Page 14

Arthur

Arthur had arranged to meet Ash at four o’clock at the community center, and so over the weekend he spent every spare minute reading Much Ado About Nothing . It wasn’t easygoing, filled with strange old words and long, nonsensical rambles, and several times he almost gave up. This was why he’d hated school so much; teachers forcing them to read these old stories that were impossible to follow. It had damn near put him off reading altogether, and when he left school at sixteen, he’d sworn he was never going to read a book again.

Of course, all that changed when he met Esi. Arthur could still remember the first time he’d seen her as if it were yesterday. It had been the Port Gowan fair, back in the summer of 1964. She’d been sitting on a hay bale, engrossed in whatever book she was reading, absentmindedly twirling a braid round her finger while the fair raged on around her. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, like a radiant rose in a field of wheat. Of course, Arthur hadn’t dared speak to her that day. Later, he told her it was because he didn’t want to bother her while she was reading, but the truth was he’d been terrified he’d open his mouth and say something stupid, just like poor Ash worried about with Dan. But he’d sworn that next year he would pluck up the courage, and the very next day, Arthur had headed to the library and borrowed a book. It hadn’t made much more sense to him than the Shakespeare they’d read at school, but he persevered, reading a few pages every evening when he got back from the cow sheds. It had taken him almost a month to finish that first book, and then he’d swapped it for a new one, and on it went. A year later, he’d returned to the county fair, and when he saw the beautiful woman with the book, he’d strolled straight up and said hello.

“Arthur Robinson, stop daydreaming or you’ll never finish it.”

Esi’s softly scolding voice interrupted his memories. Arthur chuckled; she could always tell when he was drifting off.

“Sorry, love.” He turned his attention back to the text in front of him. “So, let me get this straight. Claudio wants to marry Hero, but he’s tricked into thinking she’s having it off with Borachio, and so instead of marrying her, Claudio humiliates her at the altar.”

“That’s right. I never understood what Hero sees in Claudio. The man is a dolt.”

“And in the meantime, Benedick and Beatrice don’t like each other and bicker all the time.”

“Benedick doesn’t believe in love and has sworn he’s never going to get married, which we all know means he’s going to end the story loved up and happily married.” Even without looking up from the page, Arthur could hear the smile in his wife’s voice.

“And Benedick and Beatrice’s friends play a trick on them so they both realize that actually, rather than hating each other, they love each other,” Arthur continued. “And then Hero pretends to be dead, and that makes Claudio see what a fool he’s been, and then Hero’s dad says you can marry my other daughter, who isn’t dead. And that turns out to be Hero all along.”

“Yep, that’s about it.”

Arthur exhaled. “Bloomin’ heck, this Shakespeare chap doesn’t half make it complicated.”

Esi laughed, a sound that still made his heart sing even after all these years. “It’s not that complicated! Now read me the scene where Benedick and Beatrice finally realize their feelings for each other. I always loved that bit.”

Arthur flicked to the page. When the problems with Esi’s eyesight had started, he’d felt like a right lemon reading to her. He was no actor, after all, and he could never do all the voices. But Esi told him to stop being so soft, and now, after ten years of reading to her, he didn’t think twice. And so, he took a sip of tea, cleared his throat, and began to read aloud.

—

At three-thirty, Arthur left home and walked the two miles from his farmhouse into the village. He must have done this walk thousands of times over his eighty-one years, but he didn’t think he’d ever tire of the view as he crossed the fields and came over the brow of the hill to see St. Tredock nestled far below at the bottom of the cliff. When he was a boy, the village had been little more than a small, steep high street leading up from the harbor and a huddle of whitewashed stone fishermen’s cottages. Much about St. Tredock had changed since then, the village expanding as new houses were built up the hill like vines growing on a wall. The fishermen were long gone, too, their cottages now converted into overpriced holiday lets. Not that Arthur minded: unlike many of his generation, he’d always embraced change, and he loved seeing the village come to life every summer, with barefoot children playing on the beach and crabbing off the harbor walls, their parents drinking pints of cider outside the Anchor and eating steaming hot pasties from the bakery. And whilst so much about the village had changed, some things remained the same: the high street with its traditional butcher and greengrocer, the old library, and of course, the community center.

Arthur had called Sandy this morning and asked if there was a free space he could use—he’d not gone into detail why—and been told he could borrow the room they usually held book club in. When he arrived at the center, he found Ash waiting for him by the entrance door, scuffing his trainers on the gravel.

“Afternoon, lad!”

“Hi, Arthur.”

They headed into Tintagel, closing the door behind them.

“So, how did you get on with Much Ado About Nothing ?” Arthur asked as they sat down.

“Not good,” the boy said with a sigh. “It’s all gobbledygook to me.”

“I’ll be honest, I felt the same for much of it. All that fancy language is intimidating, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know why they make us read all this dead white guy stuff in the first place, it’s completely irrelevant.”

“I used to think that too. But do you know what? Reading Shakespeare again after sixty-odd years, I realized it’s not so different to modern books after all.”

Ash raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Look, it might be written strangely, but when you boil the whole thing down, it’s basically just your common or garden enemies-to-lovers rom-com.”

Arthur had been quite pleased with that summary, but Ash was squinting at him as if he was speaking in Shakespearean English himself.

“Enemies-to-lovers? What’s that?”

“It’s a common trope in romance novels and one of Esi’s favorites. Two people hate each other, or at least they think they do, and there’s always lots of back-and-forth between them. And then eventually they come to realize that they’re actually in love.”

“You mean a bit like Anthony and Kate in The Viscount Who Loved Me ?”

Arthur looked at Ash in surprise. “Yes, exactly like that! Have you read that one already?”

The boy gave a guilty shrug. “I found the Shakespeare so confusing that I gave up on it halfway through and read the book club one instead.”

