Free New Title 1 by Shaun Jeffrey

it’s not someone you or I would want to know.”
    “Perhaps we shouldn’t have run away.”
    “Run away. I call it a tactical withdrawal.”
    “Yes, but it does seem a bit stupid now, doesn’t it?”
    “Sugar, if you want to live in the middle of nowhere, stupid is as good as it gets.”
    Chase rolled her eyes.
    “Perhaps it was the man with the knife,” Jane said.
    “That’s comforting.”  
    “Well you asked.”
    Chase sighed. “Well, we’re going to have to go and buy some food. My stomach’s rumbling like a freight train and I could do with a drink. Come on.”
    “Can’t a girl catch her breath first?”
    “In that top, you’ll catch more than your breath.”
    Jane pushed her bosom out even more. “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”
    Although she cringed inside, Chase smiled. Jane didn’t normally embarrass her, but from what she had seen, she didn’t think Paradise was the right place to let it all hang out.
     

CHAPTER 6
     
    The sun beamed down from high in the sky, throwing short shadows before Chase and Jane as they walked along the lane to the general store. The village remained quiet, as though still sleeping. A bird whistled a mournful tune in the distance, but nothing replied.
    “Happening place isn’t it,” Jane said, shaking her head.
    “It’s called getting back to nature. People pay a premium to live in a place like this.”
    “Well, I’d want a refund. Nature is for the golden oldies. Me, I want the bright lights, not a retirement home.”
    Chase disagreed. She loved Paradise . It was quintessentially English, and it had an attractive doctor that she wouldn’t mind being ministered to by. She smiled to herself, the wicked thoughts making her blush. She hoped Jane didn’t notice.
    They entered the shop, and Ms Woods came scuttling out of the back room. Thankfully this time, the shopkeeper appeared unarmed.
    “Hello my dears, are you new around here?” Ms Woods asked, wiping her hands on her apron.
    “We came in this morning,” Chase replied, perusing the shelves.
    “No, I don’t recall seeing you this morning. Shop was shut this morning. Are you new around here?”
    Chase looked at Jane and pulled a quizzical expression.
    Jane shook her head and shrugged.
    Needing food, Chase picked up a shopping basket and selected some of the white labelled tins from the shelves: beans, spaghetti, tinned carrots, pasta sauce, potatoes, tomatoes and curry sauce. She also took a couple of cartons of orange juice out of the fridge. They felt deliciously cool and she rubbed one of them across her brow.
    “You’d better hope none of those labels come off,” Jane said, “otherwise, you could end up with curry on your spotted dick.”
    Ignoring Jane’s remark, Chase went to pay for the shopping, eager to leave the shop and its clinical atmosphere. She felt anxious around people with mental problems. It was as though they existed in another reality, one that didn’t have borders of acceptability, right from wrong, past from present; they lived in the twilight zone of their own minds. She still couldn’t understand how Ms Woods was allowed to carry on working, not when her brain seemed to be blowing fuses like candles on a birthday cake.
    “Will that be all?” Ms Woods asked.
    Chase nodded and took out her purse.
    “Oh no. Don’t worry about that. It’s all free due to the fog. Emergency rations, you see.”
    Chase looked surprised. “Free?” Perhaps Ms Woods’ mental problem was worse than she thought, and if it was, she couldn’t take liberties and walk off without paying.
    Before Ms Woods could reply, Jane dropped more items into the basket. “If it’s free,” she said, shrugging.
    “Go right ahead,” Ms Woods said. “All I have to do is tick the items off on my list.” She picked up a pen and a clipboard and started to scratch at the board, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth like a bloated leech.
    Chase didn’t know what to make of the shopkeepers