Life continued its predictable pattern over the next few months. The weather gradually turned colder and wetter. The shops in the town got out their Christmas decorations, and the Council put up strings of coloured lights between the lampposts all down the main street. They had also coughed up for a large pine tree in the town square, and wrapped lights round it. Fortunately the local vandals didn’t wreck the thing. Although I didn’t much enjoy walking home in the dark, it was nice to see the Christmas lights, and also to look in the shop windows at all the festive displays. The children’s section of the library had the only windows, which faced the high street, so it was up to the staff there to trim up the library’s contribution to the town’s outward show of festive cheer. The staff got
