‘Oh, hi!’ said Hull, blinking up at him through the sunlight.
‘Hi,’ said Ale, nodding, and he smiled earnestly.
‘Is it not a day off for you today?’ Hull asked.
‘Yeah. But I wanted to come in and check, you know. The potholes and all that. I just saw that you guys have taped them off.’
‘It was Elm’s idea,’ said Hull, nodding. ‘She thought it would be better to mark them clearly. The cones, you know, it’s like you said yesterday about how ponies don’t really notice them. But it seems like the holes have stayed put this time, so that’s something.’
‘Well, I mean, I don’t even know how they moved in the first place,’ said Ale. ‘I said to Lime it could have been an animal or something. But that doesn’t explain how they moved.’
‘Yeah. The road would still be hollow if it was an animal. So we’d still have to block it off for safety either way.’
‘Guess so. Has Gat been in touch about it yet?’
‘I don’t know. It’s only my second day. I don’t really know how the Com works yet,’ he admitted.
‘Feels like you’ve been here for ages already,’ said Ale, albeit there was a sappy, sentimental flavour to the words that he didn’t like to associate with himself.
‘It does feel a bit like that, yeah,’ said Hull as he smiled. Ale wasn’t sure what else to say to him, but at least he’d said something. Because Ale did feel guilty. He’d accepted that. It had been wrong of him to feel so selfishly when Hull had been in trouble. Coming here to speak to Hull, to check on him, it felt as if he were making things right. He was giving another pony his energy. That was a kindness, wasn’t it? That made them square, surely.
‘Who’s on with you?’ Ale ended up asking as he cast around for something else with which to break the silence.
‘Ant,’ said Hull, and Ale noticed his smile became somewhat forced. He supposed he was the expert in forced smiles. He smiled a little himself at that. Ant, he knew, was hard work for some ponies. All ponies were hard work for Ale, but he enjoyed Ant in many ways, and he enjoyed that ponies felt more uncomfortable around Ant than he did. Perhaps because it felt like a quiet victory when ponies stepped into Ale’s shoes and tasted just how tiresome pony pleasing could be.
‘Ayy,’ said Ale, grinning. ‘Ant’s been here for ages,’ he told Hull. ‘The one true trolley pusher.’
‘Yeah, we were speaking,’ said Hull. Ale snorted with laughter, and Hull grinned uncertainly, taking it well.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘You’ll get used to him,’ said Ale. ‘He loves to go on about all sorts of things. Let me guess. He’s asked you to read Hanging?’
‘Yes!’ said Hull, livening up. ‘How did you know?’
‘He’s been asking pretty much every single pony he comes across if they’ve read it,’ laughed Ale. ‘He actually lent me his copy once.’
‘Did you read it?’
‘I did actually. It was pretty good, but it’s one of those obscure, niche kind of things that no one’s ever heard of.’
‘Yeah,’ said Hull. ‘He seems... pretty niche.’
‘Well, speak of the devil,’ said Ale, still chuckling, and he waved as Ant approached them with two trolleys, his face serious as a funeral. ‘Ant. How’s it going?’
Ant said nothing at first and walked up to them, stopped the trolleys, then sighed deeply. ‘Oh, you know. Another day.’
‘Yeah,’ said Ale, grinning. ‘Busy?’
‘Not at all,’ said Ant. ‘And there’s two of us.’
‘Yeah, Hull’s just been saying.’
Hull smiled and nodded quietly.
‘Yes, well,’ said Ant, his expression not changing. ‘Now that there’s also these potholes to keep in mind, it’s even more frustrating than normal.’
‘You know about them?’
‘I said to him about it when I started,’ chipped in Hull.
‘So have you just been avoiding them?’ Ale asked.
‘Well, obviously,’ said Ant. ‘But if the road is facing any risk of collapse, then we shouldn’t be working on it. So I’m a bit pissed off about that, obviously.’
‘But did Hull not tell you –?’
‘No,’ said Hull quickly with a meaningful look at Ale, which Ant didn’t appear to notice. As usual, he was going on as though nopony had spoken at all.
‘Anyway,’ he was saying, letting rip another sigh. ‘What’s happening with you? Any fun plans for your day off?’
‘No plans, no. I was just saying to Hull about Hanging.’
‘Yes, that’s right, you read it. I remember.’
‘Yeah,’ said Ale as Ant went on.
‘You know,’ he said to both Ale and Hull, ‘there was actually a whole series written. But the second book, I remember, wasn’t really very interesting. And there was a lot of controversy about the writing too because the creator’s son took over the universe for most of the series.’
‘Oh, right,’ said Ale, nodding while Hull watched them quietly.
‘Yeah, so that happened,’ said Ant a little glumly. ‘But the first book – I highly recommend you read it,’ he said to Hull as though he’d forgotten he’d already suggested this. ‘It’s really a very well-imagined world, and there’s a lot of detail I think you would appreciate. You liked that, I think.’
‘Yes,’ said Ale dutifully. ‘It was really in-depth on a lot of things. I like how he, you know, the writer made up a lot of words and terms and that sort of thing for it.’
‘There’s a twin trolley going into the main bay,’ said Ant quite suddenly. He frowned. ‘Excuse me, sir!’ he roared across the shopper park. He took off, strap in hand, to berate the offending shopper. Hull turned to Ale, who grinned.
‘You do get used to him,’ he said. ‘Ant’s... odd. But he’s nice enough.’
‘Well, I trust your judgement,’ said Hull. ‘Um... I’d better get back to work.’
Ale blinked. ‘Oh right. Yeah.’
‘But it was nice to speak with you! Catch you later, Ale.’
‘Yeah, uh. Yeah. Nice to see you, man, take care.’
Ale watched Hull walk off to bay four, feeling somewhat let down. His gesture, though sincere, did not seem to have been appreciated. Or had it been? His mother was right. There was no way of telling what ponies really thought.