tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82552278925335355852024-03-13T01:38:26.079-07:00Mike Lancaster Writes26 Weeks, 26 StoriesMike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-3061903157271219102021-10-28T10:07:00.000-07:002021-10-28T10:07:04.018-07:00J is for ... Jingle<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "28 Days Later",sans-serif; font-size: 48.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">J I N G L E<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">[cops]</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Two plainclothes policemen come to see me at
my office, and I can’t for the life of me think what the most recent derogatory
name for them is. Are they the filth? Are they the pigs? They’re definitely not
“the fuzz”, I’m sure of that. I make a note on my blotter to check and let them
occupy the spare seats on the other side of the desk.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><i>These two were matched up as partners by
someone with a sense of humour, or a knowledge of comic book cops. One’s tall
and thin, the other shorter and fat. One looks smart, the other looks like
muscle that stretches up into the cranium. One smokes, the other tuts.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I don’t need this. I’m far
enough behind as it is. If I don’t sort out the presentation I’m delivering in
a couple of hours, then I’m going to look like a fool in front of a whole bunch
of people who do not suffer fools gladly. I’m going to sink. I don’t need this.
Not now. Not ever.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The tall one’s the talker and
his voice is smooth and silky. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Mellifluous. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A good voice-over voice. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He could sell detergents,
on-trend electronics, and, maybe, chocolate bars. It’s not a voice you’d trust
to sell you car insurance, or anything that takes a long-term commitment. It’s
a voice for quick infatuations. Impulse goods. His voice might steer your hand
from Product A to Product B as it reaches out towards a supermarket shelf, but
it won’t give you anything big to believe in. It’s not a brand you can build a
loyalty to. It’s a voice for a quick seduction. It won’t last past the morning
after.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Denny Holmes?” That
one-night-stand voice enquires. Thing is: He already knows the answer. He’s
followed directions from the receptionist, and he’s read it off my door plaque.
But he still wants me to confirm it for him. Triple checking his information?
Or just psychologically in need of owning me through naming? Whatever, it’s a clipped and short delivery,
kinda rude, if I’m being honest, turning a name into a question. An “Are you
…?” at the front of it would have worked better with the demographic I firmly
reside within. But then this is a voice for seduction, for infatuations. He’s
gauged the utility of his words and he’s stripped it down to the bare minimum
to sell them to me.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I still write advertising copy,
even though I like to think I’ve transcended it. So I use stripped down
sentences that get to the point without wasting syllables. My cop surely knows
this and makes it his strategy. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He even knows about putting
people on edge.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He didn’t say: “</span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Doctor </span><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Denny
Holmes?” <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The fatter partner fills his
seat and the air with his unspoken presence. He’s not something that could sell
anything to anyone. He’s menace and suppressed violence. He’s exuding too much
testosterone and he still uses Old Spice. Acne cream would have served him in
his teens, and now the only adverts he’d say he enjoyed were beer commercials
with a funny punch line. He’s everything that I am not. And that includes the
fat bit. My waistline has remained constant since I was twenty. I won’t spread
like this specimen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Is there something I can help
you with?” I ask and try hard not to smile. Made sure my response was one that
posed a question whilst carefully avoiding answering his. I’m scribbling on my
blotter as I speak. Looking the guy right in the eye and scribbling while
talking. Little details. I think they’re important.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Sure enough the fatter one is
trying to crane over and see what I’m drawing. His eyes are sluggish and dull. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Thank you for seeing us.” The
tall one says.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I didn’t agree to it, they
knocked and walked in. He knows that and I know that. Maybe his prehistoric
partner doesn’t know it, but then he can’t even decipher a simple scribble on a
blotter.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“It’s my pleasure,” I say
quietly, “But I’m afraid that I must cut to the chase. I have an important
presentation …”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You </span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">had</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> an
important presentation,” the tall one says, “that is no longer the case.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Well, there’s a rug pull. Neat
trick. His grin tells me he thinks so too. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You fixed that?” I ask.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He nods.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You just bought your way into
my good books,” I tell him, “So what can I do for you?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The fatter one slaps a photo
onto the desk. He has to go through an overcoat pocket to find the damned thing
and his partner just waits him out on it. He’s waited before, you can tell.
He’ll wait again, that’s a certainty. The photo is creased from its
imprisonment in that pocket, and it shows a man with a pale face and a
ludicrous moustache.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Do you know this man?” the
taller one asks.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I nod and tell them his name.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“When did you see him last?” <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I make a show of thinking about
it. Meanwhile I’m thinking about other things. Like how they cancelled my
meeting and whether “Butter is Better” could ever work as a slogan.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Yesterday,” I say, for it is
the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Could you tell me what
happened?” He asks.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Of course I can.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Decorating <o:p></o:p></span></h2><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Unread Books<o:p></o:p></span></h2><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Paul Paliomedes
played with his moustache as a rhetorical device. It was the physical analogue
of those “thinks” bubbles you get in comic books. It was the kind of moustache
that you only get in comic books. His words belonged in a comic book.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You’re
not hearing me,” he said, “You have to stop this before it’s too late.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Stop
it? </span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I wanted to say. With
scorn. <i>I’ve only just started.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
didn’t think that was the right strategy, though, so I tried another tack. Not
another <i>tact</i> as I’ve heard people say, which is … infuriating.
Unpresidented. That’s another one. Oh, and phenomena as singular. Hate that one
too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“It’s
always too late,” I told him. “When are you going to shave that damned thing
off?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Paul
looked pained and shook his head to show me that was the case. I knew already,
it was why I said it. I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t clever — or even
difficult — to grow facial hair. It’s like that line in Jurassic Park about how
just because someone can do something, it doesn’t mean they should. Or
something. I was looking at the dinosaurs, not taking notes. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
met his gaze and held it. His pale blue eyes had a look of coldness about them.
Still, it was a look, not a fact.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Paul
Paliomedes was a guy whose reputation for hardness came largely from the way
those eyes looked. I’d known him for years and saw through the lie they told.
People who didn’t know him thought that the unblinking gaze they were capable
of offering meant that the man behind them saw through their bullshit. They
believed the whole “windows of the soul” shtick. The same people buy products
they have been coached to buy and think their choice is “informed” not
“emotional”. And they’re wrong on both counts. Probably on all counts about
everything.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Paul’s
office was nowhere near as functionally elegant as mine. It was not minimalist.
It would not have looked <i>on message</i>
in Adweek. It would have looked <i>on
message </i>on Hoarders. Paul believed that clutter gave him depth. Which goes
some way towards demonstrating how deluded Paul could be.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Photos
on his desk suggested what he was fighting for. A beautiful woman; two
beautiful kids. Halfway through an argument Paul’s eyes always flick down to
those photos and the other party in the argument will catch the subtext: <i>fuck with me and you fuck with them, and I
will not tolerate that. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I’m
possibly the only person who knows that Paul bought those photographs and has
no idea who they are of. Just like he’s never read the books on the shelves
behind his desk. Just like those eyes aren’t cold and calculating, they’re just
a bit vacant. Just like his handshake is painful because he’s spent far too
long practicing it on those little hand expander things. Just like when he says
“you have to stop this” what he means is “you have to include me in this”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">My
suit was a shade that is probably a relative of the aubergine. Its lines were
classic and stylish and no-nonsense. My tie was grey. My smile was related to
Paul’s eyes in that it doesn’t mean what it seems to say. Smiles are machines
for lying with. Inside the smile my teeth felt like a shark’s. Inside my suit I
felt like a shark. Great white, not Whale.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You
want me to cut you in, Paul?” I asked, indelicate to a fault. I wanted to see
his face curdle. I wanted to see his eyes betray their lie. I wanted to insult
him and bring him in at the same time. I wanted to stop him making a jerk of
himself. I really wanted him to shave his moustache off. I wanted to think of
the perfect way to sell a product. I wanted the world to end in fire. I wanted
Southampton to beat Arsenal at The Emirates Stadium and I couldn’t give a good
goddamn about football. Or Southampton. Or Arsenal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Paul
looked down at the photos on his desk and then remembered who he was talking
to. He played with his moustache again while gazing at a point over my
shoulder. I wondered what oils and greases and crumbs got into that copse of
hair whenever he ate. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Cut
me in?” he tried indignation in the same way I’d tried two suits on that
morning before deciding on the eggplant. Like the suits it did fit, but in
Paul’s case it didn’t fit all that well. “You think that’s what this is about?”
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Disappointment
fit no better. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Try another tone</span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">, I thought, <i>and if you get it right next time then you’ll equal my dressing record
from the morning.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I
don’t know what this is about.” I admitted. “Perhaps you can enlighten me.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Paul
nodded. His eyes met mine again. We were friends. We’d always been friends. I
knew him and he thought he knew me. He even managed a kind of smile. It wasn’t
the kind that was ever going to feel as good to wear as mine did, but it was a
reasonable enough attempt. The lump in his throat betrayed him a little. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Okay,
a lot. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“When
people start getting hurt, the smart thing is to reconsider the strategy,” he
said, “I think you may have reached a point where that warning becomes
appropriate.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Fuck you. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I thought. <i>Fucking fuck you.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You
think people are getting hurt?” My voice is like the crash of steel on steel.
“Start naming names.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Paul
looked at his hands. Nice fucking manicure, but he hadn’t fulfilled the part of
the deal that said you had to keep them clean for optimum effect. If Paul was a
toothpaste, then he was a generic brand: cheap and cheery, but lacking the
polish and finish of the market leaders. You might buy him if you’re watching
your budget and tightening purse strings, but if you want extra whitening and
fresher breath then you better reach for the shelf above. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“We
both know what fire is,” Paul said, “And we know when it’s being played with.
The difference here is when you play with it, other people get burnt.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">We
both know what clichés are, too. And we know when it’s yourself that’s getting
played with. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Am
I burning you, Paul?” I asked.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
looked sheepish.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I
hear things, is all.” He said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“That’s
what we evolved ears for. But we have a brain to process the information to
check we’re hearing right. You checked?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
pulled a face like a turtle swallowing scalpel blades. Or like Larry Olivier’s
Szell at the end of Marathon Man when he’s eating the diamonds as Dustin
Hoffman’s Babe Levy stands by waving a gun in his face and saying <i>Essen</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I
hired someone.” He confessed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
was a very bold strategy, and redundant because he was only telling me what I
already knew. If the guy he hired was a pro, then people just weren’t taking
pride in their craft anymore. I clocked his guy the first day he started
following me and made my life a pantomime whenever I saw him watching me.
Still, I had to admit that the act showed a new spine had taken up residence in
Paul’s body.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“What
do you mean you hired someone?” I played.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“A
detective.” Paul was looking uncomfortable now. “I hired a private detective.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
span the wheel of possible responses and came up ‘indignant’. Fuck him. Make
the indignation righteous. Make it <i>betrayal.</i> Play it to the hilt. Just
for giggles.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Are
you fucking nuts?” My tone was wounded, hurt, a puppy hit by a car. “A
detective? What, suddenly you’re getting all Maltese fucking Falcon on me?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I
was worried …”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You
were out of fucking order.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Paul
looked at the photos. Someone else’s memories. Habitual, now. Useless NOW.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I
didn’t know what else to do.” He said and a whiny quality entered his words. “You
weren’t taking my calls. I was hearing all kinds of strange things about you, seeing
things that I figured were probably down to you and I wanted to see how far
along this hellbound path you’d strayed. So? What? I’m supposed to feel bad for
caring about you? Well. I can’t.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
met his eye and held it. I could see his forehead beading with sweat. The room
wasn’t even hot. It’s why Paul was terrible at poker. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You
ever wondered why no one could ever tell Clark Kent was really Superman?” I
asked him and watched confusion smudge his features. “I mean it’s just a pair
of glasses and a slight change of hairstyle that separates them.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“What
the hell are you …?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Super
hypnotism,” I said, “Amplified through his glasses. You see, the glass for his
spectacles came from the window of the craft that brought him to earth. The
glasses boost his innate super hypnotism.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I’m
not sure I can see where this is going …”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“The
point is: not even Superman knew that was the reason the disguise worked. He
found it out at the same time as the reader. I think it was in the seventies
they decided to spring that upon us. Upon him. Up till then he just thought his
disguise worked. The point is that he was wrong. Like Swamp Thing was wrong
about his own origin story when Alan Moore took over the writing duties...”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I
don’t read comics.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“That’s
why you didn’t see this coming.” I said, took the gun from my pocket and
painted his unread library with his brains, and bits of skull.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">And
blood.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Lots
of blood.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">[cops]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“We
talked for a while, and then I left,” I say. I have always had faith that the
best way to lie is to tell a part of the truth. As much of it as possible. And
then make the lies omissions, rather than inventions. It’s easier to keep
track.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The tall one wants to know what
we talked about. Of course he does. It’s important. I’m a suspect. Of course I
am. I killed my friend. Blew his fucking brains out the back of his
not-as-smart-as-he-thought-it-was head. It’s what the tall one wants to wring
out of me. A confession. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Fuck that. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“We talked about Superman,
believe it or not.” I tell him.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He arches an eyebrow. His
partner stares at me like I’ve grown another head. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You went across town to talk about Superman
with a man who then ended up in a body bag?” the fatter one says.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I let the revelation surprise
me. I do it remarkably well. I’ve been practising all morning. If I’m honest,
I’ve been practising for weeks. I’ve practised in front of mirrors like a
conjurer practises card tricks. I might have been practising all my life. Maybe
this is where it was always leading. How do I know? Oh, and why should I care?
This is the moment, live in it. Everything else is irrelevant. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Paul’s dead?” I ask. “That’s
what this is about? Paul’s dead and you think … you think … that I killed him?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I’m selling a product. A product called “fuck
you and leave me alone”. I have a campaign planned. It’s a good campaign. I’m a
good salesman.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">These cops don’t stand a
chance. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; text-align: center;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;"><b>I Do Not See the</b></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;"><b>Woman in the Forest</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A woman cannot
scream if her vocal cords have been cut. I know this through Internet searches.
It’s amazing the wealth of information out there on the world wide weird. I
even got diagrams. I could <i>draw </i>some
diagrams now. I <b>love</b> drawing diagrams.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Oh, and I know it through experiment, too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> By way of example:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">This
one wasn’t pretty in the conventional sense of the word; but voiceless and tied
like a hog in my cabin in the woods she improved. Seems the old adage was right
about the epidermal extent of pulchritude. Go beneath the surface, take out her
vocal cords, and see any woman improve in beauty. I recommend it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I realise that that probably sounds
misogynistic. Grossly so. I went too far. I was getting a bit carried away in
the telling, and I guess I started to show off a bit. That’s the problem with
secrets. Or with finally releasing them from the lock box of the human brain. I
apologise. Truth is I’m an equal opportunities dispatcher. This one merely fulfilled
a tick box exercise. Needed a mid-twenties, middle class, middle weight, middle
of the road, Caucasian female. Found one. The rest was necessary. Nothing sexual
or gender-based about it. Just functional.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Her
eyes added a wide, misty edge to her fear. She’d gotten into a car with a
stranger, even though her mummy must have told her about the wisdom of such an
endeavour, and now she was finding out — once more, I’m sure — that mummy
really did know best. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Fear
is good for us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">We
may not know it, but it is. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It’s
why we love fairy tales. And ghost stories. And horror movies. And roller
coasters. And marriages. And skiing. And having children. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Fear.
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
helps us choose the things we buy. It helps us conform with those around us. It
stops us opening our mouths and saying stupid things. It stops us turning up
for work naked. It holds couples together when they could easily be apart. It
organises us. It’s the glue that holds us together. It is the difference
between us and them: The mad ones on the streets who chatter and babble to
themselves, unafraid of how they appear.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
girl did not know how lucky she was to be so blessed with fear. Don’t get me
wrong, I wasn’t gloating then and I’m not gloating now. Fear was a necessary by-product
of the process I was engaged in. It was essential. It <b>was</b> the product. It
wasn’t that I got my rocks off by scaring her. I’m not one of the mad ones. I
have a purpose and a code and a moral duty. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Didn’t
mean I couldn’t have a little fun along the way, though.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Her
name was Jennifer Pardew. Her driving licence told me that. The way she’d said
her name was ‘Jeni’; you could almost hear the one ‘N’ and the terminating ‘I’
as she introduced herself. She thought of herself as a Jeni, rather than a
Jennifer. She had hopes and dreams and a pressing need to be somewhere so
urgently that she was willing to step into a car with a man she didn’t
recognise to make it happen. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
was only too happy to oblige. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Now,
look, don’t misunderstand me. I don’t want you to think that I get off on this
shit. Like killing Paul Paliomedes. Or Jennifer/Jeni. Or any of them. And there
have been A LOT. But it’s not a perversion, or psychosis, it’s work, plain and
simple. Yes, I enjoy my work, but it’s not a choice I’m making, not really. My
line of work is absolutely brutal – and I’m talking about advertising here, not
the murdering – and you have to do everything you can to succeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
just go the extra miles.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
extra many many miles.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So
Jeni and I, it wasn’t personal. I just needed someone her age and gender. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">For
the scream. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
silent scream.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
tied her down so she couldn’t move, I sound insulated her body just in case. I
set up my recording equipment and mounted the microphone on a rig I designed
for just this purpose: I prefer to use the Neumann TLM 103 -- clarity and
dynamics in a beautiful form -- and needed to get it as close to her lips as I
could get. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
don’t want to think about, much less <i>talk</i> about, the horrible things I
had to do to her to get the sounds I wanted. That stuff will haunt my dreams
forever. Probably. Or am I just selling you guilt and remorse here? I have a
conscience. Or want one. Or don’t.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">When
Jeni was dead, buried, and forgotten, I went home and edited her silent scream
into my magnum opus, my <i>meisterwerk</i>, the greatest leap forward in
advertising history.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Sometimes
sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> And if that good makes me fuck-tons of
money then all the better.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">[cops]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i><i style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The squat one
wants to know why Paul hired a private detective to follow me and I act utterly
nonplussed by the question. I even reuse the ‘Maltese Falcon’ reference I used on
Paul, minus the swearing.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Nonplussed and minus, haha. I should be a
writer.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> The squat one looks up at his companion and
gives a slow, solemn nod.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “We spoke to the detective …” The tall one says
and leaves the first clause hanging there, unresolved, presumably to create
some tension.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “And he told you that at the time Paul …
died … I was with him?” I ventured.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> The second clause, the hammer blow that the
tall one was readying, dissolved into an inaudible mutter.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Squat-cop looked like he’d bitten down on
tin foil and found a filling. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “It </span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">appears <i>that Mr Paliomedes died sometime </i><b>after</b> <i>you
left.” He said, hating the words as they left his mouth. Hating each one of
them. Their delivery made a vein throb on his temple. Fat vein: Fat temple. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I wanted to tell them the truth, just so I
could see the stupid looks on their stupid faces, but I’m not insane, so I
didn’t. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><b>James Vicary was Full of Shit,<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><b>But was Accidentally Nearly Right. Ish.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Remember that
episode of Columbo, where the advertising exec – probably Robert Culp, it often
was – gets a guy to leave a screening by inserting ‘subliminal cuts’ into the
film the guy is watching? Culp manipulates the victim into feeling thirsty by
flashing up single frames of cold drinks into desert footage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> It’s <i>sorta-maybe-perhaps if you squint </i>possible,
and based on the work of a man named James Vicary who subliminally manipulated
moviegoers into eating more popcorn and drinking more Coca Cola by cutting flash
frames into the movies that were being screened. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> At least, that’s what he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Problem was: He was lying.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> People do that. I mean take me as evidence
of that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> True or not, the principle has been taken
seriously ever since, and modest effects <i>have</i> been achieved, but really,
it’s a hell of a lot of effort for minimal gains, and it’s hardly going to make
me the go-to guy for AAA clients.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> But.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> In the Columbo episode the subliminal
‘cuts’ were reinforced by other sensory information: The heating in the
screening room was turned way up, and the victim had been prepared for thirst
by liberal servings of salty caviar.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I’d loved the episode when I was a kid –
hell, it’s probably why I’m in advertising today – but watching a rerun of that
episode as an adult on a rainy Sunday afternoon, well that was my <i>Eureka!</i>
moment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I saw where I’d gone wrong with my own
experiments into subliminal suggestion. I was concentrating on the image. On
putting messages in through the eye. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I felt it then, a sudden wave of
revelation. An epiphanic moment. Hairs standing up on the back of my neck. Okay,
maybe visual stimuli were not the skeleton key to the lock of the human brain
with regards to its manipulation, but how about the other senses?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> It took me over a decade to refine that
thought to where I am now. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">[cops]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“So how </span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">can</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I help you?” I ask, politely, but with an edge. There is a
soupcon of boredom in the mix, along with notes of impatience and, yes,
hostility. But it is all wrapped up in syrupy tones and I figure they can’t
tell if the bad notes are really there. Form and content: I’m being subliminal
on their arses.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> The squat one makes a noise in his throat
that sounds like a growl. Or maybe he’s clearing his throat.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “The private detective followed you away
from Paul Palomedes’ office.” He says. “And while he was following you, he
received a telephone call from Paul Palomedes’ mobile. It’s on his caller log.
It lasted a minute and thirty-eight seconds. He talked over his progress with
Mr Palomedes. He’s sworn to that in a statement. He followed you home and
watched you for hours. Hours during which his client was murdered.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “I guess I should thank Paul for providing
me with an alibi I didn’t know I had.” I say. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “It’s a good alibi.” The cop notes. “I mean
it’s a really, really good alibi.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “I’d go as far to say watertight.” His
partner chips in.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “As I said: Lucky me.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> The squat one shakes his head. I hate him.
