T.J.

“Naboo hired me. You must be Vince, I’m Terrance Jones, but call me T.J.”

He walked round the front of the counter and put a hand out to Vince, who shook it warily. Vince took in his new colleague’s appearance. He looked around Vince’s age, brown short hair, brown eyes, pale skin but not as pale as Vince, slim build but not as slim as Vince. He was wearing a black blazer with a white t-shirt underneath, dark jeans and a pair of converse. He just looked really casual. He stood back the counter.

“So where is Naboo then?” Vince asked.

“He came in this morning quickly. But he and Bollo got a call about some ancient snake charming baskets… in India.” T.J. told him.

“Right, well there’s no customers, so I’m going for a fag.”

“Vince, I meant what I said the other day. They are really bad for you. They damage your lungs and your heart, they can kill you.” Vince snorted.

“Really, well Howard never smoked anything and look at him now.” Vince stormed to the back room, where he had started smoking now. T.J. followed him. “Oh what now, gonna tell me off for breaking the stupid smoking ban? Tough. I don’t care.”

“No, actually I just wanted to get to know you better.”

“Oh.” Vince said. He was being quite unfair to T.J. and only because he was Howard’s replacement. “What did you want to know?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Howard Moon was having a rough time.

After an offer he couldn’t turn down from Death, he had returned to the living, but looking different. He now looked younger (now looking his actual age, instead of years older), different fashion sense (which he chose but he didn’t know what type he would be into), no moustache and, obviously, a new name.

His voice had changed, so he sounded like he was from London instead of the North. But the bad thing was, his friends, the people who were like a family to him (his parents were had died when he was 19 and he didn’t have any other relatives that he knew about) thought he was dead.

He couldn’t just walk back to the loft, he couldn’t go talk to Naboo, he couldn’t go up to Vince and have a chat. He was going to have to work his way back into the group.

And, knowing what they were like, that was not going to be an easy task.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Very surprisingly, Vince found T.J. quite easy to talk to. It was like talking to an old friend you hadn’t seen in years. There was something that Vince couldn’t quite put his finger on about him though. They had moved back into the main shop now, waiting for customers behind the desk.

“So, T.J. tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up?”

“Well, all over the place. I was born in Leeds, but my parents moved around the country quite a lot. When they died, I stayed in London. I moved around London quite a lot though, I didn’t spend more than a year anywhere. I’ve just moved to Shoreditch and I needed a new job, I couldn’t commute back over to South Ruislip every day.”

“I’m sorry about your parents. When did it happen?”

“About… 11 years ago. I was 19 at the time.”

“That must have been difficult.”

“Well, I had my best friend to get me through it. He meant everything to me.”

“If it’s not being too nosy, what happened to him?” Vince asked.

“Well, there was an accident and he couldn’t remember anything after it happened. Nothing. And they said his memories wouldn’t come back. That’s why I moved, too many bad memories.”

“I’m sorry.” Vince said. “Are you going to visit him again?”

“Yeah. The Doctor’s say if there are people visiting him, maybe they’ll come back.”

“So, why did you choose a little place like this to work then?” Vince asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“It’s similar to the place I worked at before. And I saw the advertisement the other day and I thought I might as well ask. It looked like an interesting place to work too.”

“Well, you got that right. Me and Howard used to have all sorts of fun ‘round here…” Suddenly, Vince turned quiet.

“I take it that Howard was the friend that died a few weeks ago.” Vince nodded.

“Yeah. He was my best mate since we were 10. He looked older though, he always used to get jokes made about him, people asking if he was my dad.”

“That’s a little cruel. I don’t think he could have looked that much older if he was the same age as you.”

“Well, different opinions and all that.”

A few people walked through the door as Vince reached for his packet of Richmond Superkings.

“You go have your fag, I’ll man the front line.” T.J. said.

“You sure?” T.J. nodded and Vince walked out the front door to go in the small alley.