Page 60 of The Village of Lost and Found

Although he still looked tired, she thought perhaps Tom was looking a little more relaxed than in recent days.

‘Shall we get started?’ she asked.

‘Yes, boss.’ Tom gave Molly a wink. ‘Shall we head into my office?’

But Lucy shook her head. ‘Not enough space in there for all three of us with all that mess,’ she said. ‘Because Molly’s joining our meeting today.’

‘I am?’ asked Molly, looking surprised but pleased.

‘Absolutely,’ said Lucy in a firm tone of voice. ‘It’s a team meeting and we can’t discuss the campaign without our social media guru.’

‘Great!’ said Molly.

‘And there was me thinking that I was the editor of this newspaper,’ murmured Tom.

Lucy suddenly hesitated. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Am I being too much?’

Tom smiled at her. ‘Perhaps, but I like it. So let’s push some of the desks together and chat out here.’

Lucy was pleased that she had cleared out so much of the paperwork over the previous weeks to allow room for a meeting at all. And even with the evidence that the newspaper was struggling, she was feeling buoyant. She realised that it was because she relished the fight ahead. And that she didn’t want the newspaper to fail.

‘OK,’ said Tom, as soon as they’d all sat down. ‘So we’ve decided that there’s going to be some changes around here. So, Molly? You’re going to be our social media manager. I want witty tweets, heartfelt posts about stray cats finding new homes, that kind of thing, but it’s got to be all local. What do you think? Are you up to it?’

Molly blushed pink and nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yes, boss.’

‘We need an Instagram account, as well as Twitter and Facebook,’ added Lucy. ‘And what can we do with this awful website?’

Tom grimaced. ‘I know, I know. What about getting Dodgy Del’s nephew to have a look.’

‘Right, well, why don’t we get him in here?’ said Lucy. ‘There must be some design better than this. Especially if Molly’s going to direct some of the online traffic onto it.’

Tom drew out his phone. ‘I’ll send Del a text and see if Greg is around.’

As he tapped into his phone, Lucy looked at Molly. ‘Are you up for this?’

Molly nodded enthusiastically. ‘Oh yes. I’ve got some good ideas of which hashtags to use. #Monday Thoughts, et cetera, for each day of the week. Definitely #Cranbridge, of course. The only thing is how to get the word out so the newspaper gets more followers.’

Lucy thought hard. ‘What about asking Amber whether we can put a small notice next to the till in the shop? I mean, they get loads of customers, from what I see.’

‘That’s a great idea!’ said Molly.

‘I agree,’ said Tom, looking up from his phone. ‘So Molly’s going to be all over social media. But what about the quarry?’

Lucy bit her lip. ‘Well, we definitely need to be the hub of some kind of campaign. More hashtags like Save Our Village and Stop The Quarry. That kind of thing.’

‘But what shall I say in my posts?’ asked Molly.

Lucy looked across to Tom. ‘Our editor here will write up a few sentences,’ she said.

Tom’s eyes momentarily widened before he nodded. ‘I’ll get them to you later,’ he said.

‘Great!’ replied Molly, getting up. ‘Is it OK if I get going? I’ve got so much to set up.’

‘Go for it,’ said Tom, with a smile.

But his expression quickly faded as Molly headed back to her seat.

‘I’m not sure I can write that many posts especially because…’ His voice trailed off.