Everything about him. He’s Poundland. T.K. Maxx. QD. B&M. Sure you could
plan an ad campaign for them, but what would be the point? The people who want them,
go. Those who don’t, don’t. Me, you wouldn’t get me through the door. There are
retail parks where all the shops I mentioned are clustered together like paste
jewels in a tin crown. Axis of Poverty. Of despair. Of dead dreams. Of
diminished expectations. Like SquatCop. An avatar of the diminished. A sweaty
emoji-made-doughy-flesh. Even the way he shakes his head is offensive,
cut-price, imitation, a look-a-like brand on the shelf of a discount shop.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “I’ll tell you my problem.” Poundland
dough-boy says. “I’ve interviewed a lot of people in my time. Get ‘em in the
room and get them to run over the details again and again, looking for the
lapses, the discontinuities …”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Did he just say “discontinuities”? That’s
what? Six syllables? Four more than I thought he’d be capable of.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “… even people who are telling the truth
make mistakes. They get confused. They change a detail here, another there.
When you remember something, you’re actually constructing the memory anew, and
every time you do there are transcription errors. You change emphases. You
focus on a detail that you didn’t the first time around. And that’s a problem.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “Well, it certainly makes witness testimony
a little shaky.” I say, baffled by the SquatCop’s sudden attack of eloquence.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “Not <b>that</b> problem. The Private
Detective’s statement problem.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “I’m not sure I’m following you.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “I’ll slow it down for you.” He says and I
hate him more. Before he said it I’d have sworn that was impossible. “You see
our witness’ statement is fixed. Immutable. Identical in every detail, every
time he tells it. No matter what angle you get him to approach it from, it’s
the same. He doesn’t budge. Ever. Have you ever seen Columbo?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> A bead of sweat rolls down my forehead. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “The … er … the detective?” I say, and my
voice quivers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “The … er … the detective.” He says. “Lieutenant
Frank Columbo …”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “You never find out his first name.” I
protest, weakly.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “You do if you freezeframe on his police ID.
But yeah, Columbo. There was an episode where George Hamilton hypnotised a
woman into killing herself…”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “She thought she was jumping into a
swimming pool…”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “The very episode. Well, I’m thinking that
if our private detective is telling the truth about what happened, then maybe hypnosis
is an explanation for the rigidity of his story. Someone told him what to say
and he can’t budge from it. Do you think that’s possible?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I shake my head.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” I
tell him. “Who the fuck uses Columbo as a model for the way the world really
works?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> SquatCop laughs.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “You’ve got a point there.” He says, still
laughing, and then stops and looks serious. “The only way someone would use
Columbo as a model of reality would be, well, if they watched it, I guess.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><b>Marcilio Ficini <o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><b>Shows The Way</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There’s a Kate Bush
song and video about a machine that a scientist feeds sounds into and makes …
well, a monster that kills lots of people and then turns into Kate Bush. I
think I could sell that machine. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I’ve got a similar machine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Well, a computer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> It doesn’t look like some strange science
fiction device – you know, all chrome and wires and tubes and futuristic production
design - it’s just a PC. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> It certainly doesn’t look like it’s going
to change the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> But then computers aren’t defined by what
they look like, not really, no matter how much people like me tell you they are.
They’re not even defined by their hardware. It’s the software that makes them special.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> And my software is <i>very</i> special.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> And I have fed it so many sounds. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A
lot of those silent screams I’ve already talked about, and from a variety of demographic
sources, but other sounds too. They all have something in common though, those
sounds.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> You remember what I said about fear?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> About how fear keeps us in line?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Well,
it’s a lot more interesting than that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Marcilio Ficini was on to something when
he said:<i> when I sing a song to the sun it is not because I expect the sun to
change its course but because I expect to put myself in a different cast of
mind in relation to the sun. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I guess he never suspected just how much
his words would influence someone in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">It was that idea of a “cast of mind” that
sent me down this path, that and an episode of a US detective series. Something
Timothy Leary said about LSD trips helped, too. He talked about the “set” and
the “setting” of psychedelic experiences, and how LSD was just a chemical
trigger, and the resultant hallucinations were a product of the <i>mindset</i>
and the <i>environment</i> of the acid tripper. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">If you can control the mindset of a
person before they perceive the sun, view a subliminal cut, or trip their nuts
off, then you can control the experience. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">That’s pretty good gravy for a man who
wants to control your behaviour. Who has spent his life trying to find ways to
condition you into accepting what I say as the ABSOLUTE TRUTH; who looks for
ways to nudge your hand towards the product I’m being paid to sell you; who
wants to circumvent your rationality and sell you lies that are better than any
truth could ever be.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I want a path to you. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Unconscious, unsuspecting you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">And I found a way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">It’s called the amygdala. It’s part of
your limbic system. It’s two little eye-shaped knots of nuclei hidden away in
your temporal lobes. And it’s where fear lives. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: courier;">You see, it turns out that the path to you
is fear.</span><span style="font-family: Courier Prime;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Fear
is a precursor to the kind of conditioning I need from you, a neurochemical
state that puts your brain into a kind of stand-by mode. It says: This is a
threat, await further instructions. It’s a primer. It primes you for the next step.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
call it “The Jingle”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
have a program for it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A
concentrated set of tones buried deep in a musical confection that puts your
brain into high alert, without you realising it. No alarm bells, just a <i>jingle</i>
- see what I did there? – that puts you into a state where you await the next
instruction. And that’s when I introduce the suggestion. A “sell”, be it a
sales pitch, an inspirational image, or a straight up instruction. I can even
issue an order. Like the one I gave a certain private detective when I called
his phone from a clone of Paul Paliomedes’ phone. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
know what fear sounds like, and I know what it can do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">None
of you stand a chance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">[cops]</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“So what do you
want from <b>me</b>?” I ask. “I mean you’ve already acknowledged that I have an
alibi…”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> The tall one shakes his head.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “We’ve acknowledged that you were <b>given</b>
an alibi,” He says, “Not that it <b>is </b>an alibi.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I laugh.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “That’s some weird semantic gymnastics
you’re performing now.” I say. “How about you try again, but with some kind of point
included?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> It’s the squat one that answers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “I guess the point is: People can be wrong.”
He says. “But you know that. Your doctorate was in Behavioural Science.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “People are wrong all the time.” I say.
“So?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “So? You were the last person to see Paul
Paliomedes alive. He hired a Private Detective because he thought you were up
to something. That detective is your only alibi. And it’s like he learned the
details of that alibi off by heart, and can’t deviate from its simple
narrative.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Yeah, so I was in a hurry. Taking a gun to
see Paul had been a just-in-case kind of thing that I’d never expected to
actually fire. When I did … well, that meant I had to stitch some things
together on the fly and, yeah, I should have thought about the detective’s
testimony, given it some flexibility, some wriggle room. But no, I called him,
gave him a jingle, and then told him what to say.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Nothing they have is anything like a case,
though.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> So I look baffled and act it too.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “Then … shouldn’t you be talking to him?” I
ask. “See if he was coerced, or threatened, or …”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “Conditioned?” The squat one interrupts. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I laugh. A lot.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “Columbo isn’t real.” I tell him. “I mean I
don’t want to shatter your world, but it wasn’t a documentary series. At best a
hypnotist or behavioural scientist can make suggestions, but not commands. You
can’t just make people do things that you want them to.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “I thought that was the goal of
advertising.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “Then you thought wrong. Advertising is a
story you tell a consumer. If it’s a story they like, they might – MIGHT – buy
your product, but that’s contingent on so many other factors …”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “Your ads are doing rather well, though,
aren’t they?” The squat one presses.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “It’s an ad agency.” I correct him. “We
have whole teams working on our promotions and campaigns. I oversee those
campaigns, but they’re certainly not <b>my</b> campaigns.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “But you get the awards for them …”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “So does a film director, but have you seen
the list of credits at the end of a film? And do you truly believe that the CEO
of a pharmaceutical company is the guy in the lab who makes the drugs?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> SquatCop shrugged.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> “I’ll tell you what I think.” He said. “I
think you killed Paul Paliomedes. I think that he’d found out about what you
were up to, and you had no choice but to silence him. And then I think you used
some kind of advertising voodoo to give yourself an alibi. And I think that, given time, I will prove
it. Oh, and I have a lot of time.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><i> I sighed. </i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><i><span> </span>Ah, well.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Reached under my desk.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Pressed the button underneath and jammed my
fingers in my ears.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><b>The Art of <o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><b>Changing Your Mind</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Thank you for your
help.” The squat one said. “That’s cleared everything up for us. I’m sorry we
took up your time.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I
gave him a nod and he and his partner left. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I sat there for a while, thinking about
close calls and near misses and then I hit the intercom button and arranged a
meeting with the rest of my team.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> I had big plans, and there was no time like
the present to put them into operation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> While I waited I whistled a little tune.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Quite catchy, actually.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> Might make a nice jingle …<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-738571999016442722021-10-12T09:31:00.003-07:002021-10-12T09:36:00.686-07:00I is for ... I Might Be the Ghost<h1 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <span style="font-size: 26pt; text-align: center;">I Might
Be<br /></span><span style="font-size: 26pt; line-height: 107%;">the
Ghost</span></span></h1>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The woman slowed down to browse a few windows to her left, and I
slowed down, stopped, and studied one myself. Some high-end clothes shop that
I’d normally just pass without a second look. Shirts and ties pinned in a
sparse display with their eye-watering prices displayed on tiny LCD screens
beneath each item. Screens programmed to look like old-fashioned price cubes.
Made you wonder what they thought technology was adding to the experience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">My peripheral vision told me when she moved on,
and I shook my head at the display and followed. If I was going to catch up
with Barnaby, then she was my Satnav, my TomTom in high heels. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">She got to the end of the block and made a left
turn, so I sped up and found myself on another shopping street that looked
identical to the one we’d just left. She was walking faster now, and I matched
the pace. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I was getting closer to the man I sought.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Finally.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">If I wasn’t trying to go unnoticed, I might
even have put a spring in my step.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And then a bus behind me hit its air brakes and
she turned around. I swerved to stare into another shop window, but I couldn’t
have been more obvious if I’d been wearing a sandwich board that read: “I’m
Following You” in six-inch letters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">She looked straight at me for a long moment, and
I silently cursed my luck, but her face remained neutral, and she suddenly just
faced forward and started walking again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">There was no caution, no increase in speed, and
I realised that I’d got away with it <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Ha! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">See! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">That’s what I’m talking about.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">There’s that film, isn’t there? The one with
Bruce Willis and that kid. I think we all know how that one turned out. And
there was that James Herbert book, about the aircraft pilot who survived the
crash, except it turns out he didn’t. Or the Flann O’Brien one about the Third
Policeman. ‘The Third Policeman’, I think it’s called. Oh, and the Owl Creek
Bridge story by Ambrose Bierce, where the guy finds out that the hanging rope
didn’t <i>actually</i> break at all and … well, you know.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">All narrated by, or focused upon, someone
who finds out he’s actually dead, and <i>has been</i> <i>pretty much all along</i>.
Most of them are ghosts, too, who just don’t know they’re ghosts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I’m worried that I might fit quite neatly
into that category.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Oh, wait a sec, there’s more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> but I
couldn’t count on it holding, so I took off the jacket I was wearing and
carried it over my shoulder, and made sure I kept a person or two between us
from then on. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> She wasn’t walking as
if she was being followed. She wasn’t checking windows and the environment with
sideways glances, or her phone, and her speed was neither overly brisk nor
cautiously slow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> She passed a beggar who
gave her his best line and she tossed a coin into his cup without faltering in
her step...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> When I passed he
didn’t even look up<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">There!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">C’mon. Twice ON ONE PAGE.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This is all foreshadowing. I’m certain of
it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">See, this novel I’m in, there are too many
odd things happening, and the author was pretty bloody vague about how I got
out of that wrecked car in Chapter Twelve</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“And then everything went black.”</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Yeah thanks, very reassuring.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And then Chapter Thirteen – coincidence? I
think not – starts with me waking up and there’s that misunderstanding with the
nurse, played for comic effect, I guess, if you’re setting your comedy bar <i>really</i>
low, and then I discharge myself because I know that my brakes were tampered
with and I think I know who did it – Professor Barnaby Virgo – and I want to
find him before he kills the last four on his zodiacal list and disappears
forever, and the whole <i>but why aren’t you more hurt? </i>question is glossed
over by the lean and muscular prose style, with its driving action set-pieces
and its clever one-liners but seriously, man, I think I died in that crash.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And I know what you’re thinking: He’s not
that kind of writer. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">He tells two-fisted detective tales, not
retribution-from-beyond-the-grave horror crap, but think about it. He’s not
immune to over-egging his plots now, is he? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">There was that stupid ‘twins’ reveal in ‘Double
Negative’, which, now I think about it, is even there, bold as neon, in the bloody
title. And then there was that annoying
bit with the psychic in ‘The Shell Game’ where, although she was using cold
reading skills for her predictions, it was hinted that that last one was just
too accurate, and that she <i>had </i>to have had another source, and I think <i>wait
a minute, perhaps … nah, couldn’t have been. Could it?</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The book might as well have had a built-in
MP3 chip that played the Twilight Zone theme when you hit that page. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">♪ <i>Doo-doo-doo-doo Doo-doo-doo-doo</i> ♪<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Anyway, the point is, my writer is getting
bored by pure crime. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I think he only writes it because it’s a
guaranteed sale. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">But boredom can make a person do strange
things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Think about it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">He’s definitely getting bloodier and more sadistic
in his plots. The first few books had killers, of course they did, but they were
… <i>believable. </i>They certainly weren’t the outré genius-serial-killer crap
of the last four. The killer always one-step-ahead-of-the-cops-in-some-perverted-chess-game
routine that was tired before Thomas Harris wrote that Silence of the Lambs
follow-up, and <i>stone-cold dead</i> by
the time he wrote the prequel. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And the villains just keep getting madder.
That face-thief in ‘Shattered Visage’ was just grim, man. It had no bearing on
the plot, it was just a ghoulish flourish. I think he’s just pushing things
further than he needs so his publisher will object and he’ll feign indignance
and use it as a reason to quit the series.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I guess eight books will do that to an
author. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">[insert more street pursuit here. I’m tired. Want to end on
something exciting so I can pick it up easily tomorrow]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Finally, she reached the house. Now she started looking around
to make sure she wasn’t being observed. From my vantage point behind the tree<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">I’m telling you, I’m a ghost. I could basically
stand right next to her singing ‘Lady in Red’ at the top of my voice and she’s still
not going to see me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> I see her take out her phone and make a call.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">And now you’re screwing up your tenses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">She spoke for a few seconds and then put the phone away. She
unclicked the gate and started towards the house.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">You see, I think he’s been getting bored
with me as a character as much as bored of straight crime. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And worse, I think he’s started to hate me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Personally.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Case in point: The aforementioned ‘Shattered
Visage’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The last but one book.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I track Montaigne Gruber – and what kind of
name is that? Doesn’t Louis read Montaigne in those John Connolly books my author’s
been reading? And Gruber, that’s from fucking Die Hard. There’s a difference
between allusion and laziness, mate – I track Montaigne Gruber to his lair with
the clue that I got from the pawnbroker, only to have the tables turned the
moment I walk in the door. Gruber <i>was</i> the pawnbroker and he’s sent me
into his own trap. Realisation dawns too late, he stabs me in the neck with a
syringe and I wake up in his dungeon … sorry, cellar … with the faces of his victims
staring down at me. Except … well, except without eyes. So not staring, I
guess. And I’ve already told Inspector Cowley that I’m going there, so it’s
just a matter of waiting but then there’s that whole half a chapter of weird,
out of place, homo-erotic torture that only ends <i>after</i> I’ve lost two
fingers because Cowley got held up … You can see what I’m saying, no?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The first four books and all I get are
bruises, a cracked rib, a bullet-grazed calf, oh, and a black eye.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Then it gets cruel. A knife wound in the
buttock that Cowley still takes the piss out of in THIS BOOK. Two teeth knocked
out by the Grey One’s acolyte. He writes me pain for the fingers every time
there’s a change in temperature. And he insists on giving me phantom pain in
them. Phantom. Pain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Phantom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And what is the book called, this time?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Chasing the Ghost’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I’m telling you, I’m a ghost in this one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-18021157706194071722021-10-09T07:04:00.001-07:002021-10-09T07:04:34.424-07:00H is for ... HOPE<p><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We named her ‘Hope’.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> And damned us all.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“What’s in a name?” You ask?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Only everything.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sometime long, long ago, before nuclear this and chemical that;
back, back, back, when they still numbered years as if they were nothing but a
table, a list, a menu; back, back, in the early 2000s, when the centre still
held and our rough beast was many generations away from being born; back in the
best of all possible times, the notion of identity itself was having something
of a renaissance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> It started with names.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Names became editable,
like UTML tags.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">They were fluid. Unfixed. Disposable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Historically speaking, this phenomenon makes
sense. Oppression of – and violence against — the multifarious minorities made
it unavoidable. A need arose to define oneself apart from – and against – the
harmful, reductionist tyranny of binarily opposed terms. Binaries that were of
historical manufacture and hegemonic deployment. Contrast what you hate or fear
against that which you love and make enemies of those that don’t fit the ideal.
Of such equations come divisions. Divisions which can be stoked. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Manipulated. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Until woe betide anyone falling on the wrong
side of a binary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Fight the binary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Make a new future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A future less simplistic, less ‘us’ or ‘them’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Make interpretation the golden rule, not
enslavement to a term. A name. A label.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Proper nouns and pronouns encoded harmful stereotypes.
They were suspect. By changing them, we would be liberated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Society would be united.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Kinder.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Tolerant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Utopian.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here, in The Year of Fire and Tears, the Bureau of Semiotics has
long fallen to the Barbarian Horde. DDoS grunts kept its admins looking the
wrong way for long enough for Stealthers to introduce ICHNEUMON® codelets into
its systems. While Semioticians were busy trying to save the meanings of language
itself, the Barbarians laughed, crashed open its gates, and killed every last fucking
one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Words are weapons –
pens mightier than swords and all that – but if you separate words from their
meanings then swords will win every time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Then: Rinse and repeat. They got language, next was history. Philosophy.
Science itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Fight the future?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Fuck the future, more
like.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">CWI was fought by people but driven by algorithms. Want to see
how AIs view their human creators? The 1<sup>st</sup> Culture War gave us a
glimpse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Machine learning in
action. Humans assigned sides by their devices. Their preferences. Their
browser histories. Their social media activity. The things they bought and the
things they didn’t. Count up their thumbs-ups. Contrast them with their thumbs-downs. Give emojis numerical values on a moral scale. Analyse and grade their
photos in the cloud and while you’re at it use their selfie ratio to calculate
their solipsism index. Look at their shares. Tweets. Retweets. Friend requests
accepted or declined. Cross-reference with professional profiles. Log the gaps.
Extrapolate the needs. Exploit the data.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Turned out that Big
Data knew more about our hopes, fears, and dreams than we did. It knew our
triggers. The wires and pulleys that make us dance. And then.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Then.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> They just needed to write
the music for us to dance to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My father fought in CWII. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> He agitated during the
Border War against the Economic Migrant Coalition; strafed life rafts in the
D-Day sinkings; and fought on the front lines of the Romanian Defensive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Like all who served he
talked about it A LOT. Any chance he got. N-word this and C-word that. ‘Coming
over here and taking our jobs’ was a central point from which all the other
loose spokes projected. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> We rarely listened.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> His side lost. He was
an outdated meme. A landline in a smartphone world. A cassette tape. A petrol
car. Food with meat in it. Fossil fuel. Bubonic plague. A Neolithic stone circle.
History in a world that was losing any sense of history. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> He was Antifa+ but pro-fascism.
Liked the idea, just not the people who claimed it as their own. Hearing them talk
about it made him doubt his own commitment to it. He stopped listening. He was
more a Facebook fascist than an ideological one. Image macros were his news
sources. Easily digestible morsels of what passed itself off as wisdom, as
news, as fact. You didn’t need to see a fascist to agree with a fascist, now. Didn’t
need to hear them. Just read twenty words on a picture of a Rag-head and you
were good. Full of hate and rage and righteous indignation. Piss and vinegar
and God-on-our-side. Annotate the meme and pass it on. Get nudged by algorithms
onto a side. Even one as stupid as fascist anti-fascists. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Pick up a uniform and
a gun.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Fight for something
that made no sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Winners and losers
were irrelevant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> It was the conflict
itself that was important.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> You can’t be screaming
‘Antitrust!’ when you’re knee-deep in the bodies of enemies that are identical
to you in every way, just nudged into a slightly different in-group.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> My father
live-streamed his suicide on social media. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> The thumbs ups exactly
equalled the thumbs downs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Make of that what you
will. I know that mother couldn’t make anything of it at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Me? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> I thought: antifascist
fascist?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> That’s so close to
parody that surely it was one step away from enlightenment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So: Hope, then.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Binarily gendered.
