Free Snakes' Elbows by Deirdre Madden Page B

was, high up above the garden, Barney could hear the cat purring with delight. An extremely old lady came past and Wilf gave her a huge yellow rose.
    When he brought the lunch up later he would tell Barney all the news he had heard from the passers-by, all the strange and funny things that were happening in Woodford. It was the same when Wilf went shopping, for he didn’t just bring home loaves and potatoes and apples and eggs. He brought tales of how a long bright snake had been found in a box of pineapples at the greengrocer’s and how everyone had run out into the street screaming. Without Wilf, Barney would never have known that the baker’s granny was having her hundredth birthday, nor about her birthdaycake and how huge it had to be to hold all the candles. No one else would have told him about the single pink flamingo that appeared in the public park of Woodford one day, and disappeared the next. It was never seen in the town again and people would have thought they had imagined it, had it not been for the few pink feathers left behind.
    Barney turned away from the window and looked at his room. There was his great piano, black and silent. The Haverford-Snuffley Angel hung nearby. There was the miniature tree, there were his many books. Barney loved these things and he realised how lucky he was to have them, together with all his other paintings and his beautiful house. But today he realised that it wasn’t enough. Barney was lonely.
    At lunchtime Wilf appeared wheeling the trolley. On the top level were two mushroom pizzas, on the bottom was a grilled mackerel for the cat. Whistling a little tune, he set the table and they all three settled down to eat,because they always had their meals together now.
    â€˜I saw you talking to all the passers-by. What did they say to you?’ Barney asked.
    â€˜The postman told me that someone wrote an address on a banana the other day, stuck a stamp on it and posted it. The new baby’s only five days old and she’s going to be called Minnie. The children are going on a school trip to the seaside next week. I gave a rose to the lady because she doesn’t have a garden at her house and hasn’t got enough money to buy herself flowers.
    â€˜And you,’ Wilf said, cutting himself a big wedge of pizza. ‘What news have you got for me?’
    â€˜Why nothing,’ Barney said.
    â€˜It’s a pity. There are lots of nice people in Woodford. It would be good if you made friends with some of them.’
    â€˜Oh I couldn’t, I just couldn’t.’
    â€˜Course you could,’ Wilf said. ‘What aboutthat Philomena Phelan woman who works in the gallery. I bet she’d love to be your friend. She’s a good person and you’d have lots to talk about because she likes paintings too.’
    â€˜I couldn’t,’ Barney said again, and he went red and looked at his hands.
    Wilf simply couldn’t understand how anyone could be so shy. He thought it was silly. ‘You should get out more,’ he said.
    â€˜I do go out. I go out on my bike.’
    â€˜But I bet you just whizz past people and never say hello, much less stop to talk to them. Am I right? Is that what he does, Pussens?’
    Dandelion looked up from her mackerel and nodded her head.
    Barney looked so sad that Wilf felt sorry for him. ‘Tell you what,’ he suggested. ‘Because it’s such a lovely day why don’t we go for a picnic later, down by the river.’
    â€˜Thank you, Wilf! I should like that very much indeed.’
    And so in the late afternoon they set offtogether, Barney carrying a rug for them to sit on and Wilf carrying the picnic hamper. Dandelion trotted ahead of them with her tail straight up in the air. They found a quiet spot near a bridge and settled themselves down on the sloping green bank of the river. Wilf unbuckled the hamper and opened it out. Inside there was a red and white checked tablecloth,