Free George's Grand Tour by Caroline Vermalle

to have dessert at the restaurant”.’
    â€˜No,’ said Charles. ‘Why don’t you say: “I’m going to have dessert here”. Because we already know how to write “restaurant”.’
    Alexandre leaned over the tablecloth, which by this point wascovered in scribbles, and started writing. When he sat up again, George and Charles saw: ‘Im goin 2 hav dessert here.’
    â€˜It doesn’t look that much shorter than the normal version,’ Charles said, suspiciously.
    â€˜Isn’t there a text word for “dessert”?’
    â€˜Not that I can think of, off the top of my head.’
    Alexandre crossed out the word several times on the tablecloth, adding and taking away letters, before finally admitting defeat: ‘dessert’ was just ‘dessert’.
    â€˜OK, so “dessert” doesn’t really work. But you probably won’t use that word very much anyway; I mean, how often do you write texts about dessert? But there are loads of words that we use all the time that you can make much shorter.’
    â€˜For example?’ asked Charles.
    Alexandre thought again.
    â€˜I know! “Speak tomorrow”. You write that all the time.’
    â€˜Yes!’ exclaimed George. ‘I’m going to use that one every day!’
    Alexandre wrote ‘spk 2moro’ and looked at the two pensioners with an air of satisfaction.
    â€˜Look, I saved five characters just like that! OK, it doesn’t sound like that much, but—’
    â€˜Yes, it does, you’ve saved almost fifty per cent! Bravo, young man! Let’s have another one.’
    â€˜Hmm, I don’t know … Oh wait, that’s perfect! “I don’t know”.’
    He wrote ‘I dno’.
    â€˜Hmm, I’m not sure how much we’re going to be needing that one,’ objected Charles. ‘Especially as we’ll be following the mapall the way.’
    â€˜OK, I’ve got a better one! “Want to”. You use that all the time, right?’
    â€˜Ah yes,’ agreed George. ‘One of the modal verbs, very common.’
    â€˜OK, check this out: “wan2”.’
    â€˜Waan two?’
    â€˜No! “Wan” plus “2” makes “want to”!’
    This time, George and Charles were really impressed. Alexandre felt pleased with himself.
    â€˜And I saved three characters, including a space, which isn’t bad either.’
    â€˜Well, would you look at that! Right, Charles old chap, we’d better get started … And that’s all very well, young Alexandre, but have you ever heard someone speak pig Latin?’
    Alexandre had not, but by the end of the evening, with the help of some local cider, he could speak it fluently, along with the rest of the kitchen staff and quite a few of the other diners, and the restaurant resounded with all kinds of onsensenay . At around one in the morning, they ran out of Breton songs to sing, so George brought out some of the classics: Maurice Chevalier, Ouvrard, Milton … But when he was the only one left singing, everyone decided it was time to go home.
    Â 
    Adèle was bored. She spent all her time waiting around. Whether on her own or with the crew, day or night, she waited. There was no way she could leave this musty old house and go and stretch her legs in Brick Lane. If someone shouted her name, it was herjob to appear instantly. It was impossible for her to read, or start a crossword, or anything; she just had to wait around and try her best to look interested.
    Once again she found herself sitting in a corridor with a few other crew members. It was a different corridor this time, one that led to the large drawing room, but it was just as gloomy, with the same velvet curtains cloaked in dust and the same old windows that let in draughts.
    The drawing room, where the scene was being shot, was big enough to have allowed her to find a small space for herself