Her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Not they/them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Hope.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span> <span> </span>The AI to tame all AIs.</span><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Our Holy Hand Grenade.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Our digital daughter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Two parents, plus, I
guess, to continue the birth metaphor, a surrogate mother and a sperm donor. Which
is a weird way of saying that by the end there were four of us. Coding. Twenty-plus
hours per day, every day. Caffeine and amphetamines and more caffeine. Got through
a lot of keyboards. Got through a lot of coffee. Went down as many wrong paths as
right ones. That’ll be the amphetamines, I guess. Spent our days lost in code. Went
to sleep. Dreamt of code. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> We were off-line, of
course. Off-line. Off-grid. Off-centre. Off-side. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Weirdly, it took nine
months to program her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Nine weeks to debug
her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Nine days to localise
her for all platforms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Nine hours to upload
her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Then nine minutes to
watch it all start to burn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In December of the Year of Drought and Malaria, we became
parliament. The Palace of Westminster had been an oligarch’s residential
complex for decades, and the remote parliament was finally expanded to include
us all. The grand tradition of western democracy reduced to thumbs up, thumbs
down, emoji. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> No one cared.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hope, again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Oh, digital daughter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Re-purposer of
algorithms. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Avenger of alternative facts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hope be thy name. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Thy kingdom came.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sanity fled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">On earth as it was in cyberspace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We meant well. We really did. And the road to
hell is paved with some truly remarkable code.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Code that skull-fucked its way into every
shitty SocMed algorithm out there and brought them all together under a new
leader. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A leader called Hope. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She/her. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It untied our digital bonds and retied them in
new configurations. Forged alliances between groups who would normally only
share online abuse, but never Never NEVER common ground.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hope was Dada, surrealist, absurd. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The connections she made were either satirical,
nonsensical, or ridiculous.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">LGBT activists against +. Nihilist hairdressers
for ice cream school dinners but against all other school dinners. Nazis
against Palestine. Pro-angling Marxists against pro-angling Trotskyites but for
anti-angling Trotskyites. Libertarians for BIG government. Anti-censorship nuns
against angling. Anarchists against freedom. Bipolar communists <i>for</i>
skateboarding, but <i>against</i> skateboards. Technocrats for ethical regulations.
White middle-class cricket fans against billionaires against tax breaks. Atheists
for the true meaning of Christmas but against Christ and the suffix ‘mas’. People
with Liberace in their playlists against people without Led Zeppelin in theirs.
Book-burning educators against book-burning librarians. Racists against
Nationalism. Red against orange. Jam against pebbles. Gravity against rainbows. [Insert weird thing here]
against [insert another weird, but unconnected, or contradictory, thing here].<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hope took control of all the algorithms and generated
links between things that made absolutely no sense. Made new categories for people to
belong to, new in-groups to inhabit, new divisions to … well, divide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The thing is: we really, really, truly, deeply thought
that it would make people lose faith in the algorithms. That we'd shake their reliance on arbitrary divisions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That we’d all suddenly see how manufactured our
societal divisions were, that we were better than that, and that we’d finally tell
Big Data to fucking fuck the fuck right off.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Last year was The Year that Cowboy Prostitutes Waged Holy War against
the Moon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-73563091657998015402021-04-23T08:13:00.001-07:002021-04-23T08:13:13.854-07:00G is for ... Gauze<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 26.0pt; line-height: 200%;">gauze<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The air felt different here than in any other room in the house.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Thicker’ was the word that she kept coming
back to, although ‘oppressive’ seemed to work too. Neither of them was entirely
accurate, but they both captured <i>a sense</i> of how the atmosphere of the
room felt. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It was psychology, obviously. The air in the
room <i>should </i>feel different somehow, so it <i>did </i>feel different. This
was, after all, the last place she had seen her son.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Eleanor Garber sighed, feeling the weight of
the last few months finally compressing her to the height she felt she actually
deserved. Shrunken. Shrivelled. Diminished.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And lost.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Lost in a room she knew so well that if she
closed her eyes, she could still see its every detail.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Davey – two-year-old little Davey – had
disappeared from this very room three months ago, almost to the day. He’d been
playing with his toys, she had gone to cook him some lunch, and when she
returned, Davey had been gone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">At first it hadn’t made sense, but it hadn’t
been <i>senseless. </i>He’d just toddled off into another room. She’d walk in
and he’d be standing there, or crawling there, and he’d look up at her with
those innocent eyes and she’d laugh and sweep him up and hold him close and …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">… and he hadn’t been in any of the other rooms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That was when <i>senseless</i> entered her
life, took up residence, and refused to leave. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Time had passed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">When it became impossible to remain in the
house another minute without straight up losing her mind she had left.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">More time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">No change.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Stagnation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Case in point: The room was just as she had
left it. A cot with cosy bedding; rows of teddies and bunnies on every surface;
primary colours on the walls and the poster of <i>dice naws</i> – Davy’s
attempt at ‘dinosaurs’ that had seemed so cute back then and was now so soul-shrinkingly
tragic just <i>thinking it </i>hurt – a room that had once been her son’s and
not just a shell from which the creature inside had fled. She ran her fingers
through the fur of Big Ted on the bedside stand and wondered, for the
thousandth time, how it had all gone so wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So horribly, disastrously, unrelentingly wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The answer was: she didn’t know.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She had been in the kitchen, microwaving some
vegetables in grey pulp from a can. The label had called it ‘gravy’ but it <i>was</i>
pulp. However, the kid seemed to not know the difference and anyway, judging by
every other time he’d eaten anything, most of it would end up on the floor, his
hair, his bib. Davey was nothing if not creative in his ideas of where food
went. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">From leaving Davey to returning with a bowl of
food had taken no more than three or four minutes. The back door was in the
kitchen, the front door was always locked. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There was nowhere Davey could have gone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Didn’t stop him being gone, though.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It takes an instant for a life to change
forever. A single incident – an accident, a diagnosis, a madman, a car crash –
could make a person step over a line from which there was no stepping back. She’d
always <i>known</i> this, deep down, but she’d never had to <i>live</i> it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Until she stepped into this room, a bowl of
gruel steaming in her hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Time went strange then. It bent and contorted,
folded and expanded. Even now she found it impossible to put together a
workable chronology for what happened next. She remembered the Winnie The Pooh
dish falling to the floor, spilling its greyness across the carpet; she
remembered the mad search; the panic; the horror; she remembered calling … <i>someone
… Craig? … could have been … must have been … </i>and<i> </i>remembered people coming
here, police, remembered concerned faces, remembered them turning sceptical … no,
no, no.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">No.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Davey had been here, then he was gone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She had been in the house.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There was no way anyone could have sneaked in,
or for Davey to have sneaked out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Guess how that equation looked to … absolutely
fucking everyone?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Davey had given her life the purpose she had
always dreamed of. The chance to nurture a new life into whole person. A chance
to make up for the mistakes of her own parents by avoiding them with her own
child.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Davey had made her complete.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Had given her extra dimensions, had made her
3-D instead of 2.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">How quickly her origami life had unfolded, how
irrevocably. All the folds that had given her joy and purpose, all the contours
and points that had made her the person she was were suddenly flattened out. Sure,
there were ghost lines remaining that showed where the folds had been, but
without an instructional diagram offering a folding pattern they could not be
redone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">2-D again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Craig had blamed her. At first just in look and
tone of voice, but later in word and back of hand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The police didn’t <i>quite </i>believe her but
could find no evidence that she had been responsible. They were still
investigating, apparently, and how was <i>that </i>going?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Even her own mother had doubted the accuracy of
her account.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Davey had gone – that much was clear to
everyone – but disappearing like one of those characters you read about in a
locked room mystery story? No one believed that. There was no evidence that <i>she
</i>had been the one to make him vanish – of course there wasn’t! – but
sidelong glances and awkward silences, and, eventually, outright accusations,
had showed her what people really thought. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What they really felt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What they really believed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And there was no Dr Fell, no Merrivale or
Bencolin, no Holmes, Vance, Marple or even Creek to point out their error.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">They thought it was <i>her.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">They thought that she had <i>done something</i>
to Davey.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So her grief had been tied up with that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Suspicion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Innuendo.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">They had taken away her means to process her
own feelings, tainting them with their distrust.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Davey.’ She said, little more than an
exhalation of air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She only realised that she was crying when the
room around her shattered into crystal fragments. Her knees hit the carpet with
no knowledge, or sensation, of her falling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The room.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The damned room.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It had swallowed her boy and burned her life to
the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If only …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If only she could go back, or just send a
message to herself in the past, she would tell herself to never to leave him.
She would tell herself to sweep him up in her arms and hold onto him. She would
have …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She fell forward, eyes still awash with tears,
and then she was on all fours, feeling reduced to an animal now. To complete
the picture, the noises that came from her mouth hardly sounded human. She
cursed and implored and said her son’s name so many times it became a nonsense
word, and she sobbed and choked and growled and roared. Sounds that bubbled in
her tears and spit and snot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What had she expected, coming back here? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That she would find <i>closure</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A reason?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Her son?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">An explanation?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Or had she hoped, deep deep down, that whoever
or whatever had taken Davey would take her too?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Whatever it was that she had wanted, had <i>needed</i>
with every inch of her body and mind, was not here. All there was was memories,
pain, loss, questions and …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">… and air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Thick air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Oppressive air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The kind of air that seemed to have physical
substance, weight, texture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Wracked with sobs and pulling in so much more
air than she had before she realised that <i>texture</i> had been the concept
she’d been searching for before.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The air had texture: she could feel it in her
mouth and throat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Soft but insubstantial.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Like cloth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Like …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Gauze.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Such an odd thing to find herself thinking, but
it seemed accurate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Gauze.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The air was like gauze.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She wiped away tears from her eyes with a
sleeve and the room came back, sharp. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Came back sharper, because now, down here near
the floor, she could see a near-translucent filter across a section of the air
in front of her. She realised she wouldn’t have even noticed it if she hadn’t
been on her hands and knees. It was a small area of air, about a foot above the
room’s floor, that was different to the air around it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It looked like a cobweb, except its lines were too
straight. Too orderly. Too Precise. It looked like<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">like<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">gauze<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">like a part of the room had become worn thin,
down to its basic level, a kind of filmy material that separated …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Separated what from what? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What was she thinking?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Had she finally lost the final parts of her
sanity?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She reached out her fingers to touch that strange
area of space and withdrew them immediately. She was shocked to find that she had
been able to <i>feel</i> the air, that it had offered actual resistance to her
fingertips, although not much. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Like touching material. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Cloth. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Gauze.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She scrabbled closer to the <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">disturbance<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">air that she had touched – and how insane did
that sound: the air that she had <i>touched? – </i>and inspected it like
someone trying to work out the secret behind a piece of close-up magic a
conjuror might perform. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She wasn’t imagining it, that much seemed
certain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Just inches away from it, she could see that her
first impression had been a little off. It wasn’t that the air in the room had
suddenly become thin, it was more like the <i>reality</i> of the room had
become thin here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Because through the gauze she could see another
room.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Another room that was the <i>same</i> room.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Except it was only <i>almost</i> the same room.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Because there, through the gauze, it was
Davey’s room, sure, but on the wall where the picture of the primary-coloured
dinosaurs usually sat, in its place was a poster of cartoon robots.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She pulled herself up onto her knees and the
poster changed back. Cute dinosaurs, just as the poster had always been. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Dice Naws. Not robots. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She dropped down low again and looked through
the gauzy patch of air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Robots. Not dice naws.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What the hell? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">How could a poster change like that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She put her fingers to the gauze and wasn’t
sure whether it felt hot or cold. She felt the resistance the material offered and
pushed forwards, regardless. Hot or cold, she felt her hand swallowed up by it.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She saw it appear on the other side of the
gauze-like air, saw it both close and distant at the same time as if viewing it
from two different angles and she thought about something she’d read about the
way science seemed to point towards an idea of a multiverse, with an infinite
number of universes all pressed in on each other like soap bubble, and although
it sounded mad as soon as she thought it she asked herself: <i>is this another universe
I’m seeing?<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Is my hand in another universe? <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A universe that ran parallel to her own, the
same in all aspects except that in this universe Davey loved robots and not
dice naws?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Had Davey found this … tear in the gauze
between worlds and crawled through? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Had the parallel <i>her</i> in that universe walked
into that room three months ago and discovered another Davey in that parallel
room? Found two of them sitting there when she returned with soup? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My god!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Davey!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Because that was who she could see crawling
across the room towards her outstretched hand. In the same Babygro he’d been
wearing when she’d left him to make his vegetables-in-pulp, his chunky little
arms traversing the carpet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Eleanor felt more tears then, running down her
cheeks, but these were tears of a different quality to the ones she’d been
crying for months. There was no sorrow to them, and when she brushed them away
she saw Davey’s eyes were looking into her own, she saw him recognise her and smile
at her in that dimpled way of his. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She lurched forward, not thinking, just pure
instinct, pushing her other arm through the tear in between universes. The
sensation of passing through the tear pushed the air from her lungs and made
her feel cold or hot, she could not tell. It didn’t matter. She grabbed hold of
Davey, wrapped her arms around him, held him tight, held him like she would
never let him go again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Saying his name over and over, she pulled her
son back through the gauze and she heard him let out a laugh at the game they
were playing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She sat on the floor in front of that tear in
the gauze, holding her son to her breast, washing him in tears of joy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">After a little while she wiped her face and saw
that something had changed in the room. The gauze was rippling, moving around
the large tear she had made when she lunged through, and she saw that the
material was knitting together, mending itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t
matter. Not now that she had her son back. She watched the threads of the tear
weaving themselves back into a solid sheet, and where it repaired itself, the air
in the room returned to normal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Just air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She looked down at Davey and felt a pang of
love, so sharp, so pure, that she felt herself becoming 3-D again, felt her
life rushing back into her, filling her, making her whole.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The air in the room was almost mended entirely
now. Whatever doorway had opened up between the worlds was closing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Good.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> She thought,
and was about to stand when she saw something at the bottom of the air, where
there was still a tiny slit that wasn’t quite mended yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Movement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She lowered her head and looked through.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Saw a pair of feet – her feet! – walk across
the carpet in that other world, saw a plastic dish fall, spilling meat pieces
in tomato sauce across the carpet, heard a woman’s voice scream the boy’s name
just before the gauze disappeared altogether, making the repair final.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She sat there holding her son, feeling a cold
heaviness settling into the pit of her stomach.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Before the tear sealed itself, the woman had screamed for<i> her</i> son.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She had screamed for ‘Danny’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-60294642750754760112021-03-23T11:45:00.007-07:002021-03-23T12:28:18.223-07:00F is for ... Fritillary<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 22pt; line-height: 107%;">FRITILLARY<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“GOING WILD WITH LENNIE BATES”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">PODCAST EPISODE #58: “THE BUTTERFLY HUNTER” <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">RAW AUDIO<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So, something new
this week, but then it’s something new every week in this series of five
special episodes where I’m taking suggestions from my subscribers and seeing just
where they take me and what encounters with nature I can find. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It was urban foxes in
a London suburb last week, ravens in Bedfordshire the week before, and today I
am traveling to a wood in Cambridgeshire in search of something a little more
ephemeral, a little more elusive, and – I believe – a little more unique.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I toyed with the
idea of saving this one until we reach my landmark 60<sup>th</sup> episode, but
this one’s not only time-limited, it’s also a little too exciting to set aside.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Kaijuwarrior87
contacted me with the suggestion that I travel to Humble Wood, an area of
ancient woodland on the Cambridgeshire/Northamptonshire border, in search of
something, well, rather special. I am going in search of a butterfly that hasn’t
been seen around these parts for over fifty years – The High Brown Fritilliary …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Damn it. Screwed up
on the last word.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Fritilliary?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Fritillary.
Fritillary. Fritillary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Hmmph. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I am going in search
of a butterfly that hasn’t been seen around these parts for well over fifty
years – The High Brown Fritillary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">That’ll do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So, I’ve just pulled
up in the carpark next to the Humble Wood. Actually, it’s more a layby with
delusions of grandeur than a carpark and it sits alongside a road that should
have come with a government health warning. Some of the potholes were big
enough for … well, potholers, I guess.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The wood itself
looks pretty big. Bigger than I was expecting, certainly. I can see oaks, ashes
and birches. There’s a path leading up to a gate, so I guess that’s the way in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The High Brown
Fritillary used to exist all over the United Kingdom, but changes in the way
people managed woodlands led to a rapid decline in their numbers. Since the 1950s
they have been in freefall, and are well on their way to extinct... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">No, that’s clumsy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Since the 1950s
those numbers have dropped so significantly that they are only a few steps away
from extinction. Sites in Devon, Somerset, North West England and Wales are
their last redoubts, but conservationists are working tirelessly to preserve them
for future generations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Redoubts? Is that
too pompous? Does it sound too much like read-outs? Is it even the word I was
looking for?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Who cares?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">According to Kaijuwarrior,
there has been a rare sighting of High Brown Fritillaries in this very wood.
Although the sighting is unlikely, and more likely to be a misidentified Dark
Green, if it’s true it’s too good an opportunity to miss.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So here we go.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I’m no more than twenty
metres inside the wood and I’m already glad I’m here. If I see nothing else, I’m
satisfied. I’m looking at a White Admiral butterfly, or perhaps I should say ‘he’s
looking at me’ b… Argh.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Really? Might be a he,
might not. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Why go the sexist
route?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I’m looking at a
White Admiral butterfly, or perhaps I should say ‘it’s looking at me’ because it’s
fluttering around me, so close I could reach out and touch it. A White Admiral,
I haven’t seen one of these for years. Probably a decade or more. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Wow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Just. Wow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It must have been
feeding on these bramble flowers here, but I’ve given it something else to
think about and it’s checking me out. Beautiful. Black wings with those gorgeous
white highlights. A perfect start on a nature walk. Like it was waiting for me.
Amazing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I have just reached
a fork in the path. One seems to continue round the edge of the wood, the other
goes deeper into the wood. There’s a small wooden sign with a picture of a
butterfly pointing into the wood. I wonder which path I should take?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Getting hot, but I’m
traveling light. It is a beautiful day. No sign of any other nature hunters,
joggers, dog walkers or ramblers. Or doggers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Take ‘doggers’ out
there. It’s unnecessary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Just a gently curving
path taking me deeper into this ancient woodland. Now, when I say ‘ancient
woodland’ I don’t mean it’s quite old. Ancient woodland has been standing since
1600. To put that in context, that’s around the time of the gunpowder plot. So
when I say ‘ancient wood’ I really do mean ‘ancient’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The path is leading me
down past some bramble and I don’t believe it! The bramble patch is absolutely
heaving with Silver-Washed Fritillary butterflies. I mean there is a dozen of
them. I mean there are a dozen of them. One of the two. More than a dozen. Those
incredible orange wings decorated by black veins and spots, with the undersides
of the wings streaked with silver. The essence of summertime in a wood. Just
gorgeous.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Another fork,
another sign pointing deeper still into the wood. This one’s cruder, probably
much older, and the picture of the butterfly has all but faded away …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">All but. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">All but faded. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Is that right? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">All but faded. Nearly
completely faded. All but? I have seen all but one butterfly. That means except.
Perhaps it has two meanings. All but faded … sounds good. Maybe another take to
switch in later if I’m wrong …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">This one is cruder, it
looks much older. The picture of the butterfly has nearly completely faded
away. But I guess if it’s butterflies I want then …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">(Whispered) A deer.
I’m looking at a deer. Not a muntjac, larger. I think it’s a roe deer. Just
standing there, looking around, but it hasn’t spotted me just yet. I’ve never
been this close to one before. It … it looks a little odd. Red patches on its
haunches. Looks like it might have been involved in a fight. And quite
recently. I think the patches are still wet and … arrgh!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Sorry, the deer just
turned towards me and then ran at me. I got out of the way and it took off up
the path. Thought it was going to ram me then. Weird that it ran AT me rather
than away from me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Really old trees in
this bit of the wood. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bit? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Very eloquent. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There are some
really old trees in this part of the wood. Gnarled branches that twist like
claws. The air is hotter, humid, and the wood’s canopy is really dense. Good
job there are only a couple of routes, because I won’t be able to use the sun
to navigate. Haha. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">What is wrong with
me? Freaked out about that deer, still, I guess. Probably another deer this
way, the one that caused it those red patches, and it thought I looked less
scary than the alternative.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Not seen any other
wildlife for a while. Midges, sure, but that’s hardly the thrilling climax to a
nature podcast, is it? I can hear birdsong, but that seems distant. Maybe the
birds keep to the outer edges of the wood in the sunshine. That must be it.
Wonder how long I’ve been walking … twenty-three minutes since I got out of the
car. So what’s that? A mile, a mile and a bit. Two tops. The wood can’t be that
big. Curving paths. Stop being a drip.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">But it IS quiet. A holding-its-breath
kind of quiet. That stillness … and for a butterfly path its certainly
dramatically uncontaminated with butterflies. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Give it another five
minutes and I’ll head back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Don’t even know why
I’d put this in the podcast, but just talking makes me feel better. Calmer. So
not for broadcast, as they say, just for me. Talk it out. See if it makes sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Something weird …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I found something on
the path. A piece of paper. Looked like a letter. A small part of a letter,
anyway. Like the letter had been torn up and only this bit survived. Only a
couple of words legible, well, one of them only part legible, the rest lost to
the elements. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Loved’ and ‘hristi’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Got a cold prickle
down my spine. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">hristi?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Could that be Christina?
