61. Reunion
In which everybody speaks at once…
At a little after 10 o'clock the next morning, Gosie and @EmpressaurusKitty turned into the depot gate less than a minute after the KS courier carrying the crate from Pernilla Ågren's studio.
They stepped out of the car just as the courier wheeled the crate in through the office door on a sack barrow. MyrtleLion was already standing at the counter with the clipboard against her chest and a cup of coffee at her elbow. She looked round as Gosie and Empressaurus walked into the office and made a tick.
Signe logged the crate onto the system, then turned to MyrtleLion.
"This crate is for the same consignee as the previous crate. It will be collected later this morning," she said. "Half past eleven."
MyrtleLion made another tick on the clipboard.
"Collected by whom?" asked Empressaurus.
Signe ignored her.
"Have you seen Kitty?" asked Empressaurus.
Signe continued to ignore her and indicated that the courier should wheel the crate into the depot. Gosie, Empressaurus and MyrtleLion followed the courier and watched as she placed the new crate beside the rollers. Then they walked the length of the loading area, past the cages and the padded envelopes to the far end, and the last pallet.
Kitty was lying on the concrete against the back wall. Nestled into her white stomach, fast asleep, lay Griffin, Gimbal and Graphic.
Everyone stopped walking immediately. Empressaurus nearly walked into Gosie's back.
Kitty opened one eye and began to purr. She brushed a paw slowly over the heads of the gerbils to wake them. Gimbal sat up first and looked up.
"Gosie!" she said, running over and hugging her tight. Griffin and Graphic also sat up and also ran over to Gosie, nearly pushing her over with their weight.
Then all three of them were talking at once.
"Fenella found Boily D:!" said Griffin. "Halcyon couldn't save the spreadsheet and Fenella came over and saw Boily D: in the recent files, and she didn't say anything, she just saved it somewhere, said nothing to worry about, all saved now, and went back to her bench."
"And then she had us pack the window," said Gimbal. "The real one. With the crack."
"The crack was just above the Reconstruction mark," said Graphic. "In the lead."
"And the docket said Consignee 3859, I read it out, and then the door was locked," said Gimbal.
"We banged and banged," said Griffin.
"And we shouted," said Graphic. "But nobody came."
"We used the far corner," said Gimbal. "We covered it over properly afterwards."
"There was a box of our seeds on the second shelf," said Graphic.
"An advance," said Griffin. "On our wages."
"Four each," said Gimbal. "I put one back."
"Then the lights went out," said Griffin.
"And it was cold," said Graphic.
"And we got in the crate," said Gimbal, "to be warm."
"I checked the wool first," said Graphic. "There was enough between us and the glass."
"Then a hammer woke us up and we were being nailed in. Twelve nails. I counted them," said Gimbal.
"Then we were in a van, and then on a plane," said Griffin. "Our ears went funny."
"We didn't have passports," said Gimbal.
"Then we were taken in another van," said Graphic.
"And we shared the seeds carefully because we didn't have many," said Griffin. "Gimbal counted them for us."
"I did," said Gimbal. "Then we needed to get out of the crate in case we couldn't hold it in, and we gnawed through the corner."
"We couldn't go in the crate. Not near the glass," said Graphic.
"We were going to go back in," said Griffin. "Because of the docket. We knew you would find the crate and if we weren't in it, you wouldn't find us."
"But the van went without us. In a car park. It said KS on the door," said Gimbal.
"There was a big red sign," said Griffin. "And picnic tables. Somebody had left chips."
"And half a sandwich," said Graphic. "I checked the tables first."
"The bag had a circle over the a," said Griffin. "Like in Umeå. That's how I knew we were in Sweden."
"I counted the vans," said Gimbal. "Four blue postnord, two green bring, two white DB Schenker. If there were four blue ones there was going to be another grey one."
"The courier had a grey fleece with KS on the sleeves," said Graphic.
"I counted the fleeces," said Gimbal. "A wolf. A man without the letters. A skier, I counted her anyway. Then at three minutes past midnight, KS."
"We waited eleven minutes for her by the van door," said Griffin.
"Then we slept in the back of her van and woke up here," said Graphic.
"And Kitty was here," said Gimbal.
Gosie took the small brown paper packet out of her pocket. "We knew you had been in the crate. I found this," she said. "It was as if you left us a clue."
Gimbal took it, then said, "We didn't mean to. The driver only took off her fleece. We wouldn't have left the van if we'd known."
Empressaurus put her arms around all three gerbils. "You're here now. You're safe. And Kitty looked after you."
At that moment, Signe came out of the office and walked over to MyrtleLion. "The crate will be collected now," she said. As she stepped aside, they could see a goldfinch in overalls coming in through the roller door, dusting off her wings.
It was Gemma Glasswing.
https://myrtlelion.substack.com/p/61-reunion