Cecily: Looking for Love at Cyril's Creek-Part Six

Chapter Six

Tarquin and Josiah sat stiff and silent at the table whilst Cecily was busy cooking dinner for them all. Every time she perceived that Tarquin would not see them, she shot angry looks at her employer. She yearned for conversation to flow like she yearned for peace, love, tranquility and really well laundered net curtains. However, the ongoing sulky look suggested that her boss was not about to change his ways and become more sociable. She made a mental note to add his names to as many mailing lists as she could. Especially for firms that produced porcelain figurines; Josiah hated those.
Eventually, the intensity and frequency of her furious glares prompted him to begin a conversation.
“Tell me about your glider then,” he said with a sense of weariness and foreboding.
Tarquin cleared his throat, set up a slideshow and unleashed his laser pointer.
“We decided that the traditional glider was way too heavy,” he began, pointing at the relevant parts of the slides as he spoke. “Notice that the  effect of gravity will be to bring the craft  nearer to the ground.”
Josiah rolled his eyes slightly and impatiently crossed his legs. A look from Cecily settled him in his chair once more. Satisfied, she returned to doing something complicated with a pan of lentils. 
“Therefore, should we be able to reduce the mass, we could increase the time we are able to glide.”
Josiah nodded eagerly,  mainly because Cecily was looking pointedly at him. Her look was so pointed, her nose had an arrow drawn on it.
“Thus, we concluded, we should remove the wings in order to achieve this.”
“Have you got other people who help you?” Josiah asked tentatively.
“It’s funny you should mention that. I was always more keen on the no wings plan than the others in the team. I had Mac the engineer. Mac in charge of aeronautical stuff. Mac the navigational expert. And there was Hywel who didn’t say or do very much. He was in charge of the engine. Probably a bit of a mistake that one. So, anyway, I  was determined to push on with my plan but they all left me to it.”
He paused, the pain of the memory overwhelming him.
When he continued it was with a voice shaking with emotion.
“I think it was Mac who said ‘Let’s leave him to it lads. He’s nuts!’ Tell a lie, it was Mac who said that. So, I was on my own, finding ways to launch the glider single-handedly. Then I would have to learn how to find out what went wrong. And of course how to repair the glider. It was difficult, lonely even.”
Josiah felt strangely moved. It took quite a lot of insistent tapping on the elephant’s trunk to make it put him down. Back in his chair, he asked Tarquin what had happened on this particular day.
“I decided  that I should launch myself from a tree, which was what particularly drew me to your area. The trees near your home are especially towering. Then, hopefully, being so high up, I should be able to float and glide to a successful place to land. My dear old thing, landing was the only part that went to plan. And rather quickly at that. So, there I was, stunned and injured. Who should come to save me but this divine creature here.”
Cecily blushed but Tarquin reached into his pocket and produced a ladybird. 
“The poor spotted darling was not much of a help.”
Cecily splatted the lentils on some plates but made sure a fair amount went into Tarquin’s shoes. She shoved the plates gracelessly on the table. 
“Then Cecily came along, my guardian angel.”
It was as if a switch had been flicked.
“Put the lights back on and come here and eat your dinner,” Cecily sighed wearily.
Josiah did as she bade him,  he reilluminated the room and wandered back to his seat and slumped down.
With vengeance and punishment in her eyes but sugared treacle in her voice, Cecily asked Josiah sweetly “With your science and engineering background, surely you could help Tarquin, couldn’t you?”
“Oh, ok,” grumbled her boss and he grabbed the visitor’s knife and fork, cutting the food into chewable sized pieces. He sat down to resume eating his own meal; no sooner had he sat down than he was up again with the excitement of an amazing idea.
“I will help you!” he cried. “I could get the glider in the air and flying. After all, I am the man behind the E-Nail!”
Tarquin nodded, an impressed look on his face.
“Tell me more,” he smiled, inviting more from his host with raised eyebrows, gently wobbling ears and winking eyelids that said ‘Tell me more’ using semaphore.
“I also undiscovered the dinosaurs,” Josiah told the hapless pilot.
“The what?” Tarquin asked, perplexed.
Inside Josiah, the familiar feeling of turmoil arose. He never could get on with lentils. However, alongside that was the frustration that one of the greatest achievements of  his life was doomed to be unknown by everyone else. That was the thing about undiscovering an entire species; now they were undiscovered, no-one could remember what it was that had been undiscovered. The life of a genius rarely runs smoothly. Instead, it picks up a slight calf strain about twenty minutes in. 
“Forget that last one. The point was I am an award-winning scientist,” he said.
“Nobel?”
“Well, no, obviously not. Just a rather lovely statuette. Although, it would have been rather thrilling to have something to ring with gusto at the ceremony.”
They ate some more in contemplative silence. Cecily ate feeling  more relaxed and more able to savour her food. Next to her, Tarquin was so excited that he scarcely felt able to eat. His glider could be working any day. Of course, Josiah was excited too. If he could get Tarquin flying, then maybe, just maybe, he could win Cecily over and then, who knew? Perhaps the glider wouldn’t be the only thing to take off.
On Cecily’s plate, a lentil called Marcos became concerned about its neighbour. Harry hadn’t spoken or moved for ages. Fearfully, Marcos stretched out a hand and felt for a pulse.