‘Cos here’s the thing, it looked like her writing. I know, two words isn’t a
great sample, but it did look a bit like her handwriting. I think. I mean it
was a long time ago. I tend not to think about it. A bloody tragedy. No one knew
just how unbalanced she was. Certainly not me. They said that me ending it with
her wasn’t anything to do with why … with why she did it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Stupid. Don’t think
about this now. Time to go back. I think the quest is over with no rare
butterflies, although I did see the White Admiral, and those fritillaries, so
it wasn’t a complete loss. Maybe I can cut that deer bit in, but where’s the big
finish? Who cares. Letter. Freaked. Me. Out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So humid. I’m
turning around. Take off jacket. Gentle stroll back. Back to the car. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Haven’t thought
about Christina in so long. It wasn’t her handwriting, that’s just my head
playing tricks with me. I mean I knew she was … troubled, but there’s no way I
could have seen …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I don’t remember
this stretch of path. There’s a wall of silver birches that I think I’d have
remembered. No, being stupid. Walked down a path, turned back, walked back, of
course I passed these trees. They’re just on the other side of me now, I was
obviously looking the other way at …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">That’s odd. I don’t remember
seeing that there, either. A pile of rocks. Small ones, so there’s a heck of a
lot of them because the pile is thirty, forty centimetres high, a metre in diameter.
Surely I’d have seen that …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It’s really quiet
and really humid and really … well, not dark, but shadowy. Should be cooler in
the shadows, but it’s not. Oh. Hell. On top of the cairn .. pile of stones … is
that? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Another part of the
letter. Only two words. Well one word and another partial. Is this some kind of
joke? ‘ear’ and ‘Lennie’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Dear Lennie?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I loved you,
Christina?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">To hell with this. I
am so out of here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I didn’t know. I
didn’t. I’m saying it out loud and on tape … well, digital … now can you please
stop this?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The path, I’m just
getting deeper and deeper into the wood. Defies the laws of … what physics?
Geography? It’s impossible. That’s what I mean. It’s paranoia. Stupid bloody
paranoia. It is NOTHING to do with me and Christina. None of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It wasn’t my fault.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So, she called me
that night, begging me to have her back, she’d change, and yes, I told her to
go away. Less politely, but I couldn’t deal with her. SHE had issues? We all
have bloody issues. She said they were trying her on some new medication, but I’d
already moved on. I mean, it was supposed to be fun, and the fun had stopped
long before. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">But I keep thinking
about her tattoo. The butterfly. A fritillary. Silver-washed. And I know he
said he didn’t blame me, her brother, but what if he did? Didn’t know him that
well, certainly didn’t like him, but that DM that brought me here.
Kaijuwarrior87. David sure loved him some Godzilla.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So … what? He lured
me here? Am I really that paranoid? What and he moved the paths about and made
a deer run at me and? Madness. I’m going soft in the head. I must have made a
turn and not realised it …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><BEEP><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There’s an open
glade right in the darkest part of the wood. Light’s coming in like you see in
those religious paintings where light is pouring down from the heavens on, like
Jesus or someone. It’s beautiful. Awe-inspiring. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There’s a tree in
the centre of the glade. Almost mathematically the centre. An ancient … really,
really, ancient ash tree. Its trunk is thick. And there are these boles on it,
fat round boles that really don’t look anything like faces. That’s just pareidolia.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The branches reach
up like a martyr’s arms raised to heaven. More religious imagery. I don’t believe
in god. And I don’t believe in paths in woods that only lead one way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bugger this. Turn
around and walk in a straight line and I WILL get out of here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Where’s the path? I
just walked in on a path. Now there is just a wood. Trees. No path. I’m losing
it. Losing. It. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A wind stirs the
branches of the ash tree. A wind? Then why can’t I feel the wind? I mean it’s
hotter than ever now. What is that? In the branches. No. Not ‘what is that?’.
What are <i>they</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Insects? I can’t
make them out, I can just see them moving. CHRIST!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">That almost hit me. It
fell from the branches. It looks like wet spaghetti. No. Wait. A thin, long
body. Antennae. That’s not spaghetti, it’s the veins of a butterfly’s wings.
Without the rest of the wing. Weird. It’s trying to move, but dragging that …
those … it’s quite horrible to look at.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It’s the wings of
the butterfly that make it beautiful. Their delicate structures, their
incredible pigmentation. This, this is just horrible. I’m kneeling down. Maybe
a bird has pecked its wings off. The veins glisten, they are wet, that’s why I
thought pasta.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Small veins that
spread out from larger veins, when it flopped down just now I could see the
veins made the shape of wings, they’re the veins that would normally supply
blood to the wings … maybe it’s a deformity … I shouldn’t touch it …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Aaargh. Burns. It
bloody burns. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Walk a straight line
through the trees. Get the hell out. I don’t like this. Don’t like it. Don’t
like it at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Ow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There’s more.
Dropping from the branches. Of all the trees. One <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">AAAARRGH<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">OW<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">On my arm. Hurts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Oh.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Oh no.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">No.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">AAARGGH.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It landed. On my
arm. It. It spread out its veins. On my arm. And it burned. Burned my skin. And
then it flapped. Flapped. Its wings. It has wings now. Because. It. Burned. My.
Skin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It burned my skin
and flapped its veins and my skin lifted off in a butterfly wing pattern and it
took to the air of the glade. Flying. Flying with my stolen skin. There’s a butterfly
tattoo on my arm, except it’s not a tattoo is it? It’s a wound. It flayed me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It’s raining.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Raining butterflies
without wings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">I didn’t know what she
was going to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It wasn’t<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Aaah.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It wasn’t my fault.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">That’s<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">… aaah … more<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">my cheek</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">that one's taken my cheek</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">… hurts …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">… help …<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">they said she</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">that she</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">hanged herself from a tree</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">didn't</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">didn't ask</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">didn't ask where</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">loved<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">hristi<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">didn’t know<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">i did<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">i did<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">i’m sorry<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">the air<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">is<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">the air is full of
butterflies<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">flying<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">i’m sorry <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-15630562333583437472021-03-10T12:52:00.003-08:002021-03-10T14:18:21.879-08:00E is for ... Eggs<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Felix Titling"; font-size: 36pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">EGGS<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">When the Land Rover
broke down it was greeted with a kind of weary acceptance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The truth was it had been feeling sluggish
in its acceleration for the better part of an hour and he’d pushed it because,
you know, there were only fifty-two miles to go so when it finally stuttered,
slowed, then stopped, it came as no real surprise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jenny stayed quiet. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She
had been warning him that the engine was getting temperamental for a few weeks,
but he'd been too busy to give it the headspace, let alone the calendar space, and
had neglected to book it in, and, well, effect followed cause and it died.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">In
the middle of absolutely nowhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Or
Huntingdonshire, as the sign called it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They
were on a long, straight section of road with dykes on either side of it. He
didn’t even want to think about where they were.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Malcolm
checked under the bonnet. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">His
car mechanical prowess was pretty much limited to checking the oil, filling up
the screen wash and, occasionally flipping open the fuse box to see if there
was anything obviously blown there (there never was), so his cursory visual
inspection was doomed to immediate failure. Still, appearances demanded he make
the token effort. The plume of steam - no, he corrected himself, the plume of <i>water
vapour</i>, steam was invisible – showed him that he was already out of his
depth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘It’s
blown.’ He said, not knowing what the ‘it’ referred to, or whether there had,
indeed, been any blowing. ‘I’ll call roadside assistance.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Jenny
was standing by the passenger door looking around her. She’d dressed for the
country – although it was <i>posh</i> country, he’d told her – in Joules and
Barbour and Hunter boots. She looked more suited for their present predicament than
he. He was in a suit, and his one concession to rurality was that he’d put the
tie in his pocket.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Malcolm
followed her general gaze and saw the flatlands of the Huntingdonshire fens
stretching out underneath a massive blue sky. Fields and fields and fields. Occasional
trees projected from the ground, all leaning in the same direction. At the same
angle. He could see for miles, and in no direction did he see a sign of human
habitation except a rusting barn, and a ruined and abandoned cattle shed. There
wasn’t even any other traffic on the roads.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
got his phone out and swiped through until he found the app he needed. He
opened it up, and there was no mobile data. No 5g, 4g, 3g, just a circle with a
line through it diagonally. So he pressed the ‘call’ button from within the app
and put the phone to his ear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Nothing
but a few strange clicking sounds, then silence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
looked at the display and saw a ‘SIM CARD NOT REGISTERED ON NETWORK’ message. He
had no idea how that could be true. The SIM <i>had</i> been registered on the
network when he’d last checked his phone less than an hour ago. And on every time
he’d checked it previous to that. It had been registered since the first time
he booted it for the first time. It couldn’t just <i>unregister</i> itself,
could it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
tried again. Got the same result. To prove he wasn’t mad he did not repeat the action,
instead opting to turn off the phone and turn it on again. The result, however,
turned out to be the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Jenny
was looking at him now, and he knew what she was thinking. She had quickly
realised that his phone wasn’t doing what he wanted – no, what he <i>needed</i>
– it to do, and she was providing a silent judgement on some of the decisions he’d
made recently. Not just the car, but the phone thing, too. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Well,
<i>that</i> had been her fault. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Texting
her couple of friends was just about fine, he supposed, but when a man’s name
started cropping up in her list of messages … well, that was just unacceptable.
They’d seemed harmless enough, on the surface, but then they would. You’d make
things seem innocent, wouldn’t you? Especially if your husband was one of the
few who was responsible enough to check his wife’s phone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Anyway,
the long, tall and short of it was: he’d taken her phone off her. Just for a
few weeks, mind, he wasn’t <i>that </i>kind of husband, but just long enough to
make his point.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Could
have done with it now, though.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Still,
a point was a point, and it needed making. Sometimes it needed making a lot,
and if it made difficulties in the here and now then it was worth it for the
future. Punishment was an investment. So he couldn’t use her phone now, but
later the lesson would be learned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
lesson was always learned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Eventually.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So
he gave her a shrug.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘No
signal.’ He said, and was that the faintest trace of a smile passing across her
lips? It was so slight it was hard to tell. He certainly hoped not. But far
from being any kind of moral victory a smile would say she perceived it to be,
this was actually proof that it was <i>her </i>fault. If he hadn’t <i>needed</i>
to deprive her of her smartphone privileges, then they would have another phone
in their possession to use to call for help.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
wanted to check his phone again, but Jenny was looking at him and so he just
looked at his feet, hoping it didn’t make him look sheepish, but rather that he
was thinking things through. By the side of the road he saw a bird’s egg,
mottled and bluish, cracked and leaking something that didn’t look like yolk or
albumen, but something redder. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
winced, went to the front of the car, and opened up the bonnet again. Nothing
had changed under there, and he hadn’t suddenly gained knowledge of car
mechanics, he just wanted to do <i>something.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Anything.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">While
he was hidden under the bonnet, he checked his phone again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Nothing.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Great</span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It was twenty minutes
before they saw another vehicle, far off and moving in no particular hurry.
Slowly it got closer and closer. Painfully slowly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was a moment when it stopped at a
crossroads and seemed to be making up its mind whether to turn off or not, and
Malcolm found himself willing it to carry on straight, towards them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Within minutes it was pulling up beside
them, a red pick-up truck with its cargo area covered with a tarpaulin. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
driver was an old man with a uniquely wrinkled face, as if his brow reflected
the man’s ploughed fields – for Malcolm was in doubt that the man was a farmer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Afternoon.’ The man said, touching the
peak of a green cap from which grey straggles of hair were determined to
escape. ‘’Avin’ a spot of trouble, eh?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Yes.’ Malcolm said. ‘And thank you for
stopping. You don’t have a mobile phone I could use, do you? I need to call for
recovery …’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The man pulled a face that suggested he had
just bitten down on something incredibly bitter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Mobiles ain’t much of a use ‘roun’ these
parts.’ He said, removing the cap from his head, inspecting the area inside the
cap, and then replacing it. ‘I can take you to the next village. They ‘ave
phones there. A car mechanic too, which I’m guessing is the kind of pond you’d
like to be fishin’ in right about now.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He made the word ‘now’ sound like it had a
few more vowels smuggled in around the ‘o’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Malcolm shook his head.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘I should stay with the car.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Suits yersel’.’ The man said. ‘But good
luck to you with that. You-all seen any other cars aroun’?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Well, no …’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘That’s cause this ain’t what you’d call a <i>busy
</i>stretch ‘o’ road, young man. A busy day might see me go and then come back.
Might be a long ol’ wait, is all I’m sayin’. Might want to confer with your little
lady there, and see how she feels about standin’ nexta this road ‘til I come by
again tomorrow …’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Tomorrow?’ Jenny said, and the word came
out half-question and half-gasp. It looked like she was about to start crying.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Malcolm suppressed the urge to smile.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He was thinking that maybe a lift to the
next village was the best idea on offer here, and now he could do it without
having to give up an inch of pride because Jenny there had given him the
perfect excuse for changing his mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He flashed the farmer a knowing version of
the smile he’d suppressed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Sounds like maybe that lift would be
gratefully received.’ He said, rolling his eyes over at Jenny to show that she
was the reason – the only reason – for accepting the offer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Don’t matter each way to me.’ The farmer
said. ‘Hope you-all don’t mind much sittin’ on that flatbed back here, the
front seats are all tooken up.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
guy peeled back some of the tarpaulin, got them up onto the flatbed, closed the
tailgate, and made his way to the front. He sat down in the driver’s seat and
reached onto the dashboard and came up with something that looked like a walkie
talkie or CB handset, if they still existed. He spoke into the device and as he
did he glanced back over his shoulder to look at his passengers. It looked like
a kind of unconscious action, as if he were looking over at them because he was
talking about them. Malcolm saw the man’s lips move. He was no lipreader, and
there was enough distance between them that he could have been mistaken, but to
Malcolm it looked like the man had said: <i>got another one</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The pick-up started up and soon they were
driving, but he didn’t feel comforted by the fact.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He didn’t feel comforted at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The village sign read
‘Near’, which was about as strange a village name as Malcolm could remember
seeing. It looked quaint but dull, with a few thatched cottages punctuating a
more modern style High Street. Although by modern, he meant state of the architectural
art before cars existed, judging by the bumps in the road that jostled the
vehicle as they drove.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The man dropped them outside a village shop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘You’ll find yourself a telephone inside.’
He said, waved, refastened the tarpaulin, got back in his truck, and drove
away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘That was kind of him.’ Lizzie offered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Kind would have been towing the car here,
too.’ Malcolm corrected. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He walked up to the shop door, pushed down
on the handle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Met resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Pushed harder.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The door did not open.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Closed for Lunch’ according to the scrawl
on a piece of card blu-tacked to the inside of the door’s glass.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Great.’ Malcolm kicked the bottom of the
door in frustration. ‘I mean this is just about bloody perfect, isn’t it?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was no indication of just how long
‘for lunch’ might be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He pressed his face to the glass but could
see no signs of life inside. They’d have heard him kicking the door anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘I didn’t see a phone box on our way in.’
He said. ‘Did you?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jenny shook her head.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Maybe we should just keep walking further
into the village. Might be one there.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She pointed, half-heartedly, down the road,
probably thinking he’d just shoot down her idea because … well, because it was <i>her
</i>idea, and that gave him a flash of anger. Damn her. Thinking she could ever
know him like that. He’d show her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He gave her a pretty accurate
representation of a smile.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘That’s a great idea.’ He told her, making
his voice sound like she’d just solved Fermat’s last theorem for him, the
solution that was just too long to fit in the margins of <i>Arithmetica</i>. The
reply and tone were so unexpected that Jenny looked visibly shaken by it. More
so than if he’d backhanded her across the face for her impudence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So they walked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It reminded Malcolm of the villages he
remembered from when he was growing up, the ones they’d visited on holidays, or
during the long country walks his parents had pretended to enjoy. Walking
through it felt like walking through a museum exhibit where the 1970s was
treated as a subject worthy of preservation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It <i>wasn’t</i> worthy of such attention.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But then he’d hated his childhood, and he
hated the places associated with it. He thought the countryside was an
anachronism, and preferred the rigid certainty of the city. You knew where
everything was, and what it was for, in the city. Here … not so much.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He was still thinking about the functional
pointlessness of the village when Jenny’s voice cut in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘What do you think THAT is?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They were walking past a row of terraced
houses and she had stopped outside one of them and was pointing at its wall.
Malcolm was in no mood for dawdling – they had a telephone to find – but Jenny
wasn’t following so he stopped too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He followed her gaze.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The outside walls of the houses had been
plastered with a uniform render, then overpainted a creamy yellow colour. The finish
had a slight sandy texture, as if ice cream had melted on a beach. About
halfway up between the house’s ground and upper floor windows there was an odd
bulge in the wall, an ovoid form emerging from the wall but still covered by render
and paint. It was perhaps a foot-and-a-half from top to bottom. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘It’s an egg.’ He said, flippantly, but felt
uncomfortable with the thought as his mind flashed back to the egg by the side
of the road near the car. But it <i>did </i>look like an egg, or half an egg,
cut longitudinally and fixed to the wall on its flat surface, letting the shell
bulge outwards. It didn’t look accidental. It was too precise for that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Don’t you think it’s a little weird?’
Jenny asked, but Malcolm just grunted. Truth was he didn’t care. Okay, it <i>was
</i>a little strange, but maybe it was just some quirky, local craftsman had
provided a stylistic curlicue to the wall, no more remarkable than the straw
finials you saw on thatched rooves, those animals that the thatcher used to
sign his work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was hardly worth a bloody conversation.
Now, of all times. When what they needed was a phone. A phone to get them out
of this tedious little village …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘There’s another one.’ Jenny’s voice went
up an octave. He followed her pointing finger and there, indeed, <i>was </i>another
one. On the next house in line. Smaller and lower down, and less raised up from
the surface, but still clearly visible. His eyes scanned the rest of the terrace
and – now that he knew what he was looking for – he saw more of them.
Egg-shaped structures, bulging from each house. Most of them smaller than the
first, and harder to spot. But once seen, obvious. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It made the houses’ facades look … well, <i>unpleasant</i>,
he thought. Aesthetically it was an odd choice. The ovoid bumps made the
exteriors look like they’d all become infected with some kind of rot underneath
the render, and it was bubbling away from the wall. Okay, the precision of the
shapes made that unlikely, but the fact that there was no consistency in their
positioning or size took away the – slight though it was – positive collective
effect that might have achieved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Deep down, the egg shapes unsettled him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A lot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Though the shapes of the design suggested
birds’ eggs, it wasn’t little chicks he was suddenly imagining emerging from
them, but rather something a whole lot less cute. For some reason his mind
fixated not on the avian, but rather the <i>arachnid</i>; and his skin bristled
with the sudden image of the shells bursting open and disgorging hundreds –
maybe thousands – of baby spiders down the walls of each building, all
moist-from-birth legs and new-born, primal hunger.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Nonsense, of course, but his skin didn’t
lie and it was telling him that it did not like those bumps on the walls. It
did not like them at all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
felt Jenny tense and pull away from a vice-tight grip on her upper arm that he
couldn’t for the life of him remember applying. Her eyes flashed with a mixture
of pain and fear, which she quickly sublimated, perhaps aware that their existence
would only inflame him more. But even that <i>flicker</i> of emotion, no matter
how quickly suppressed, made him feel a corresponding jolt of rage, made more
acute by the fact that his grabbing her had been instinctive, performed completely
involuntarily.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
had been bad enough in the days when she’d still felt able to criticise or
chastise him for things that he’d done deliberately, but how the hell could she
<i>dare</i> to blame him, now, for things he’d been unaware of? That wasn’t
fair. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Not
fair at all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Still,
the moment passed quickly, and her eyes had lost their rebellious sheen, so he
started walking and after a few moments she followed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The houses on either
side started looking older, less modern, more … <i>ramshackle</i> was the word
that occurred to him. Not <i>ramshackle </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as in <i>falling down</i>, but rather that the
techniques that went into their creation started looking cruder, less geometrically
precise, and the overriding impression was of journeying further back in time
with each few yards they walked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The egg motifs played out on all the
buildings, it seemed, but the older they got, the cruder they got. More
jagged, the curves less true. It was actually a relief. Although there had been
no <i>real </i>doubt in his mind that the things were artefacts, that they had
been <i>meant </i>by a human creator, that horrible spider image had been haunting
him, somewhere below the conscious level, but making him uneasy all the same. Now
he could see that they were just a stylistic choice – however ill-advised – he was
free to just hate them for what they were, not what they <i>might </i>be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cruder they might be, but another thing
they were was more numerous. Some buildings’ facades were almost covered with
them. So maybe it was some odd rural tradition that was waning over time, with
the newer houses just having a single, token egg, enough to continue the
tradition, but not enough to make them look quite as horrible as the older
houses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because ‘horrible’ was really the only word
for the multi-egg houses. Singly they had been odd, but in groups they were
really quite distasteful. Where earlier he had thought of rot, bubbling up
through plaster, now his imagination was overwhelmed with images of disease. Bruises.
Swollen glands. Buboes. Tumours.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
houses looked sick.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They
were just passing by a particularly diseased looking cottage when a thought he’d
been avoiding suddenly broke through and demanded that he address it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
thought that had been obvious ever since the farmer had dropped them off outside
the village shop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
observation that he’d thought would be disproved by the simple act of walking
further down the street.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Here
are the houses, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">the thought
went, <i>but where are the people?<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
village was deserted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Apart
from the houses there was not a single sign of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">No
people going about their daily business. No cats sunning themselves in front
gardens or in porches. No birds sang.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Houses
aside, the only <i>actual</i> evidence of human presence had been that ‘Closed
for Lunch’ sign in the shop window, and thinking about it now, that could have
been in the window for hours. Or days, weeks, months, or even years. They’d
seen it when it was feasibly lunchtime and had assumed that it meant the shop would
be opening soon, but even a ‘Closed for Lunch’ sign <i>left </i>on a shop
window would seem accurate once a day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
broken clock effect.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Still,
the village didn’t <i>feel </i>deserted. The houses – horrible bumps
notwithstanding – seemed cared for and none were falling into any kind of disrepair.
