She said that the couple who own the shop are nosey and given to gossip. If I went to the shop there would be talk in the village, she said. There had been a power cut and I thought it would be a good idea to get some candles in case it happened again. The shop was shut and it was cold so I didn't hang around. I walked around in the empty village and there wasn't much to see. Some of the houses showed evidence of having once been shops also; there was a plinth and a cross that seemed to suggest a former market place. Sometimes a car went past. But mostly there was just me and my thoughts and a grey sky overhead that may have indicated rain. The rain didn't come which was sort of good and sort of bad. By the time I got back to the shop it had opened so I went in and I was the only person in it except for the couple who owned it and they just looked at me silently in the kind of way you can feel even when your back is turned. I got the candles and it was maybe quite exciting to hear the talk in the village after I'd gone but I doubt it.