh,’ he grunted again. `We got to see one though. Saw two actually. You know the pub opposite the garage on the high street?’
            Joe looked blank.
            `Next to Mathesons?’
            Still blank. `Two doors down from the bank?’
            Still blank. `By the Doctors?’
            He nodded and grunted. `We were sitting outside having a drink when this bloody big crowd starts coming towards us. The whole town was packed out anyway but this crowd was huge. We knew straight away that it had to be aliens. I climbed up on a table and Rob shinned his way up a lamppost.’
            I glanced to my left to check that Joe was still there. `Oh yes,’ he mumbled, prompted to say something by my silence. `Anyway, right in the middle of this crowd were two aliens. I couldn’t believe it. They were just walking along the street like you or I would, except we wouldn’t be surrounded by hundreds of people, would we?’ `Suppose not.’ `Then some bloke started giving them grief, didn’t he? He just stood there in the middle of the pavement and started asking them why they were here and what they wanted and telling them that he didn’t trust them and…’ `There’s no need for that, is there?’ Joe interrupted unexpectedly. `It’s not their fault they’re here, is it? Bloody hell, how would you feel if you was stuck somewhere a million miles from home?’ `I know, but…’ `No, that’s not on. They ain’t done anything wrong.’ `Didn’t think you’d be that bothered, Joe,’ I said, surprised by the strength of his reaction. `Course I’m bothered,’ he said. `Came here to see them myself.’ `Did you?’
            He nodded. `I was here Wednesday morning. Had to see the doctor about me back so I thought I’d come early and try and see one of them.’ `And did you see one?’
            `Saw a few.