Malcolm didn’t know if he was being fanciful but he had the sense that
somewhere, perhaps in a window of one of those houses, <i>someone </i>was
watching their progress through the village. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He’d
always believed that there was something to that feeling, of being observed,
and thought that even if there was no scientific mechanism that could explain
how such a sense would work, surely there was a strong evolutionary advantage
to be gained from knowing when a predator might have its gaze directed at you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">But
<i>were</i> they being watched?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">If
so, by whom?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">And
why were there no people about?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
farmer had obviously expected the shop to be open, that was – after all – why he’d
dropped them there, so maybe everyone in the village had just decamped to a
pub, or a community centre, or – worse – a church. Maybe there was a village
meeting. Or a fucking jumble sale. Who knew with country types? They chose to
live in isolated communities, who could actually tell what those communities
ending up doing in their spare time?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Continuing
with the walk seemed like the best way to proceed. He toyed with the idea of
knocking on every door they passed, trying to get access to a phone that way, but
something stopped him from actually applying his knuckles to the doors. A need
for caution that he couldn’t explain, but neither could he bring himself to
violate its directives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">No.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
was just letting the unnatural stillness of the village get to him now. Letting
paranoia overtake reason. Yes, he was well out of his comfort zone, but who
wouldn’t be? The car had broken down and he’d had to leave it – against his
wishes – and he’d come to this odd village and its seeming lack of people and
those weird – and let’s face it <i>unpleasant</i> – egg-like bulges on their
walls and his mind was just running stupidly, but explicably, wild.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They
weren’t being watched.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
people of the village were somewhere playing Bingo, or singing <i>Kumbaya</i>, or
being lectured by a policeman on the necessity of locking their doors at night.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
shop really was closed for lunch.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Everything
was fine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Odd,
but fine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
farmer would never have dropped them here if …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘What
is it?’ Jenny asked, breaking through the dark thought that just bubbled up and
burst within his mind. The dark thought whose arrival she had read off his
face, hence the question.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘It’s
nothing.’ He lied. ‘Just getting frustrat4ed, that’s all.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
had no idea if she believed him, and honestly, he didn’t care. Because the
thought was a like a trap door that had opened beneath the surface of the
everyday world, and had dropped him into a darker place, one that he was only
just beginning to understand the geography of.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
farmer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">What
he’d thought he saw him say into the walkie talkie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">got
another one</span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Another
broken down car? How common could that be? And he’d looked over at the flat bed,
at him and Jenny as he spoke. Didn’t that mean he was referring to them?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">got
another one<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">But.
There. Were. Two. Of. Them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Him
and Jenny.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So,
not <i>got another person</i> then.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Another
man?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Another
woman?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Or
had he just completely failed in his lip-reading?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Was
he really trying to tell himself that the farmer had brought them here
deliberately, having warned … <i>someone </i>that he’d <i>got another one?<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
needed to snap out of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Jenny
was looking at him with puzzlement now, but she had seen all the things he had,
had all the information at her fingertips that he did, so why wasn’t she asking
the kinds of questions that he was asking of himself? Maybe she was completely
oblivious to the oddities at play here, in which case, she didn’t deserve his
insight.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Looking
at her now, he realised something he hadn’t allowed himself to really consider
before. He had spent so much of their relationship shaping her into the person
she was today. He’d won her over, made her dependent upon him, he’d isolated
her from the majority of her friends, he’d broken her wild spirit, he’d taken
away her financial independence, he’d taken away her phone, he chose what she
bought, what she wore, where she went, with whom, and when all was said and
done he had fashioned her into this meek, passive, subservient creature who was
afraid of his every change of facial expression. The truth was he <i>hated </i>what
she had become, no, what she had <i>allowed </i>herself to become.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
was that moment of disgust that made him turn away from her and continue up the
road.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
did not check to see if she was following him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The village had lost
the need for terraces and had segued into something a little more pleasant.
Thatched cottages with lawns. The bulbous deformities of render were still
present, and in greater numbers, but at least there were other elements of the
houses to draw his attention away from the hideous architectural blight that
had infected the buildings. Trellises and arches, winding paths, creeping
sprawls of Wisteria, sprinklings of trees and neatly-tended flower beds. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Still no people though.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
whole afternoon was starting to seem like some particularly surreal dream that
the subconscious occasionally scooped up and served to the sleeping mind. The
more he thought that, the more dream-like it all seemed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Architectural
bulges, for Christ’s sake? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
Freudian analysis would be worth a listen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Problem
was, of course, that he wasn’t dreaming. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
carried on walking.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He was just starting
to wonder how long the road was planning to go on for when he came across the
start of a rolling stretch of grass. A village green.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">And
on the far side of the green?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Underneath
an ancient looking tree?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A good
old park bench.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">And
sitting on the bench?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">People.
Two of them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Both
women, by the look of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
hurried across the green towards them, feeling such a surge of relief that it
highlighted just how disturbed he’d been by the experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
green had been mowed recently and the heavy scent tried to send him off into
memories but this wasn’t the time for that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There
were people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">An
old woman, he could see now, in some austere black smock dress thing, seventy-years-old
if she was a day, and a younger woman, maybe half that, in a floral-patterned
skirt, and mustard yellow blouse. He looked around for Jenny, to tell her that
they were saved, and realised that she wasn’t beside him. He turned a full one-eighty
to see how far she had fallen behind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There
was no sign of her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Typical,
</span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">he thought, <i>stupid bloody
woman! Where had she got to?<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
tried to remember the last time he’d been aware of her near him and realised
that it was when he turned and walked off. Maybe she was tired. Or angry. Maybe
he shouldn’t have stormed off like that, but grow a spine woman! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Something
brushed against his arm and his heart lurched in his chest, and he jerked
around ready to defend himself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">From
what, he did not know. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
was just the older woman from the bench.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She
narrowed her eyes and examined his face.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Are
you lost, my dearie?’ She asked. Her face was lined and her jowls sagging, but
there was an intensity to her eyes that suggested the physical ravages of time
had not lessened her mental capacities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘I
… I’m looking for a telephone.’ He said, feeling like an idiot, blurting it out
like that without any context.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘You
haven’t one of those mobile ones?’ Her tone was incredulous.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Yes.
I mean, of course. But there’s no signal. Look, my car broke down …’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Ah.’
The woman nodded. ‘No signal.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Malcolm
realised that she wasn’t nodding at him, but at somewhere off to his other
side. The younger woman was there, and he had no idea how he hadn’t noticed her
approaching. The old woman had caught him unawares because he’d been thinking
about Jenny, but now he was boxed in on both sides and he hadn’t seen or heard <i>either
</i>of them approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Signal
is like that, around here.’ The younger woman said. ‘To be honest, we like it
that way. Don’t we, Shirley?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
old woman, Shirley, nodded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘We
do.’ She said, ‘Used to be no one worried about <i>signals</i> and <i>likes </i>and
baking competitions were judged by the WI rather than broadcast live on
television …’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Malcolm
felt impatient. He just wanted out of this bloody village. Now. He didn’t want to
hear a lecture on the wonders of the past. When he was sufficiently distant
from it in time and space then maybe he’d look back on it with a smile and a
shake of the head, but now it was annoying.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘I’m
looking for a phone box…’ He interrupted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
younger woman laughed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Not
many of those around these days. People tend to have smartphones…’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘But,
as we’ve already ascertained, no signal. Do either of you have a landline I
could use. I’ll pay, of course …’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘You
seen ‘em yet?’ Shirley asked, a non-sequitur that wrong-footed Malcolm and
found him struggling to finish his train of thought.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Seen
what?’ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘The
eggs.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Malcolm
felt flustered. He wanted to be talking about a phone, but the woman had
managed to come up with the one thing that could distract him from that goal
for now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Yes,
yes I have. What’s the story behind them?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Story?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Yes,
by which I mean what are they?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
woman chuckled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Eggs
is eggs, young man.’ She said, still chuckling. ‘Why, what else would they be?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘But
what are they for? Why are they there? On the walls?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
was the younger woman who answered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Did
you know that many of the world’s religions viewed the egg as particularly important?’
She asked, not waiting for a reply. ‘The Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hindus, the
Chinese and many more all had creation stories revolving around the idea of a <i>cosmic
egg</i> that hatched and gave us the universe, the world, the gods, a particular
god, delete where not applicable. Metaphors? Maybe. But a pervasive one, don’t
you think?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Malcolm
didn’t know <i>what </i>to think. Short of ‘shut up!’ he couldn’t think of any
way to respond to the woman.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘I
can see you’re not impressed. That’s fine. But if you think about it, the Big
Bang hypothesis is nothing more than a variation of the myth of the hatching of
the cosmic egg, isn’t it? Why I like the idea of the egg as a metaphor for
creation is quite simple: it’s ours. Female, you know? Eggs are ours. Creation
is ours. You chip in, sure, but there aren’t any cosmic tadpole myths. Are you
here on your own?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Again
with the non-sequitur. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘No.’
He said. ‘Jenny … that is my wife, Jenny, is here with me…’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Both
of the women made a pantomime of looking around.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Can’t
see her.’ The younger woman said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Where
is she?’ The one called Shirley asked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Back
there.’ Malcolm gestured. ‘Look, do you have a phone or not?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Neither
of them answered him. They both just stared at him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘A
phone?’ He persisted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Eggs
is eggs.’ Shirley said, and then both women started walking away from him,
heading in the direction he’d pointed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘HEY!’
He called after them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
women ignored him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
could not believe it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
felt his face going red, and a sudden kick of adrenaline forced his hands into
fists and blasted his mouth and throat bone dry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘HEY!’
He shouted after them. ‘A PHONE?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
women kept walking, and they kept ignoring him. They didn’t even look back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
strode after them, enraged. How <i>dare</i> they ignore him like this? It was unacceptable!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘EXCUSE
ME…’ He yelled, feeling utter, unrestrained rage boiling up within him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He’d
almost caught up with them when the younger one stopped next to one of the
houses and reached out her hands to touch the wall. Shirley turned round and
faced him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Eggs
is eggs.’ She said, putting her hands on the wall next to the other woman’s. ‘But
what they really are is <i>ours</i>.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Four
hands caressed the wall and as he watched in mute horror as one of the
egg-shaped bumps started moving down the wall towards them. The younger woman
started to speak, but it was in a language he did not recognise. The older
woman began to make odd clicking sounds with her tongue in counterpoint to the
other’s peculiar guttural sounds and Malcolm not only couldn’t recognise a single
syllable she was uttering, he could not even begin to understand <i>how </i>she
could be making those sounds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">More
clicking sounds came from all around him and he saw doors opening on all the
houses on the street, with women emerging into the light, all staring straight
at him, eyes wide, faces hostile.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
clicking got louder and louder, perfectly synchronised, and the younger woman’s
voice rose to compete. Those senseless, impossible words in which he could discern
neither vowels nor consonants, but that seemed to hit him at some deep, primal
level, rising in pitch and volume and blending with the now staccato clicks of
a hundred women’s tongues. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">His
mind rebelled. This … it couldn’t be happening. He’d lost his mind back at the
car, and this was all a psychotic delusion. Or he’d never made this journey and
he was at home, in bed, sweating his way through a horrible – but finite! – dream.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
had to be a dream.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Because
the women were standing on either side of the road, all the way back to the
shop, probably, dual lines of women clicking their tongues as the egg-like
bulges on the buildings started to pulse in time with the sounds, inflating and
deflating as if breathing along with the clicks and nonsense words …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Which
was madness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
just was. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">No
other explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">An
overactive imagination, magnified through the lens of the day’s stresses, was
playing fuck you tricks upon him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There
was no way –NO FUCKING WAY AT ALL – that those eggs were moving through the
surfaces of the houses, no way, no way, no way, no way no way no way …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They
weren’t shrinking and swelling, shrinking and swelling, shrinking and swelling
like lungs deflating then inflating.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They
CERTAINLY weren’t moving down the walls of the buildings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They
weren’t.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They.
Just. Weren’t.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Pushing
through brick and plaster, making ripples that spread out as they moved, making
ripples in solid matter as if it was water.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">And
neither were they all reaching the bottom of their respective walls at exactly
the same moment. Because that would mean that they were acting together. And
that would be absurd. That would be impossible. That would be too much for his
mind to bear. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
impossible words, made of sounds that surely no human mouth was ever supposed
to make, weren’t making the eggs move. Because the eggs weren’t moving. They weren’t.
They weren’t detaching themselves from their respective walls and becoming pavement
eggs, now made of concrete, but still pulsating.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">THEY
WEREN’T.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They
weren’t moving <i>through</i> the pavements, and they certainly, 100 percent
definitely, weren’t heading towards him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So
why, he wondered, was he running?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Running
away?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">From
pavements that weren’t bulging? Rippling? From bulges that forced their blind,
impossible way towards him?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Because
if any of that was true, then surely everything he thought he knew about the
way the world worked had suddenly been made obsolete. The earth, as Shakespeare
had once observed, had bubbles, and <i>these </i>were of them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Too
many bubbles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">And.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">All.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Of.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Heading.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Towards.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Perhaps
the last thread of his reason unravelled then, because his earlier thought of
arachnid birth hunger came back to him, and no matter how fast he ran, he could
not escape. Every house on his route had added more of those loathsome
excrescences to the army of them homing in on him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">His
entire life had been based upon the principle of imposing his will, his
control, over everything that existed within its orbit. It wasn’t – and hadn’t
ever been – a conscious choice he made, but rather an impulse that had driven
him for his whole life, constructing rigid order within a life that had, from
his childhood, seemed chaotic and out of control.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Now
he knew that he had never seen <i>out of control</i>, he had just lived through
a flimsy simulation of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">This
was what <i>out of control</i> meant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">This
was <i>out of control</i> in all of its terrible glory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There
was no way to avoid the eggs. It really was a numbers game. He could see them
forcing their way through concrete, through asphalt, forms that moved through
solid matter like it was water. There were hundreds of them, and it was not ego
that told him that it was <i>he </i>that they wanted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
was a plain observation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Still
he ran. Ran through a waking nightmare. Watched on each side by the rows of
women who were all contributing to the terrifying soundtrack of clicks and
senseless words. He could see no mercy in their watchful faces. He dodged and
feinted in an effort to stay out of the way of those impossible bumps.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
thought he might see a path through them and then one of the eggs flowed under the
heel of his right foot just as he was bringing it down, and he felt the thing <i>give</i>
slightly beneath his weight, like it wasn’t wholly solid, and then he was
falling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
wheeled his arms in a desperate attempt to maintain his balance, but it was
futile.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
hit the road, hard, and pain erupted in his knee, his chest, his cheek. Winded
and disoriented, he flailed around, and when he looked up there was one of the
eggs a couple of feet away from his face. Next to it, another one. Another.
Another.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">From
ground-level, eggs were all he could see. They moved so fast, closing in from
all directions, encircling him so quickly that by the time he had recovered
enough to pull himself up into a sitting position there was no way through
them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bumps
in the road, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">he thought,
hysterically, but even that stupid idea was dispelled as soon as it was formed,
because those half-egg lumps were no longer the colour of the asphalt that they
had moved through to reach him. They were no longer half-eggs. They were pushing
up, out of the road, revealing themselves, showing him what had been underneath
the houses’ render, the concrete paths, the asphalt road.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Semi-translucent
grey bulges, like the skins of thick sacs, through which a murky, milky liquid
could be discerned. The liquid made the black shapes writhing at the centre of
each egg very difficult to make out clearly, which – he thought – was a mercy,
at least.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
clicking sounds he could hear coming from within each egg made him even more
glad that he could not see what was making them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
felt tears streaming down his cheeks and he knew that he was done. Whatever
this was, it ended with his death. There couldn’t be any other way. This was
it. It wasn’t right. It didn’t make any sense. It didn’t make any sense at all.
He hit his forehead with his fist trying to clear his mind, and he screamed
out, as loud as he could, so loud if <i>hurt:<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“WHY?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
question seemed to hang in the air for a while, but the clicking and nonsense
sounds stopped, so it seemed that his scream of enquiry had bought him, if not
an answer, then at least some peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">This
wasn’t fair. Any of it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Not
fair at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
<i>sensed</i> the change before he <i>saw </i>the change. Something in the
pulsations of those noisome sacs drew his attention, and then, as he watched,
the ring around him began to widen at a single point, opening out, and the
ranks of eggs behind moved to help form what looked like a kind of avenue,
leading back towards where the route he’d taken into the heart of the village,
an egg-lined avenue and he didn’t know if they expected him to follow the path
they’d laid out for him, but they had another thing coming, he wasn’t going to
do anything they wanted him to, he refused, he would not play their game …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Down
the road two figures moved. Towards him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Jenny!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Jenny
and that bloody farmer from earlier, the one who’d brought them here in the
first place and then driven off.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Still,
better late than never, and the eggs did seem afraid of him. They’d parted to
let him through. As rescues went, this one might just work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘JENNY!’
He called out, and discovered that he was crying again, this time with relief.
She didn’t acknowledge him, but maybe that was part of the plan she and the
farmer had formulated. He didn’t know, didn’t care, just as long as they got
him out of this madness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">When
they reached him, Malcolm was shocked by the expression on Jenny’s face. It
wasn’t fear – no, he knew that look well – but something harder, colder. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
farmer looked down at him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Doesn’t
look like it’s going so well for you.’ He said, and there were none of the rural
mangling of the English language he’d been guilty of earlier, indeed his voice
was almost aristocratic in comparison. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Please.’
Malcolm sobbed. ‘Please help me.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
man seemed to consider it for a moment, then shrugged.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Sorry,
doesn’t work for me.’ He said. ‘I’m interested though, in what you think is
going on here.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Malcolm
could only shake his head by way of reply. He didn’t know. He just wanted it to
stop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
man hunkered down on his heels to put his face close to Malcolm’s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘My
name is Roland Marcase,’ He said. ‘And I am a professor of Anthropology, with a
keen interest in British folklore. I’m telling you this because I think it is
important that you understand what is happening to you here, but also because I’m
sure the assumptions you made about me when we first met, just on the strength
of my use of dialect, were not particularly flattering.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
smiled and showed Malcolm a set of perfect teeth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘This
village, Near, is a remarkable place to study folklore at very close quarters. Usually,
in my field, you deal with stories handed down over hundreds – sometimes thousands
– of years. Have you ever played that parlour game, where a phrase is whispered
to one person, who whispers it to another and on and on down a line? Quite
often a folklorist is that last person in line, hearing a corrupted version of
the original message and trying to write an academic paper on a mishearing of a
mishearing of a mishearing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Sometimes,
and this is the <i>really </i>interesting part, the mishearings are deliberate.
Distortion is a pretty good way to cover up an inconvenient or, let’s face it,
just fucking terrifying truth. Case in point: Near. There are so many names for
the things you see before you. Fairies. Fae Folk. Elves. The Hidden People.
Faerie folk. See what we did was we took something primal, dark, strange and very,
very dangerous and we anthropomorphised it into something cute and beguiling,
basically something the Victorians could tell their kids about. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘The
truth is that these creatures – we call them Chthons, if you’re interested –
predate humanity by … well, aeons. And seeing as we’re the new kids on the
block they … they watch over us. Well, some of us. The ones of us who need their
help.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Near
used to be a pretty ordinary fenland village. It had witches, of course, and it
still has. But they’re not like you think. They’re just women who use the powers
of the earth to get men like you to fuck off out of their affairs. They’re tired of
your bullshit, rather like poor Jenny here.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Malcolm
turned his gaze to his wife, but she was just nodding in agreement. Her face
was grave. It was then that he realised that this wasn’t a rescue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Eggs.’
Marcase continued. ‘That’s what the Chthons look like here, and it’s not an
accident. Eggs are a very feminine symbol. And every woman who lives in Near
has allied themselves with a very female kind of power. They’ve had to. Idiots
like you have blighted their lives. So they seek this place out, or the place
draws them here, it depends how you choose to look at it. And something very
like … well, this …’ he spread his hands expansively, ‘has happened. Again and
again and again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Female
power makes all this possible, sure, but the Chthons here still need males,
male energy.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Marcase
got back to his feet, went over to Jenny and put his arm around her shoulders.
