It's taken me awhile, sorry! Part of the reason it's taken me so long is that my computer died and then ate itself, along with my back-up disc. This meant that the only electronic version of this story was on ffnet which was a pain, and I can't find most of my hard copies either. The other reason is that I'm lazy, and university really should come first. Hopefully this story will be over soon! Thanks to inara, Angie Kirk, Cat2000, and secret soulmate for reviewing.
Oh yeah, and I don't own the Nightworld or its characters. Nor do I own "Slice of Heaven" which belongs to Dave Dobbyn. If you know the tune, sing along at the appropriate line.
9. Coronet, population 251
Once the blur of getting out of Vegas was over – lots of cars with tinted windows, exchanges in abandoned warehouses – Mary-Lynette and Ash drove for days. They stayed in all sorts of different motels, hotels, camping grounds, always paying cash, which Thierry had provided.
The driving soon became monotonous though, and they decided that it was time to pick a town.
When they drove into Coronet in the middle of the night and parked outside the library, Ash and Mary-Lynette decided Coronet was it. The town was tiny, just one main street with houses scattered around, but when the sun rose, they could see that Coronet was surrounded by majestic mountains.
"A little slice of heaven," said Mary-Lynette.
"Let's see what the locals are like first," said Ash with a grimace.
When they walked through the town next morning, Mary-Lynette could hardly believe how quaint everything was. The streets were lined with huge old trees, which would look amazing in the autumn. The shops on the main street were almost out of a western, with verandas, covered walkways and hitching posts.
The museum was at the end of the main street, and it provided an explanation as to why the town looked as it did. Coronet had been a gold-mining town. You could still go panning for gold in the Coronet River which ran along one edge of the town, separating it from the mountains. Coronet had been settled by miners and the town had not changed much since the gold rush. However, the stores had been modified somewhat on the inside.
All in all, it made for a very pretty, old village. Its only problem was the size.
"I really hope there aren't any night people here," said Ash quietly. "We'll be done in a second if there are."
Mary-Lynette nodded in agreement. "But if there aren't… this place is perfect. It's almost like being back home."
They stayed in the town's only motel for a week, trying to suss out any Nightworlders. At the end of the week, when they had seen just about everyone who lived in Coronet at least three times, they decided that it was probably safe.
There was a nice elderly woman renting out a small, furnished, two bedroom house just off the main street. When she found out that Ash and Mary-Lynette were thinking of staying permanently, she was overjoyed.
"It's not often we get young people coming to live here," she gushed, handing over the keys to the house. "Haven't seen any new blood in Coronet for quite some time now."
When they finally managed to stop the woman from talking and had said goodbye to her, Ash and Mary-Lynette collapsed on the bed. "You know she's going to tell the entire town about us now," said Mary-Lynette. "We'll be the most interesting piece of news since so-and-so ran off with la-di-da's husband eight years ago…"
"Oh well, at least we'll soon find out if there are any Nightpeople around." Ash turned over to pull Mary-Lynette into his arms, spoon-fashion.
"I've been thinking," said Ash.
"Don't strain yourself."
"Ha. Ha. No, I was thinking that we're going to have to find something to do."
Mary-Lynette looked at him with a sly little smile. "I can think of plenty of things to do…"
"If we spend all day in bed, we really will become a cause for gossip, Mare."
"I know. But I've been thinking about that too. And I think that at least one of us needs to get a job. Otherwise people will gossip about where we're getting our money from."
"Damn. I was hoping that you weren't going to mention that."
"You just don't want to do any real work, Ash."
"What's your point?"
Next day, they into town looking for work. Only one place in the entire town had a position available – the butchers.
Ash applied for the job, was interviewed and got it. Work started the next day.
"At least it means I've got an alternative source of food…" said Ash gloomily as they walked back to the house.
"And you can get me cheap meat!" said Mary-Lynette brightly. "This is going to be great Ash!"
"You just say that because you're not going to be working."
"Maybe, but I think I'd like to try doing some study on my own while we're here."
"Study? But you can't register with a university, your name…"
"I know all that! But I thought that using the internet and the library I could manage. Especially if I get a decent telescope and camera, then I would be able to make some good observations. Maybe even publish a paper – under a pseudonym of course."
"You really were hoping that only I would manage to get a job, weren't you?"
"Well, it'll keep you out of my hair eight hours a day, five days a week…"
Ash smiled at her and squeezed her hand. "Don't worry Mare. I know it's what you want to do, especially as I've taken you away from college. Go ahead."
"There's one thing that this place has over any university anyway. The stars are so much brighter that I should be able to get really amazing pictures and make really precise measurements, as there won't be much light pollution." Mary-Lynette sighed happily. "This is going to be great!"
Ash found his new job interesting. He was particularly glad that blood didn't make him squeamish and neither did dead things.
It was really quite fascinating, what humans did to their food before eating it. All in all, Ash felt that being a vampire was way easier. And you didn't have to kill anything – vegetables included – to get a meal. Unless you wanted to of course. But you didn't have to.
The bad part about the job was that it was actually work. When Mr. Skeats, the butcher, found out that Ash was quite strong, it became Ash's job to haul out all the carcasses from the delivery truck, and move them around in the back of the butchery when necessary.
Ash definitely felt that he deserved his first pay check.
Meanwhile, Mary-Lynette was having the time of her life, astronomy-wise. Thierry had sent her a top of the line telescope, with all the lenses and filters she had ever dreamed of owning. It also had a converter so that a camera could be attached and take photos of what was being observed through the telescope. Thierry had sent a camera too, a beautiful Nikon with a completely manual shutter. Now she could finally take pictures of the stars rotating around the North celestial pole. Fantastic.
Despite making friends with Jacqui, the librarian, Mary-Lynette had found the books at the library to be practically useless. She began to rely on the internet more and more, subscribing to various publications online so that she could keep up-to-date with what was going on in the "real" world.
Coronet did not quite seem to be in touch with the rest of the world. Everyone in town knew everyone else. There were no Nightpeople. Everyone quickly came to know Ash and Mary-Lynette as "that nice, young couple who moved into Mrs Bunyip's house." The local newspaper was taken as gospel for important events, and barely anyone watched the news on TV.
Which meant it was pretty much perfect.
After a month and a half had gone by, Ash and Mary-Lynette were in a comfortable little rut. On weekdays, Ash would work from nine o'clock until midday, come home for "lunch" and then return to work at one o'clock until he came home again at five. The work had become repetitive, but he was getting to know all the regular customers, (translation; the whole town), and was also building up a bit of muscle. Mr Skeats was also starting to leave Ash alone out the front of the shop more, which meant that Ash had fewer worries about feeding.
Mary-Lynette was also becoming well-known in the town, simply by spending time in the library with Jacqui. Jacqui knew everyone and so she introduced Mary-Lynette to anyone who came into the library. When Mary-Lynette went out to run an errand or go to the store, she found herself stopping to chat to more and more people along her way. Most seemed genuinely interested in her research and many had offered advice on the weather and when the skies would be best to look at.
Weekends however, were different. The library and the butcher's were both closed. With no where else to go, Mary-Lynette and Ash didn't go out much at the weekends. No they kept pretty much to themselves…