“And what did you think of it?”

“It was okay. Much better than Shakespeare.”

“Well, you’re right, Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sheffield are a brilliant example of enemies-to-lovers. They drive each other mad, and it takes them forever to work out that’s because they fancy each other. They’re one of Esi’s favorite romance couples, because she says you can feel the chemistry between them sizzling off the page when they’re arguing.”

“It reminded me a bit of…” The boy faltered and Arthur gave him an encouraging nod.

“Yes?”

“You’ll think I’m stupid; it’s not the same at all.”

“Go on, lad, give it a go. It’s just you and me here.”

He watched Ash take a deep breath.

“Well…Anthony and Kate just reminded me a bit of…of Rey and Kylo Ren in the Star Wars films.” He rushed the last words out, as if embarrassed to be saying them out loud.

“Oh, is that so? I’m afraid I’ve not seen any of the new Star Wars films so you’re going to have to fill me in.”

“Well, Kylo Ren is the Supreme Leader of the First Order—those are the baddies. And Rey, she’s a Jedi, so these guys are sworn enemies: they literally spend two and a half movies trying to kill each other.” The boy pushed the fringe out of his face, his eyes shining with enthusiasm now that he was talking about something he clearly loved. “But they also have this really strong connection with each other, in fact they’re a dyad, which is a bit complicated to explain but basically means they’re connected to each other through the Force and can see into each other’s minds.”

“I see,” Arthur said, although he didn’t see at all.

“Anyway, they have this whole mortal-enemies-chasing-one-another-round-the-universe-trying-to-kill-one-another thing going on. But then they have this big fight, and Rey impales Kylo Ren with a lightsaber and almost kills him, at which point they realize they don’t hate each other at all.” The boy stopped and looked embarrassed again. “I told you it was a dumb idea.”

“That’s not dumb at all, it sounds like the perfect enemies-to-lovers story. And tell me, do they get together in the end? Because one rule of romance novels is they always have to have a happy ending.”

Ash grinned. “Not quite. Rey dies killing Emperor Palpatine, and then Kylo Ren, who by this point is called Ben, transfers his life essence into Rey, sacrificing himself to save her. Then they kiss and Ben dies.”

“What? That’s horrible!”

Ash laughed. “Sorry, but Star Wars isn’t exactly a romance.”

“Clearly not,” Arthur said, chuckling too. “These new ones sound good though.”

“Yeah; I mean, The Rise of Skywalker is average but the other two are excellent. The Force Awakens might actually be my favorite of all the films, even better than The Empire Strikes Back . I can lend it to you on DVD, if you like?”

Arthur was taken aback by the offer. “Thanks…that’d be grand. But one thing you said there made me think back to Much Ado About Nothing . Did you get to the bit where Claudio dumps Hero at the altar?”

“Because he thinks she’s been having an affair, right?”

“Yes. There’s this strange old friar guy who comes up with a daft plan to fake Hero’s death to make Claudio feel bad. As if Romeo and Juliet didn’t teach them that faking death is a bad idea!”

Arthur chuckled but the reference clearly went over Ash’s head as the boy looked blank.

“Anyway, the plan works: when Claudio thinks Hero’s dead, he realizes what an idiot he’s been, and he actually loved her all along. And from what you said just now, it sounds a bit like when your Rey almost kills Ben Kylo, or whatever he’s called, and it takes his near death for the two of them to realize they love each other.”

“Like when Kate has the carriage accident and Anthony Bridgerton finally tells her he loves her?”

“Yes, lad!” Arthur laughed and Ash laughed, too, clearly delighted at having made the connection. “Who’d have thought it: Willy Shakespeare, George Lucas and Julia Quinn all had the exact same idea.”

“Well, sadly I’m not sure I’m going to be able to use any of that in my English lesson,” Ash said. “My teacher would think I’d lost the plot if I started comparing Shakespeare to Star Wars.”

“Oh, but you never know. And maybe Dan’s a fan too?”

At the mention of the other boy’s name, Ash’s face grew serious. “I don’t know why I’m bothering with any of this, Arthur. Even if I do manage to say a coherent sentence in class, it’s not like Dan would ever like someone like me.”

“Why ever not?”

“You’ve seen him. He’s captain of the school football team, a prefect and one of the most popular kids in school. And I’m just a loser who likes science fiction and computer games.”

“So, haven’t you ever heard of opposites attract? Just look at Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sheffield.”

Ash smiled, but it was a half-hearted one this time. “Sadly, this isn’t a romance novel; we’re not guaranteed a happily ever after.”

“Maybe not, but let me tell you a true story. The first time I plucked up the courage to talk to Esi, it quickly became clear she was totally out of my league. She wasn’t just beautiful, she was the smartest person I’d ever met. Her father had been a successful Ghanian businessman who’d sent her to this fancy English boarding school, and when he died, she and her mother moved here permanently. Esi was well-read and well traveled, whereas I’d barely left St. Tredock my whole life and smelled of manure. I didn’t stand a chance.”

Ash didn’t say anything, but Arthur could tell he was listening.

“All my friends told me to forget about her and find myself a local lass who’d be happy with the simple life I could give her. But I couldn’t get Esi out of my mind. And so instead of giving up, like everyone told me to, I focused on the one thing I had in my favor.”

“Which was?”

“ Books. I knew that however different we were, we could have books in common. And here we are, almost sixty years later, happily married and still arguing about books every single day.”

Ash smiled. “That’s a lovely story, Arthur.”

“Well, all I’m saying is that you shouldn’t give up on this Dan just because he’s different from you. Sometimes, these differences are the very things that make a relationship work.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I’m living proof of it, lad. Now come on, let’s see if we can make sense of this Much Ado About Nothing malarkey together.”