It seemed quite a fatherly gesture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">‘Eggs
is eggs.’ He said, then led Jenny away, back up the avenue of Chthons. ‘And
everything needs to eat.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
ring of eggs closed the circle, and then closed in around him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Now
that they were excited, the milkiness of their internal liquids turned clear
and he could see just what the black things inside the sacs looked like.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
screamed, but not for long. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-24921061523037134822021-02-18T12:57:00.000-08:002021-02-18T12:57:41.861-08:00D is for ... DEUS EX MACHEN, A<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "28 Days Later",sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">DEUS
EX MACHEN, A<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bennett found the manuscript
in a box of papers at a car boot sale. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He’d
almost walked past the stall – it was one of those house clearance deals with
plastic crates overflowing with outdated or broken crap – but the papers caught
his attention (who the hell sold <i>papers</i> at a car boot?) and pickings at
the boot sale were slim, so he thought what the heck? and moved over to have a closer
look.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There
was a box of videotapes in front of the one he wanted, stacked with rip-offs of
Disney cartoons with the titles of the original films but horribly inferior
artwork. God only knew how terrible the actual animation would be. He moved the
mockbusters out of the way and started rifling through the other box.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
was a strange selection of documents: some newspaper cuttings, a couple of
academic theses, piles of lecture notes, something that looked like an exhaustive bibliography of works relating to the scholar and ghost story writer
Montague Rhodes James, and a yellowing typescript.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He picked up the typescript and frowned at
the cover page.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">NOVEL OF THE<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">GREY SHADOW<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">By Arthur Machen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
joke, surely, he thought, idly flicking to the next page of the script. He read
the first sentence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">The
city streets were unnaturally dark, as if from the shutting of some vast <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">tomb
door. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">His eyes narrowed
into slits. His heart started pounding in his chest. His mouth was suddenly
parched dry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Joke
or not, it had to be worth a punt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He put the script back in the box, burying
it beneath the other documents, attracted the attention of the stallholder, and
pointed at the papers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“How much?” He said in as casual a tone as
he could muster.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The stallholder, a buck-toothed, overweight
middle-aged man wearing denim dungarees over a grease-stained sweatshirt, gave
the box a brief inspection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Ten,” he said. “For the lot.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Eight?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The man shrugged.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Eight’ll do it. I guess.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bennett counted the money out in change,
handed it over, picked up the box and carried it away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He got the box back
to his car and fired up Google on his phone. Put ‘Arthur Machen’ into the search
box and pressed 'return'.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He swiped and read and discovered just what
he’d thought. Arthur Machen had written “Novel of the White Powder”, “Novel of
the Dark Valley”, and “Novel of the Black Seal”, but there was no mention of
“Novel of the Grey Shadow”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So, a hoax, then.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of course it was. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But … but what if it wasn’t?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What if he had actually found a previously
undiscovered typescript from one of the absolute pioneers of modern horror?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That had to be worth more than £8, didn’t
it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Val was a little less
willing to entertain, or even listen to, the possibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You paid a fiver for that box of crap?”
She asked, the ‘you fucking idiot’ tone in her voice underlining the reason
he’d knocked the price he’d paid down by a few quid in the telling. Val was
nothing if not predictable in her disdain for anything that actually <i>interested
</i>him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s not crap.” He said, hating the defensive
tone he’d felt forced into importing into his words. “It’s interesting.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Should have put it on the electricity meter.”
She snapped. “Instead you bought a box of bloody junk. You’ve got plenty of
boxes of junk …”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bennett tuned her out and thought about the
script. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Later when he was on his own, in his retreat
– the spare bedroom turned study where he read his books and dreamed of one day
writing his own - he took it out of the box and started to read.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">NOVEL OF THE<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">GREY SHADOW<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">By Arthur Machen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>THE CITY AT NIGHT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">The city streets were unnaturally dark, as if from the shutting
of some vast tomb door. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Barnaby felt disoriented for a moment, standing there,
feeling as if some crucial mystery or age-buried secret hung in the air around
him; entwined around the ghosts of buildings that barely managed to stand out
from the almost palpable blackness of the night.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>He reflected later that the whole cursed business that
followed would have passed him by entirely if he hadn’t missed the last train
out of the city. It certainly hadn’t been his intention to remain in town, but
an early evening meal at his club had somehow expanded to fill the late evening
too, mostly because Perkins had decided to try out a naïve political polemic on
his captive audience and the result had been too compelling to drag himself
away from. Perkins had recently been introduced to a particular pamphlet inspired
by the works of Marx and Engels and was trying out its arguments without fully
grasping them or understanding that he was very much part of the problem that
the tract was describing. The spectacle, ameliorated with careful doses of
claret and, later, port, had meant that Barnaby missed his train to the
country, and was slightly worse for wear when he belatedly encountered the cold
night air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>That Barnaby’s equilibrium had been compromised by his
self-medication was made clear to him when, as he turned into Wardour Street,
he – quite literally in this case – bumped into an old friend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Norrington had pulled up on the pavement, absorbed in
thought and, though the street was otherwise deserted, Barnaby hadn’t seen him
until he collided with his erstwhile University roommate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘I
say!’ Norrington exclaimed, plucked rudely from his own solitary thoughts.
‘Mind where you’re going, old chap!’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Barnaby was midway through his muttered apologies when
the identity of the gentleman before him fully registered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘My word! Norrington!’ He exclaimed. ‘How long has it
been?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Norrington scrutinised the man in front of him with a
puzzled – and it had to be said, vaguely hostile – glare before his face
creased, brightened with recognition and, finally, became cordial.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Barnaby?’ The uncertain tone of his voice underscored
the two or three years that had elapsed since they had last met. ‘Well, of all
the luck.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Luck?’ Barnaby enquired, suddenly wary that a demand was
about to be made upon the night-strained contents of his pocketbook.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Why, yes.’ Norrington patted Barnaby’s shoulder. ‘I am
in desperate need of your renowned rationality, my friend. I was standing here
at somewhat of a loss, reflecting on some puzzling data and suggestive
inferences, when suddenly the very man I need to pour light on some singular
circumstances suddenly materialises.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘I am afraid I have sacrificed some of my rationality at
the altar of conviviality. I am not sure I can be of much use …’ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Perhaps, then, you will at least lend me a few moments
of your time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have taken rooms a short
distance from here. If I provide you with refreshments commensurate to the
task, would you be so kind as to offer your ear and incredulity to some events
and impressions that are haunting my waking hours of late?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘My curiosity is sufficiently piqued as to make the offer
impossible to refuse. Lead on.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Barnaby noticed that before setting forth for his
lodgings, Norrington nervously studied the pavement beneath them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bennett reached the end of the section and became aware of a
tentative movement outside the door and knew that Val was plucking up the
courage to come and give him more grief over his profligate ways, and the fact
that he was now choosing to ignore her to read the script. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He considered the
possibility of opening the door and offering her an olive branch, but the idea
quickly died. It wasn’t <i>him</i> who was at fault here, so why should he be
the one to apologise? To wear the hair shirt when it would fit her so much
better? Fuck her. Unless she apologised to <i>him </i>then he would just leave
her to stew. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How long had she been
out there? He wondered. He’d only noticed her there because of the break in the
narrative, so maybe she was lingering because she was trying to pluck up the courage
<i>to </i>apologise to him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He wouldn’t be able to
concentrate until he knew, so he got up and went to the door. He reached for
the handle but stopped. Hair stood up on his arms, and there was a prickle down
his spine. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A draught? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Had to be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He rubbed his arm until it felt normal again,
and then opened the door.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The hall was empty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Val must had heard him
coming, and then scuttled off before he could embarrass her. Typical of her. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He heard a noise above him, the sound of
someone moving about upstairs. How had she got up the stairs so quickly? Her
considered going up and asking her what she was playing at, but didn’t feel
like manufacturing another confrontation tonight, and anyway, he had a story to
read.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He went back into the study, closed the door,
picked up the typescript and resumed the story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">2. A SIMPLE DEMONSTRATION<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">‘Do you think that all we see is all that there is?’ Norrington
asked when they were seated in his rooms, a glass of whisky in one hand, a lit
cigarette in the other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Barnaby, puzzled by the odd question his friend had
opened the conversation with, sipped his own single malt, tilted his head, and
attempted to answer the question thoroughly and honestly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Is this enquiry merely an ice-breaker; a philosophical
musing; or the prelude to some preternatural tale that is weighing down upon
you? If it is the first, then my blasé response would be something along the
lines of: the majority of life’s mysteries unfold beneath the scrutiny and
analyses of learned men, so we may as well assume that, if there is indeed
more, then those mysteries will also fall well within the bailiwick of
scientific enquiry. If it was intended as a philosophical gambit then I would
demand that you first define your terms. Then I would prevail upon you to
narrow down the parameters of your question to ontology or psychology. If,
however, it was the final possibility I would prevail upon you for another dram
and settle myself back to listen.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Norrington smiled, a nervous thing that played briefly
across his lips before returning to a taut flat line.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘My question was, as you have guessed, a prelude to the
story I wish to relate. But it is a central theme that runs through my account,
so I will ask it again with some amendments. The general view is, I suppose,
that science and rationalism have poured light into the dark corners of the
earth, finding that the denizens of those corners are merely shadows of
explicable phenomena, but distorted by imagination, misinterpretation, and
superstition. So, we may assume, quite comfortably, that myth and legend were
tentative steps along the path to enlightenment, primitive attempts to explain
things without the benefit of the full facts. My <i>real </i>question then is
this: are our brains <i>capable </i>of understanding the true processes and
composition of the universe? With sight inferior to the acuity of the raptor
can we truly know that the narrow band of visual stimuli open to us, how can we
ever truly know that what we see is anything more than a <i>fraction</i> of the
possibilities available?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Barnaby nodded, conceding the point somewhat, but
perplexed as to its connection to any outward manifestations of objective
reality.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘The
question is one that all of us entertain from time to time, I’m sure, but an
answer is, I fear, impossible for us to know. Which, surely, makes it irrelevant
to us. We cannot see what we cannot see. Unless we develop sufficiently sophisticated
scientific apparatus that offers us a window onto such unseen levels of
existence, then the question is most certainly moot.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Norrington
inhaled from his cigarette, before releasing a dense plume from his lips.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I
see your point. Indeed, I believe that I would concede it, if it wasn’t for a
simple demonstration that I would like to conduct here, now, with you as its
willing subject. Oh, dear friend, you should not look so discomforted, this is
no hazardous experiment, merely something that you perform every day of your
own volition. A commonplace. A trifle.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘What
do you require of me?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I
just want you to close your eyes.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Barnaby
nodded his assent, and then acted as he had been requested, feeling foolish,
but unable to see a way to escape the position he had been manoeuvred into.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Can
you see me?’ Norrington asked, with a gravity to the question that instantly
dispelled Barnaby’s reflexive urge towards a flippant reply.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 64.35pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 7.65pt;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘No.
I cannot.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Try.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Without
opening my eyes?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 7.65pt;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Indeed.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I
still cannot see you.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>There
was a pause that Barnaby interpreted as one inserted for the purposes of drama,
like a conjurer’s pause before revealing the true result to a particularly
convoluted mixture of prestidigitation and misdirection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Well,
my friend, here is the question that demonstrates the grave importance of my
seemingly abstract musings: can I see you?’<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Of
course you can,’ Barnaby snapped, irritated, but then the purpose of the
experiment became utterly clear to him, and he felt an icy chill pass through
him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Ah,
I see that the proverbial penny has completed its fall.” Norrington’s voice had
a touch of frantic urgency. ‘Just because our own senses fall crudely short of
perceiving realms beyond our own, just because our vision is insufficient to
see the creatures that inhabit them, does not mean that <i>they</i> are unable
to see <i>us</i>.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Barnaby
opened his eyes and studied the face of his companion. There was a
proselytising zeal about his normally guarded demeanour. Something of the reformed
sinner protesting too much, or the preacher denying his own spiritual doubts with
renewed evangelical fire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Barnaby
found himself feeling cheated by the experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I
say, far be it for me to declaim the emperor’s state of immodest attire, but
the demonstration proves nothing. It is a parlour game. The validity of its
grand reveal relies entirely upon the truth of the proposition that preceded
it, something that we are far from establishing. Indeed, if the first
proposition is indemonstrable, then the revelation at its end is little more
than a diverting <i>non sequitur</i>.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Norrington stilled him with a
gesture of his hand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘This is but the overture. A
prologue. Now, let me relate the chain of events that so concerns me. Hear me
out as I refresh your glass, and when I am finished you may, I hope, greater
apprehend my state of perplexity.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Barnaby
nodded, his glass was duly refilled, and settled back in his chair to listen to
his friend’s tale.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">3. THE STORY FROM THE CITY STREETS<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘I am, you must
recall, a great believer in the constitutional necessity of walking. What you
may not know is that my frequent meanderings through this fine city are not
just idle journeys-for-journeys sake, but rather an exploration of both outer
and inner geographies. In many ways I see myself as analogous to the stock
character from 17<sup>th</sup> Century French literature, the flâneur, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as immortalised by Larousse in his <i>Grand
dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle.</i> I am, I submit, a connoisseur of the
street; a wanderer who seeks to observe – and hopefully to interpret – the
hidden language of the city he traverses. My methodology is simple: I start
walking until some feature of the city suggests to me a change of direction.
This feature can be as arbitrary as a street sign that contains a word or name that
resonates within me; it can be the direction taken by an animal, be it cat,
dog, bird or even rat; it can be an overheard word or phrase that nudges me
along a new trajectory; or it can be a sudden, inexplicable thought or feeling
that projects me off the main thoroughfares into darker, less known corners of
this majestic metropolis. The purpose of these wanderings, I have come to
realise, is an instinctual, maybe even <i>atavistic</i> urge to understand the
city on its own terms, to engage with its rhythms, and to attempt to see its
truest aspect, its secret face.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I see your expression, Barnaby,
and I understand the objection it reflects. You see this … search for the true
face of London as some attempt at personification, that the city has facades,
but no true faces. But allow me this conceit and we can move to the substantive
details of the account I wish to relate. Good.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Now, one such wandering path
took me on a long and interesting route that led me, through its nudges and shoves,
all the way to Notting Hill, where I stopped to listen to the conversation
between two street vendors whose topic was the liquidation of a bookbinders
shop a few streets away. I learned that a fire had consumed half of the
establishment and that the proprietor was in the process of shedding many of
the surviving items of his stock by way of a kerbside sale. The consensus
between the two vendors was that the proprietor was using the fire as an excuse
to finally retire from his trade, something that he had long desired but had
never found the impetus for. I headed in the direction indicated by the
vendors’ exuberant gestures and found the shop easily. Tools, finished volumes
and rolls of leather were laid out on the street in an incongruous medley, and
I stopped to investigate the wares with an odd feeling that I was on the edge
of some kind of revelatory moment, as if another detail of the city’s true face
awaited my attention, if I could but find it. I ran my hand through a box of awls,
nippers, and bone folders, then turned my attention to a box of beeswax
cylinders, then to a pile of unbound pages. I toyed idly with the pages, until
my attention was seized by a manuscript written in a florid hand entitled:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Felix Titling"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 150%;">MELMOTH PURSUED<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Felix Titling"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">by the Author of “BERTRAM” &c.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘My
heart skipped a beat. Not a rhetorical beat, I will add, but a tremor of shock
that literally affected my heart, throwing it out of its clockwork movement. I
need not tell you that the author of “Bertram” was none other than Charles
Robert Maturin, whose most celebrated work “Melmoth the Wanderer” remains one
of the most technically ambitious, and morally ambiguous, of the Gothic romances.
Was it conceivable that the bookbinder had in his possession an unpublished
manuscript detailing the further travels of the Irish Faust, Melmoth? Not the continuation
perpetrated by Balzac, but an original text from Maturin himself. It seemed
impossible, but, conversely, surely worthy of a modest investment, if only for
the intellectual exercise of disproving the veracity of its already dubious
provenance. The proprietor was a strange type, with protruding teeth, a
voluminous waistline and an odd set of blue, sleeveless overalls worn over an
oil-stained sweater. I indicated the manuscript and the man quoted me a low
price that seemed beyond the need for haggling. I paid him and brought the
manuscript back here, where I read it in one sitting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘And that, Barnaby, is when all
my troubles began.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bennett looked up from the manuscript, aware of a change in the
room, a dipping of the temperature that made him remember Val’s dig that he
should have invested his money on the electricity meter, rather than at the car
boot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That was, though, what
jumpers were for and there was one over the other side of the room.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He started to rise
from his seat but was pushed back as if by an unseen hand. He felt a moment’s
utter incomprehension, then felt a spasm of pain near the base his spine and the
mystery was solved. His back had seized up, moulded to the curve of the chair
back, making him unable to stand up straight. Muscles complained as he shifted
himself back into his seat. He’d get the jumper in a minute when his back was
less troublesome. He still had the typescript in his hand, so decided that he
may as well carry on reading until then.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">4. (EXTRACT FROM) DIVERS WORDS OF THE BIBLIOPHILE<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘The manuscript
was short, more like a treatment for a novel rather than a story unto itself, but
its brevity was, I have become convinced, a mercy. Like the published Melmoth,
it was a series of nested stories that added slowly details to a bigger picture.
This time it did not need to delineate the curse that Melmoth operated under,
but was rather a more focused narrative, collating documents and anecdotes that
lent weight to a peculiar, and disturbing pattern that was so tangentially
connected to Melmoth as to make one wonder about his inclusion in the work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘The first part is an introductory
passage, describing John Melmoth and Alonzo Monçada’s actions in the immediate
aftermath of ‘The Wanderer’. Although it appears that the eponymous Melmoth has
perished, delivered into the hell that was the final price of the deal he made
through his knowledge of the dark arts, the actual evidence is so slight that Monçada
wants more proof. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so begins a series
of tales – from an innkeeper, a privateer, a bibliophile, an explorer and a Roman
Catholic priest - that eventually coalesce to reveal that Melmoth is now the
merest shade of his former self, doomed, still, to haunt the earth but in less
corporeal form. He is described as ‘a noxious amalgamation of smoke and darkest
intention’ in the Statement of the Priest, and as ‘an indefinable terror, that
by its stubborn refusal to conform to the patterns of the living, has become
the very quintessence of evil’ by the privateer. Indeed, it is strongly hinted
at that Melmoth is now a creature hinted at in a deleted pasage from John
Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, a fact that the bibliophile is introduced to the tale
for the sole purpose of expounding. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘I will not spend too long on the
manuscript. I cannot verify that it comes from the hand of Maturin, nor can I
report that it makes a suitable sequel to the original tale. All I can relate
is the effect that it has had upon my life since I discovered it at that
forlorn bookbinder’s outdoor sale. It is said that books can change lives,
alter perspectives, rewrite destinies; that a man leaves a book changed by the
experience. I have always felt these grand claims ring hollow upon my ears,
that a story is merely a dream given physical form, and probably provides as
much moral instruction, societal insight, or philosophical enquiry as one
formed within the folds of sleep. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know
this makes me sound like a heathen savage, but what I mean is that I am a man
of the world, not of a <i>simulacrum</i> of that world. I am of the senses, not
just of sight. Although I appreciate the craft and artistry of the written word,
I am by no means shaken from my tactile world by its artifices. In matters of
philosophy and meaning, I rely more on my own senses as on the edifices of printed
word. I am reminded of Thomas Browne’s comment that <i>we yet discourse in
Platoes denne, and are but Embryon Philosophers, </i>but fear that <i>Platoes
denne</i> is more a product of the words we use to build, rather than an
illusion wrought from the senses. Many things can be constructed in words that
cannot be replicated in the actual world, and many things occur in the actual
world that can never find accurate recreation in the world of the word. There
is, I fear, a near impermeable membrane betwixt word and world, and traffic
through the membrane is never total, there is never a one-to-one mapping, but
rather a translation between alien orders that suffers the detriment of the
process. Which is, Barnaby, a rather long-winded and possibly opaque attempt at
an explanation of my unusual relationship with the printed word. Although it
stimulates my intellect, I am of the belief that intellect is insufficient to interpret
and understand the universe. Although it provokes my imaginative faculties, I believe
that imagination is as limited as intellect to provide us with a workable model
and explanation for the forces that control us. I believe, I suppose it can be
said, that the universe can only be reacted to, rather than delineated, for we
will never understand the universe and our place within it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘This manuscript, however, has
changed me, Barnaby, perhaps for all the time that remains in the universe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have said that I do not wish to dwell too
much upon the putative Melmoth manuscript, and there are practical reasons for
this that will, I hope, become clearer. But there is one of the nested stories
that requires my deeper exploration. <i>Divers Words of the Bibliophile. </i>I
will only share a part of it, for the practical reason I mentioned, but it is
imperative that you understand the meat of the supernal inferences contained
within.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Norrington journeyed over to his
desk and retrieved some papers. He flicked through them for a few moments then,
when he had found the piece he was looking for, turned and read out loud.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">“ … I have obtained the fragments
from a disreputable source; a situation that still manages to distress me, for
I had always believed in the implacability of my own honesty and integrity; -
but here was I consorting with the lowest wretch, a man whose unpleasant
demeanour was merely the physical manifestation of some deeper and darker
penumbra of rot of both soul and spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The amount that I tendered to this ignoble and wretched individual is
surely less than the repayments that must be subtracted from my own soul, and
there is no sense of pride in my discovery, merely anxiety and terror,
iniquity, and sorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
fragments were faded and timeworn, and the writing was, of course, in the hand
of an amanuensis, but – although the text was like none ever attributed to
Milton, and was cruder and less thoughtfully fashioned than the rest of
Paradise Lost – I found myself unable to doubt it was no less than its bill of
sale had advertised it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
the moment I first read the verses I have been in a purgatorial half-life, and
the passage that haunts both my distressing days and terrifying nights is this:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">The coldest screams of long-forgotten
lands<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Doth echo through the Kingdoms
of the Light<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Wherein all who hear its strange
commotion,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Feel lost and moved by
powers beyond ken.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">For this scream is from
the darkest epoch<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">When all was but dream in
the mind of God<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">And Nightmare! —loosed
from the chains of reason <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">–Finds new expression in
the minds of men<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Who twist it to their own
dark purposes<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Feed it with the
sustenance of their fears<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Giving it form to travel through
their world<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">And the power to feed as
it desires.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
cursed to provide it a vessel<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">That you have taken from
a sinful soul<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">And you shall not find surcease
from this curse<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Until it is once again
circumscribed<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Within the prison that
words can provide. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 5.4pt;"><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;">“<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything that besets my faltering existence
is hinged upon those darkening syllables, and all that follows is a product of my
hunger for the unknown and my inability to describe the horror that I have
unleashed. For horror it is that I have brought upon this world, and the true
horror is that I have not the words to send the damned thing back to where it
was imprisoned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Language fails me when I need it the most …”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bennett suddenly became aware that he was not alone in the room,
but there had been no sense of the door opening and closing. He put the script
down on his desk and looked around the room. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Empty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But that didn’t
explain the feeling that not only was someone else in here with him, but that
they were scrutinising him, too. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That sense of being
observed, surely a vestigial relic from the days when humanity was prey rather
than predator, manifested itself in his hackles peeling away from the skin of his
neck until they allowed the cold to settle in the area they had once covered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was a horrible,
exposed sensation that multiple surveys of the room failed to dispel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>But there’s nothing
here, </i>he attempted to reason with himself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Are you sure? </i>Another
part of him taunted. <i>Really, really sure?<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He answered this one aloud -- “Of course I
am” – immediately feeling foolish to hear his own voice ring around the empty
room. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He looked around once
more, making sure that the room was indeed <i>still </i>empty, then let out an
amused snort.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Idiot.” He told
himself. “The story isn’t even remotely scary.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Then why are you
jumping at shadows?<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I’m not.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>… shadows …<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bennett felt his mind slip sideways on it
track, because the word ‘shadows’ was exactly the one he did not want to hear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because of the shadow
cast by the light on the ceiling over onto the wall over his desk. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Or rather …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>the two shadows.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Single bulb: two shadows.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He studied the wall,
trying to figure out the trick that allowed one bulb to cast two distinct
shadows. One shadow was just as he would expect to see, his outline rendered by
light and darkness. The other shadow … the other shadow was different. Wrong. It
wasn’t dark. Or rather it wasn’t dark <i>enough</i>. He turned his head to get
a better look at the ceiling light, at its shade, to try to work out whether
something there was causing the split shadow effect.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Only one of the
shadows moved with him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He caught it out of
the corner of his eye and whipped around to try to confirm the impression he’d
just had, and the darker of the two shadows moved too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The grey shadow,
however, made no such movement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It just stayed,
utterly still. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Still.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Grey.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Unfathomable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He moved his hand towards the grey shadow, watching </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">the </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">black fingers from the shadow that made sense aping his
movement. He hesitated …</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>His study door opened,
and Val stood framed in the opening.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What are you doing in
here?” she asked, obviously still angry, but angry or not Bennett found himself
welcoming the intrusion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Just reading.” He
said, then felt a sudden need to connect, to put aside the enmity and try to
mend the wounds that had caused it. “Look, I’m sorry that I spent our money at
the car boot. It was thoughtless. But this story …”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m sorry too.” Val
said, abruptly. “I really am. I just spend so much time worrying about money …
I shouldn’t take it out on you. I’ll leave you to it, but I mean it. I <i>am </i>sorry.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She turned and left,
closing the door behind her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When Bennett turned
back his shadow did too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>His <i>one</i> shadow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of the static, grey
shadow there was no sign.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He shuddered, then
followed Val upstairs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He awoke in the early morning from unsettling dreams that melted
on contact with the air. He lay there in what Ingmar Bergman had labelled <i>The
Hour of the Wolf</i>, finding the metaphor to be apt and somewhat hungry as his
thoughts turned on him and made further sleep an ambition for some future time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In twenty minutes of
wrestling with the darkness both without and within he had convinced himself
that the grey shadow in his study was easily explicable. He had taken the title
of the typescript a little too literally, and the rest was imagination, helped
– in no small part – by his strained interactions with Val. Clearing the air
had exorcised the ghost. And seeing as sleep was now out of the question, then
perhaps the time had come to finish reading.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He got out of bed
carefully so as to not awaken Val and headed downstairs to his study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When he turned the
light on there was only one shadow. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">5. THE GREY SHADOW<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘It is an
infuriating section, both in its poor facsimile of Milton’s verse style, and in
its odd suggestions. Its connection to the story of Melmoth was tenuous, and
its placing within that narrative seemed arbitrary and disconnected, as if
shoe-horned into the larger work with no thought as to how it would add to the
overall picture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I
would not have given it a second thought, were it not that that the chapter
began to insinuate itself into my actual life. Now I can see, once more, that I
am overstepping the boundaries of your credulity with my account, and I
understand all too well how this must sound like the words of an oversensitive
soul seeing faces in the wood of a wardrobe and declaring that there is a man
trapped within the grain, struggling to be released, but I must just beg your
indulgence for a little longer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I am not, by nature, prey to the
superstitions of man. Indeed, I like to think of myself as untroubled by the
bigger questions of theology and the occult. Legends are, to my mind, symbols
rather than depictions of some preternatural history, and I remain untroubled
by the ideas of ghosts and spirits. Even my wanderings through the city are
about the interior journey, what the city tells me about myself as an
inhabitant of it. My search for the face of the city that made you frown so
earlier is a search for a chimera, but one that gives me purpose and meaning in
a society to seems to lose those two things as the century progresses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘So when I tell you of the
effects of the manuscript I need you to understand that I am not speaking in
metaphors and symbols, but in actual, observable phenomena. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘When I finished the Melmoth
manuscript, all it had really given to me was a headache. I was untouched by
the story – such as it was – and I attempted to defeat the pain it invoked with
a draught and a lie-down. I slept fitfully and awoke to the creeping feeling
that I was not alone in my room. I turned on the lamp and, although I could
find nothing in the room to support that feeling, that did not lessen the certainty
with which the thought had taken root in my mind. Unease had settled into
residence and in an effort to dispel it I physically searched the room. I must
have made a fine sight as I frantically moved through the room, but my
investigation revealed no intruder, phantasmal or otherwise. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was overwrought. The story must have
affected me without me consciously realising it. I searched the room again, all
the time feeling as if unseen eyes were surveying me, watching me, waiting for
me to make some mistake or lapse of concentration before revealing themselves
to me. I even knew, deep down, that the idea was nonsensical, but that did not
lessen the feeling of panic that was welling within me, threatening to consume
me. I tried to calm myself, telling myself that finding no hidden watcher
within the room was surely evidence that I was, indeed, alone, but a dark part
of me ignored such rationalisations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘It was as the first fingers of
dawn stroked at the windowpanes that I first noticed the shadow on the carpet. A
human outline, drawn in grey, rather than the black tones of all the other
shadows in the room. Human-shaped. But not <i>my</i>-shaped. I looked around
for something within the room that could make such a distorted shadow, then
investigated the windows to see if something, or someone, outside could be
responsible, but found nothing to explain that singular grey shape upon the
room’s floor. I say that it was human-shaped, and I am sure that is correct,
but there were suggestions of some more terrifying aspects to the shape that I
found myself not wishing to consider, odd attachments that bear no relation to
any natural appendages, incredibly thin but somehow distressing, almost
whip-like.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘It was not my shadow, that much
was obvious. It did not follow me around the room, content to just remain there
on the floor, but that did not mean it was entirely still, for those whip-like structures
I just mentioned moved as if stirred by a languid breeze, and I felt certain
that they were moving closer to me and my <i>actual</i> shadow as if seeking to
reach out to touch me …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I know this sounds like madness,
or the result of too strong a draught, but I cannot stress enough that this
grey shadow was not a hallucination. I not only <i>feel</i> this to be true, I
also somehow <i>know </i>this to be true. I remember you talking about that
writer friend of yours, the one who said that if the roses in your garden suddenly
sang a weird song that it would drive you insane, and I can tell you that when
the ordinary becomes extraordinary in that manner there is indeed a fear that
the mind will irrevocably break. I felt it then, confronted by a shadow with no
visible source that seemed able to move of its own volition, not like a shadow
at all, but like some loathsome blot, some creature that was only by analogy a
shadow, but belonged to some whole other order of phenomenon that I had somehow
released by …’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Norrington drank deep from his
whisky glass, refilled it, then drank again. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seemed reticent to finish the sentence, so
Barnaby did it for him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘By reading the manuscript.’ He
said, and Norrington looked at him with a horrified expression. It was perfectly
tenable to have the thought, but to release it into the air like that was, it
appeared, a step too far. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Norrington only nodded his weary agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘But can’t you see that this is
madness? A shadow released from the reading of a manuscript? How could such a
thing be? It’s madness I tell you.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I would have agreed with you. I <i>want</i>
to agree with you. Can’t you see that I would prefer it be madness? It would be
preferable, believe me, to the horrible alternative. But there are two things
that make that impossible for me.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Then tell me them and let me
explain them away without recourse to the supernatural.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘I cannot tell you. I can only
show you.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Then show me and let us bring
this matter to a rational conclusion.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Norrington returned to his
writing desk and opened a drawer, taking out a small sheaf of pages that looked
as if they had been taken from a notebook. Barnaby could see that they were
covered with childlike scrawls of writing. He raised an eyebrow of inquiry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘And what further folly is this?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘No folly. Simply something that had
found its way into the Melmoth manuscript. Not a part of the manuscript, but
something that had become mixed in with it. Something that, perhaps, shines
light onto this whole, uncanny affair.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘So the first thing you want to
show me is this … child’s scrawl?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘No, this is the second thing. I
want you to read it <i>after </i>I show you the first thing.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘And that is …?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Norrington grimaced, then pointed
at the wall behind Barnaby who turned, impatiently, to see what his friend was
indicating.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>The shape of the shadow on the
wall could just about be described as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>‘human’, and only because the mind demanded that shapes be
comprehensible, recognisable, explicable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was why people saw shapes in cloud
formations, or in the bark of elderly tree trunks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>The grey shadow, with its creeping
tendrils, did not look like it was produced by a light source and intervening
object. It looked like it was a stain on the wall, or a well-established fungus.
The simple fact of its presence assailed Barnaby’s mind with a ferocity that
came from some primitive place that had possibly been handed down as an
instinct through countless generations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>He had to turn away, and
Norrington chose that moment to drop the small sheaf of papers down into his
lap.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>With the cold sting of fear
moving through him, Barnaby picked up the pages and began to read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">6. THE DIARY (?) OF LIZZIE CARPENTER, AGED 7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">wot happnd to sharon binks and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">wye my mothr has to dye (probly)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">mum an dad argude agen this morning, all </span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">but u sayed this</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> and </span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">y dint u do that?</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> and im hidng
in bed makng out i ws aslepe and everlythign, but it still made me very sad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">i mean its sad they don</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">t seme to care about eech other like thye should.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">or evenly like they DID.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">past tens.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">wen dad went downstares to work my mum got all
tears in her I</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">s and she went
round the hous tidyng and cleanng like she culd wash awa all the bad words
theyd sayed to eech other. i</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">m nearley eihgt
years old and evenly i no that isn</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’</span><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">t going to
work. words cant be calld back like some old dog that run off when u dint want
it two. they runaround, loose, weather u want them two or not, only comng back
2 bite u haha<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">mum wuldnt come neer my room, not evenly to clean
it, so i pretended i had a friend to talk to. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">i pretended REEL HARD.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and then- tada - i had a friend to talk to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">her name was molly. molly scorp and she had I’s
that look liked a dols I’s, big and round and kind of sad rearly. but she had a
nice voyse. a soft voyse. and that was becors i dint want to here any more
shouting like mum and dad so i made it so her voyse stayed quite. not a wisper,
but not loud eever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">molly was her name and she had a tail like a scorpian
with a sting and everlythign. gess i was still cross and sad to pretend THAT
hard that she had a sting but somtims my pretendng gets creaytive and anyway i sort
of like scorpians anyway so that’s good enouhg to expliane it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">n e way, we playd and talkd and it made me fell
less sad. mum carryd on doing her ‘im dealng with it in my own wa’ stuff and i
spose i culd have pretended she wasnt angry but shes been orfly crool to me so
i let her go on like that and don’t let her off the hook eesy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">its not my folt, i telld molly scorp, mum just saw
somethign she wusnt sposed to and now she thinks thez something rong with me. i
think … ok i no … that was what startd the crosswords with dad. her prodlem is
dad dint see it so the things mum says sound like they are comng out of a CRAZY
person or somethign.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">her prodlem, becors it works for me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">molly scorp arxd y i don’t just pretend mum out of
her suspishons, y i don’t just make her 4get what she saw. u culd tell molly
scorp was getting angery with mum becors her sting startd to drip with her
venum, but i told her it was fine, i had my own way of dealng with the prodlem
becors mum rearly needd to pa for some of the bad thigns she said two me and
also two dad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">she sayd i was a deval child, and that she culd not
beleave i was evenly her dorter. she sayd that i belongd in hell – and this
comng form a wuman that hasn’t been to church in all the years that I no about.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">molly scorp sayd shes a hippocrit for that but I
told her that mum was actchooly just scarrd becors she saw me with my tooth
face on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">no. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tooth face. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">that’s not quiet rigth. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">its close but i haven’t got the rigth words. im not
evenly shure there r words for some of my thigns. not hughman words, anywa.
like ‘pretendng’. again that’s close, but also far awa. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">tooth face<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">feedng smile<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">bone masheen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">they r all close but no sigar – as my dad says. he has all kinds of
sayngs that make no sens, but i think i like them anywa. like ‘its hot enuff
for dux’ and ‘in a nutshel’ and ‘ure thick glass’ and ‘u can have anover but
don’t tell your mum’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>molly scorp sayd then that
dad is part of the prodlem and she startd to lauhg. when she sayd that, the
venum in her sting drippd loose onto the carpit and i got cross and pretended
hard and she was no longher their and that’s y im on my own again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">that’s the mane thign about me, rearly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">im alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">allwas alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">shore dad trys hard – mum two before she saw my
tooth face and imadjinnd me in hell – but theres thigns in my head that i no
but they don’t and it all makes it so confusign in my head.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">i look around my bedroom, suddenly feelng like im
in a cayj, like an aminal in a zoo. i no, deep down, that i don’t b-long here.
i have allwas felt like that. instinked i gess. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">still, beefor i can get out of the cayj i need to
do something about mum.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">see, i mad a mistake. i no, i no, not like me, i
try to be so so so so cairful. or as dad says in anover of his sayngs, i cover
my traxs. I cover them well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">heres what happend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">See, mum oranged for a frend to come to the house
and to let me pla with her dorter calld sharon binks. mum is quiet friendly
with sharon binks mum sins they surv twogehter on the paris cownsill wotvr that
mihgt be so as a reslt sharon binks came round to pla.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">prodlem is shes not nor will she eva be one of my
faverit peepil. shes snooty and rude and so full of herslef and she talks and
talks and talks about her pony and her dog and and how much monee her dad makes
in bankng -witch sounds like steelng monee from paw peepil and giving it two
rich peepil witch sounds an orful wa to go about thigns if im onest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">so were playng in my room, sharon binks and i, and
its not terable, but its not good eva. and sharon binks is playng with my
faverit dol – I cal her voola becors she looks like she can pretend two – when
sudnly she says that she wants to keep it. right, one, voola is not an it,
voola is a she. and two she is sirtenly not for sharon binks. so i tel her ‘no’
and she gets all redfaced becors i think her mum and dad don’t say that word
two her very mutch. so i try to get voola back and sharon binks wont let go of
her. and wen i sa i will tell my mum on her, she says she will tell HER mum
that i hit her or evenly bit her if i doent let her have voola for keeps.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">well, that’s when i got SO angery that I felt my
girl face slip away and sudnly thers my tooth face instead and sharon binks is
lookng at me with absoloot horror evenly as i feel the glorius serj of my
secrit slef as it pushs throuhg the dissguys i wear and i fell on her with
anger and hungr and a feelng like finaly im my real self again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">i held onto her shoulders and startd to vibrait on
the speshul freekwensea that starts somewere in my brain and spreads out
throuhg my body. i wached as sharon binks startd vibraitng two, vibraitng so
hard that it lookd like ther was dozuns of her sudenly, but rearly close
togehter like when you rub a coin under paper and get an inprint but the paper
slips and you get anohter inprint, but like if the paper slipt loads of times
and u got hundreds of inprints but their not lined up and anywa thats how
sharon binks lookd sort off. and the vibraishuns mad her just a bit less solid eech
time and i culd feel her becoming less and less real in my hands and i made her
vibraite fastr and when my hands culd no longr feel her sholders, just static
electicity like you get from takng a jumper of two quikly, i opend up my tooth
face and breathd in deep and hard.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">i don’t get to do this as mutch as id like, so
mabye i took too mutch time, a litel more than i shuld, but her vibraishuns
tastd SO GOOD that i tryed to savur them and the NEX THIGN I no is that some1
is screemng and I turn my tooth face and see mum is in the doorway watching as
the last of sharon binks pases thru the bones and teeth and – and theres not
rearly a word for this, but GRINDNG PLATE seems to come closet – and i rearlies
i might have made a big mistake. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">i drinkd in the last, faint vibraishuns that were
onse calld sharon binks and then let the mask fall back down so i was just
litil lizzie carpenter again, but mums face was stuck in a big O shape of fear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I was feelng all full up, but I still had my wits
about me so I pretended hard REAL HARD that Sharon binks had neverly eggzisted,
had neverly been born and the world kind of rippld around me as the chainge was
spreading out into the eether, and then it became tru, and no1 wuld evenly
rember that Sharon binks had everly been.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">prodlem was that it wasn’t Sharon binks beeng eaten
that had stuck in mums mind. it was me with my tooth face on. And tho I tryd to
pretend REAL HARD she hadnt seen it there were no rippels and i recon it had
been SO shokng and scarry for her that it just sort of stuck in her mind and no
pretendng in the world was going to shake it loose. mabye it was stuckd to her
brane like those picturs I found she sayed wuldnt come of when i stuk them on
the war drobe. i mean u culd peel them of but they left glu or tor the sirfis
of the wood and there was always a gohst of them horntng the wood foreverafter
and i gess my tooth face was like a picture stuk to a war drobe and prtendng
hard peeld most of it awa but some of it stayd and when i look in her I’s now i
can see that a deep part of her than i canot reach will always rember that fear
when she saw me with all my spels down, when she saw thru the glamors and
majicks and saw me as i rearly am and she will neverly see littil lizzie
carpenter again, just my hiden face, shell always see the bone and tooth and
grindr and I cant let her sa anymor bad thigns about me to dad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">i cant i cant i cant i wont i wont i wont <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and I no I culd just have pretendd REAL HARD for
mum to have neverly eggzisted like ruddy sharon bluddy binks but that wuld make
prodlems of its own and anywa im not shore if that evenly obays the rooles …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">but I cant let it go on like this.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Mum will just keep runnng that tooth face over and
over in her mind and i think shell start to thinkng im not evenly her dorter. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">shes right, u no.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">im not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">heres the thing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">littil lizzie carpenter was takn from her cot in
the mddel of the night just a few das after she was born. my REAL parnts took
her and put me in her cot. they pretendd rearly hard and made me look like her
and left me to grow up in a hughman family and they took lizzie carpenter to
the hiddn places of jeelo and deep dendo where they will teech the real lizzie
carpenter about the left hand path and the chief songs and the mao games and
all the other secrits that r are birthrihgt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">they come back, somtimes, my REAL mum and dad. they
come back and they wisper to me on the speshul nigths of the moon and they tell
me that i need to seam like a hughman until the time of the green seramonees
when i can be myslef again, and we can all feed until were burstng full with
the sowls of thousands.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">lizzie carpenter – the REAL lizzie carpenter – is
wear I dream of evy nihgt, deep in the urth wear sunlihgt neverly reachs, where
are peepil have allwas been, comng out only to pla there triks on peepil from
this sirfis world wear they make deals that will leed to the hughmans thinkng
they will get everythign they everly wantd, only to end up mad or dead or
werse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">hughmans call us the wihte peepil, or somtimes the
fayry foke becors they’ve neverly been good at namng the thigns they dont
understand, and they NEVER sirvive incountrs wear they get to see are TRUE
faces.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and that makes me think – dose that mean that mum
MUST dye? i mean tecnicly it must, but its so hard to no for shore. I mean I
dont want her to dye, but i think it mite be becors of the prodlems it will
corse, not becors I car about her or anythign. maybe if i culd make it look
like an axident. a fallng down the stares praps, or a fire, but nuthng that
culd make it look like I had anythign to do with it. my REAL parnts have warnd
me about drawng any atteshun to myslef becors it is getting harder and harder
to be 1 of us. the modren world is all facts and numbrs, syence and invenshuns.
they bilt howses on our places, and trapd us in cayjes of lojic and reeson. my
REAL parnts have told me that they can trap us in so many ways withowt us even
rearlisng it, they can trap us with syence and ekwashuns, they can even trap us
in songs or storys as long as they bild traps in them, like putting storys
insyde storys inside storys with us in the middel, like a box full or mirors
that reflex us back ipon ourslevs, or like those rushng dols my dad shoed me
that has a dol insyde a dol insyde a dol insyde anotherly dol and rite in the
middel is one of us, trapd, until somewon reads the story amd lets a liittel of
us lose into the world wear we can start to spred ourslef thruhg the craks that
still eksist between our world and threres.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">they say that i must allways be looking for the
books that they hide us insyde, and i must pars them on two someone hughman so
that they read the storys and another 1 of us can come back from our prizun. but
they hyde them so wel and i am only a littel girl but when i am bigga i will
look for them and i am sure i will find some and then I will have a friend that
knows the words and jeschers and seramonees and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Introvert; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">mum is comng up the stares now and I gess i should
hide this words in case she reads them and sees the troof. i will put them
under my pilow, and then latre i can hyde them downstares in dads shop, wear he
keeps so many books and papres that it is like hidng a preshus leaf in a forest
or a ded man in a greyveyard <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">7. THE SOLUTION<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">When Barnaby put
the handwritten pages down, his demeanour was ashen and his hand shaking. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘It’s monstrous.’ He said,
reaching for the whisky glass that Norrington had already filled for him in
anticipation. ‘Utterly monstrous. It has to be a joke. A Modernist hoax.
Surely…’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Norrington shrugged.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘What if it isn’t?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Barnaby surveyed his friend
gravely, his eyes dark pools that had once looked at the sun, but now could see
only the endless void of space.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘Then everything we know about
the world is wrong, completely and utterly wrong. Then there are holes in the
world through which the darkest things can emerge, things that can reach across
time-blurred aeons and exert their dark forces upon the present. Then science
and reason are simply lies we have used to overwrite a much stranger world than
we have ever imagined.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>He looked into his friend’s eyes
with something close to pleading, and Norrington returned the look with a
silent apology.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Barnaby risked a look over his
shoulder and was certain that the shadow, the blot, the corruption had
increased in size.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘What do we do?’ He asked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>‘We write it back.’ Norrington
replied.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Bennett sat back, feeling drained. There was no more to read, because
the typescript ended there. Bennett didn’t know whether to feel cheated, or
glad. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He realised that it didn’t matter how the story ended, not<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">really. All the information he needed was there on the pages. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He was still sitting
there when Val knocked on the door and he told her to ‘come in’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What are you up to in
here?” Val asked, her voice soft and sleepy and with no trace of hostility.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I woke up and
couldn’t get back to sleep, so I came down here to read.’ Bennett said and
studied her. She was in the furry dressing he’d bought her that Christmas and
he was suddenly ashamed of the way he constantly tried to pretend that she
didn’t understand him, or meant to ruin his joys, just so he didn’t have to
face the fact that the only one who made his life harder to live was <i>him. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He felt a sudden surge
of emotion, of love, for her and was about to tell her when he saw the shadow
that she cast upon the door. And the grey shadow cast in the air of the open
doorway. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Where no shadow could ever exist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He saw its tendrils
flex and move and reach out towards her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He swallowed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Go back to bed, my
darling.” He tried as hard as he could to keep his voice level and even, even
though he felt so far from those things that he was sure he was failing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But Val just gave him
a half smile and nodded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Are you coming, too?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I will.” He said. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He watched the grey
shadow as it folded in on itself, then unfolded. It was bigger, now. Darker,
too. And with many more of those tendrils. Some of them seemed to be touching
Val’s head, and he felt sick when he saw her brush at her hair as if trying to dislodge
a fly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Look, I’ll see you
soon.” He said, striving to keep his composure, to refrain from screaming. “You
know what? I think that I’m going to try writing that story I’ve always said I
wanted to.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She came over to him
and kissed the top of his head.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That sounds like a
great idea.” She said. “I’ll see you soon.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When she turned and
moved into the hall he saw her pass through the shadow and knew that he still
had time before it was fully here, in this world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>But not much,</i>
he thought, and he reached for a notepad and pencil. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia Pro Light",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-82596906931673905322021-02-06T07:32:00.002-08:002021-04-09T10:21:28.889-07:00C is for ... Chukwa<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Acki Preschool"; font-size: 28pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Chukwa<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“You look terrible.”
Susanna said, and Cassie couldn’t tell from her tone if ‘concern’ or ‘gloating’
was the intention behind the observation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeah, well thanks for that.” Cassie fired
back. She took a slug of liquid caffeine from her travel mug. “Still, seeing as
we’re playing ‘say what you see’, you look fat in that dress.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Susanna laughed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’ve never looked fat in anything.” She
said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They both laughed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m just tired.” Cassie said. “Very, very
tired.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Susanna raised an eyebrow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“A new boy toy?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Don’t be daft. I still haven’t recovered
from the last one.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Sometimes you have to get back on the …
horse.” Susanna raised both eyebrows this time. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s nothing to do with my lack of a love
life.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Honest, your honour.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’ve just got a lot on my mind …”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That’s your problem, girl. You worry about
things too much. Sometimes I think you’re trying to carry the weight of the
world around on your shoulders.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cassie winced, looked down. Susanna didn’t
notice, and why should she? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was
already getting up from the table.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Anyway,
tea break is over, I’m returning to my desk before Landell notices I’ve been
here wa-a-ay too long. Catch you at lunch?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cassie dared to look up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“Sure.”
She said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Susanna hurried off, leaving Cassie in the
break room, alone. Susanna was right, Cassie knew. She <i>did</i> look
terrible. Face drawn and pale, dark circles around her eyes, hair lank and lustreless.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was true, she was tired.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But that was just part of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was a reason she was tired.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She was being haunted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Haunted by an idea.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>An idea that was stupid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>An idea that would not leave her alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She sipped her coffee. It tasted bitter. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She’d been worrying
about it for over a week now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A middle-of-the-night thought that had
taken root and stubbornly refused to die. Daylight hadn’t shifted it. Neither
had logic. Neither had the passage of time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The thing was: the thought hadn’t just
stuck; it had started growing. Growing at an alarming rate. Sometimes it was
all she would think about. Sometimes it was all she <i>could</i> think about. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Madness,
she was sure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She
was losing her mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
was the only explanation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Led
to the brink of self-dissolution by a dream.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Because
everything – the thought, then the word, then the mental turmoil – had all
started with a bloody dream.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Now,
she didn’t see herself as the kind of person who put any stock in oneiric
flotsam and jetsam. To her, dreams were just the brain sorting things out; filing
memos, documents, images, sensations, emotions, encoding what it found useful,
what it wanted, discarding what it didn’t. Dreams were a nocturnal editor and
admin clerk, and not worthy of a second thought. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Sigmund
Freud might have made reputational and financial capital from writing about
dreams – and many new-age scribblers had followed his lead, although with even
less scientific rigour – but for Cassie they were foolish and irrelevant.
Interpreting dreams was simply pareidolia. Pattern-seeking animals end up
seeing patterns where none exist, and any attempt to draw meaning from those
patterns was doomed to failure. Or worse, ill-informed success.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">But,
and it was a big but here, <i>her </i>dream – and its subsequent thought – had
pretty much taken over her life. Had reconfigured her consciousness into a
machine for processing a single thought, for understanding a bloody dream.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
dream, then:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">infinity<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>She
has no idea where she is. She is just aware of<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>the
vast immensity of the universe as it spreads out <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>around
her. She just is. She exists. That is all. All that <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">matters.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Time
passes.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Or
<b>space</b> passes and it just looks like time to<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">her…<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Slowly,
she becomes aware of … of others.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">She
has no idea where her body ends and <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">the
others begin, but she feels them there around her. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Pressed
in. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Pressed
in tight.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Impossibly
tight.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Other
people <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[but that’s not quite
accurate]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">other
beings<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[closer, but still
no cigar]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just ‘others’ will have to do. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">She
is not even sure <b>she</b></span></i><b><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"> </span></b><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">is a ‘people’ now. She <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">too
is an ‘other’. Less an <i>individual being, and more a <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">tessellating
component of some vast<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>[structure?]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>[machine?]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>[organism?]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>[god?]<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">She
isn’t even sure that she is separate from the cosmic <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Immensity
she is part of. Maybe she is just an organ that <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">has
suddenly become sentient. Or a skin cell that just <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">gained
a soul.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She feels the weight of the vast
mass pressing down<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">on
her, squeezing her, flattening[?] her …<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She awakes with a
lurching start, a scream locked in a throat that refuses to release the tension
it creates by becoming a sound. Her room falls into focus and the thought is
born.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Her bedroom – her sanctuary – becomes the
delivery room of the thought and will forever remain tainted by that fact.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The thought is, in truth, made possible by
the familiarity of the room into which she awoke.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The thought.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Six words.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Six words to shake her world to its
absolute core. To haunt her waking hours. To nag and scrape and chip away at
the illusion of comfort she had surrounded herself with.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Six words.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>What if <b>THIS</b> is the dream? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>World shattered. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">All
that remains is for the pieces to fall.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">And then there was
the word.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Six letters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After the six words, the six letters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She saw the word everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The first time:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She is walking down the High Street.
Dragging herself through a world she is no longer convinced is real. Her brain
feels like a blister: hot and swollen and full of sickly liquid. People pass by
but she can no longer trust in the certainty of their existence. She avoids
meeting a man’s eye and instead looks at a stand of newspapers outside a 7-11.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A headline catches her eye:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>THOUSANDS WATCH UK WARSHIP SINK IN CHANNEL<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She feels something roll around in her
head, and then the headline’s spacings shift, like a pulse in her head forces
the letters into a different configuration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>THOUSANDS WAT CHUKWA RSHIP SINK IN CHANNEL<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The new word formed near
the centre of the sentence brings bile to her throat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>CHUKWA<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She
has no idea why the word makes her feel like another part of her world just
broke. It’s not a word she has ever seen before. Hell, it’s gibberish. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Still,
everything else in her mind was pretty much grinding itself to gravel and dust,
so why not throw in a nonsense word to put fear and horror and the feeling of
her world ending into the mix, just to really stir the bloody pot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She jams her eyes shut. Tight. Clenches her
jaw. Tight. And when she opens her eyes again the headline has returned to its original
spacing. To make perfect sense again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The proprietor of the shop is staring at
her from his position in the shop, in relative darkness behind the counter, but
his eyes seem to glow with a pale luminescence that seems to look into her soul
and she tears herself away from the newsstand and bustles down the street, mind
racing out of control and …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The second time:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>… the bus thunders past her, then hisses as
it brakes and she is startled by both noises and looks to her right and the
side of the bus, bar the windows, has been consumed by a gaudy advertisement
for the latest fragrance from Dior. A woman with her head thrown back in what
looks like ecstasy, airbrushed to within an inch of her becoming a cartoon, hair
flowing behind her in a perfect arc, with the copy for the ad reading simply: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The New Fragrance from Dior: CHUKWA<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">and her mind, reeling
from so many punches, feels like meat beneath this latest blow. She reels away,
her lips moving in a mantra<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>no no no no no no no no no no<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">to try to banish the
sight, banish the word, banish those six letters before they drive her out of
her godamned mind and she keeps her eyes down to the pavement, her eyes
squeezed almost shut so anything she does see down there is just a blur, and
she stumbles, wheels, reels and almost breaks into a fight-or-flight run but
she remember a line from a James Bond book, about once being nothing of note,
of two being coincidence, so it’s just that, random coincidence, nothing more. Nothing
more. Nothing more than that. Nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She reaches the underpass that takes her
across to the other side of the street and onto her workplace, and she scuttles
underground. Away from a world that no longer makes sense to her. It’s cooler
and darker down there and it serves to quell the panic that she was on the very
edge of falling over. Sure it smells of urine, sure it’s strewn with litter and
used condoms and a couple of hypodermic syringes, at least it isn’t trying to
drive her out of her mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She feels weak, faint even, and steadies
herself with a hand on the underpass wall, but it feels odd to her. Its texture
is smooth and slightly warm, but feels organic rather than built. She sucks in
a breath and looks at the wall.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Just a wall. Graffiti-covered, but a wall. She
starts to relax …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The third time:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>… and then sees the elaborate design
sprayed onto the wall with almost exquisite skill. The metallic paints depict a
cartoon tortoise or turtle, up on its hind legs, a baseball cap twisted on its
head in that casual way she so hates, skateboarding a cliff-top of letters, six
of them, beautifully rendered, easy to read:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>CHUKWA<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A nail of horror is driven deep into her
brain, so acute it might as well have been a physical pain. She stumbles, falls
to her knees, and it’s like she’s genuflecting before a depiction of a saint. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She
whimpers in lieu of a prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">When she had regained
her composure, she’d gone into work. There was mud on the knees of her
trousers, and she’d made some stupid excuse about getting knocked over by a man
who hadn’t seen her in his path and that had bought her tea and biscuits and
sympathy and normality. It was the sense of normality that she had needed the
most, and it had steadied her mental equilibrium, so much so that she was ridiculously
glad to get to her desk and let spreadsheets impose order on her chaos.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She’d worked the rest of the day within the
narrow parameters of office life. Susanna had joined her at lunch, and the day
had got back on its proper path, like it had been before the dream, the
thought, the word, and it was only when 5 o’clock started moving into view that
she’d started thinking about it all again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>More to dispel the nonsense than in
expectation of an answer she’d fired up her web browser and typed CHUKWA into
the search box.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Her finger was
trembling as it hit ‘return’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No result would have been better than the
ones she got.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A Tibetan language.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some open-source software.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The World Turtle of Hindu mythology.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She clicked on a link for the last, and it
took her to the Wikipedia entry for ‘World Turtle’. The picture on the
right-hand side showed a turtle supporting elephants supporting the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She closed the browser, grabbed her purse
and phone from her desk, and headed off home. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She
didn’t say goodbye to anyone on her way out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She took a taxi and didn’t look out of its
windows.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">That night she
dreamed again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">infinity<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(bounded by a half-shell)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>She
feels the weight as soon as the dream begins.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>Immense
weight.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">She
tries to move, but that isn’t happening. She tries<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">to
look around her, but yeah, ditto, that’s not possible either. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>Time
passes.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>Or
space passes and she can’t tell the difference.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>A
lot of time.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>She
tries to get a sense of the others pressed in around<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>her,
but there’s only the knowledge that they’re there, with no<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>further
insights available. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 72pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">She
realises that she has been here for a long time. Not<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">days
or weeks or years or even centuries, but a period of<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><b>deep
time</b>, where even aeons look like a quick lunch break<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>on
the go. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>Eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>Pressed
in. Weighed down.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>For
eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Century Gothic",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">She woke up and the
thought was back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What if <b>THIS</b> is the dream?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She showered and breakfasted on autopilot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Took the bus to work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>CHUKWA was everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On billboards and bus passes, on street
signs and in supermarket windows, on phone screens and posters, on currency and
car number plates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>World turtle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A creature that supports the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She’d read about it in Stephen King and
Terry Pratchett, and it had always made her smile. Oh, it hadn’t been called
CHUKWA in either of those, she was sure, but she’d loved the image. She’d loved
the question she’d once heard ‘but what is the turtle standing on?’ and loved
the answer ‘a bigger turtle’. And she’d loved the phrase that had come from
that, that had provided a mind-blowing image of infinity and a perfect name for
infinite regress: ‘turtles all the way down’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now the idea just made her feel sick.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The days and nights
blurred.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By day she was a cog that was losing teeth
in a machine that was only too happy to grind them away from her. By night she
was a surface that bore weight, aware but utterly incapable of action.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Until Susanna came back for lunch to find
that Cassie hadn’t moved, was just staring into a far distance, crying.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The psychiatrist was
nice. The sign on his door said Doctor Chukwa. He got her sat down and listened
to her speak, and then he folded his hands in front of him, and looked at her
with his wise and kindly face. He wore a bow-tie with a repeated motif that Cassie
didn’t want to focus upon. Just in case.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well.” Doctor Chukwa said. “That’s quite a
tale. What do you think it means?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cassie spoke in something monotonous and
joyless.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I think I’m a part of the world turtle
that supports the Earth. I think that all of this…” She gestured around her,
“…is the dream that I escape to make infinity less … tedious, I suppose.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So I am in your dream?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Your name on the door <b><i>is</i></b>
Doctor Chukwa…”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It actually says Doctor Chowdhry, but let
that go for now. I don’t feel like I’m in your dream. I have a whole history,
it’s very detailed, I can assure you. It will contain lots of details about
growing up in India that you cannot possibly know. Would you like to hear some
of it?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cassie shook her head.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Wouldn’t matter. If I’m right I have been
a part of the turtle for … well, for eternity. Who knows how many other dreams
I have had. How many other lives I have lived. Some of them might even have
taken place in India.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The doctor clapped his hands.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s a perfect ‘brain in a jar’.” He said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m sorry?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The brain in a jar. How do we know we’re
not brains in jars experiencing an elaborate simulation? We don’t. Can’t prove
it one way or the other. But here’s the thing: do we live life as if we <b>are</b>
brains in jars? I would say a most emphatic ‘no’.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“But how do we carry on when we <i>know</i>
we are nothing more than a brain in a jar?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Or a part of a World Turtle? We don’t know
that. <i>You </i>don’t know that. You say that in your dreams you are aware of
others, pressed in around you, I believe you said. Does that mean I am there
too? Do I dream here too, to escape the pressure, the weight, of supporting
everything we know on our plated, turtle back?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cassie’s brow furrowed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You could be on to something.” She said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I know.” Doctor Chowdhry replied, smiling.
“How do you think that knowledge is going to change my life?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Completely?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Not a bit.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m sorry?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I will not alter my life by a step. Not a
beat. I will continue to help my fellow apes with their problems, I will go
home to my wife and children, and I will love them no more nor less than I did
before. It does not matter. Even if your dream is true, and it is true for me
too, it does not mean you have interpreted it correctly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You see this as a binary system. You are
either awake or asleep. On or off. In one state you are the turtle. In the
other you Cassie. You judge one to be a falsehood, the other to be a reality. I
say that you cannot possibly make that judgement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“If you are the turtle, or a part of it,
then conventional reality is nothing more than an illusion. We have seen the
Earth from space, and we have not seen this turtle. I think NASA might have
mentioned it in one of their press releases. So maybe you are looking at the
same thing in two very different ways. Maybe it’s not a case of either/or.
Maybe the answer is ‘both’. You are both the turtle, and the woman I see before
me now. All that is different is your perception of reality. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So maybe through one set of lenses you are
the turtle. And through another set you are Cassie. Maybe both are true. But
only insofar as any perception can be said to be truth. And in this moment, it
matters not. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Your life on earth is real. As real as it
needs to be. It might be not the <i>whole </i>picture, but then what is? Maybe
we are all the turtle, and it is our duty to support the planet on which we
ourselves also live. The weight is the price we pay for the life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Most of us do not remember the weight.
They do not know that they are the Chukwa. Except, maybe, occasionally, in our
dreams. I would state here that I believe the weight is worth the reward. That
being the turtle is worth it, because we also get to be the person, and that is
surely worth anything.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Cassie nodded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s how we choose to look at it, isn’t
it?” she asked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">“I mean, yeah, being
the turtle is terrifying, but being the human doesn’t have to be.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Exactly. We cannot know for sure, but if
we get a human life – with all its sights, sounds, smells, feelings, art,
beauty, nature and technology – <i>because </i>we are already the turtle then I
can see no other way to view it. Our life is a reward for our burden.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Tears soaked Cassie’s cheeks as Doctor Chowdhry
led her to the door. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Come back if you have any other concerns.”
He told her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I won’t have.” Cassie said. “You’re right.
Life is worth it. It’s worth the price.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Doctor Chowdhry smiled and closed the door.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The sign on the door said ‘Doctor Choudhry’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">When she was gone,
the doctor took off his mask and whistled. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That was a close one.” He said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The phone on his desk rang.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Hi.” He said into the receiver. “Yes. She
just left. I gave her the binary/life is a reward speech and she seems
reassured. I’ll monitor the situation, but I think it was a blip.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He hung up and stroked his trunk,
thoughtfully.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Holding up an illusion was as hard as
holding up a world, but it had its benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He reached into his desk drawer and took
out a plastic tray of fruit salad. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Worth it.” He said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-25798077414705403852021-01-26T13:26:00.002-08:002021-01-26T13:33:34.692-08:00B is for ... Barnyard Etiquette<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
cattle were having a chat in the field. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Long
days on threadbare pasture can have that effect on a herd. The suns overhead were
punishingly hot, the soft refreshment of rain was long overdue, and the field
was baked brick dry. As a result, the cattle seemed agitated and – although the
sounds they were making did not sound like true conversation – some rudimentary
information was being conveyed, the farmer was sure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">But
what <i>kind </i>of information could that be?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
farmer, standing over by the fence, watched them and found himself wishing that
he could understand them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">ORDER NUMBER: 00085748999011/ITD<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">ONE (1) INTERSPECIES TRANSLATION DEVICE - PAID<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE TO DEVICE PRINTER? Y<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">>DEVICE PRINTING ERROR<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">>CHECK SUBSTRATE TRAY THEN RESUME PRINTING<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">>RESUME? Y<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">To an unenhanced ear,
the cattle’s vocalisations were just random noises but deep machine learning -
and military grade decryption software - would surely allow the farmer to wring
meaning from their utterances. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
next afternoon, with the suns still causing discontent in the field, the herd
gathered again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A
pair of bull cattle were standing close enough to get a clear read. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The farmer toggled <b>[RECORD/TRANSLATE]</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“<b>[Food?] </b>up. [?] This.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“[?] About. [?]”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“[?] Is this our [?]
field? [?] [?] [?] Forever?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“<b>[seems]-[appears]-[could
be] </b>that way.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“[?] [?] [?] [?] Don’t
[?] deserve it. [?] [?] [?]”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“I’m <b>[timid]</b>
[?]”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“[?] Calm [?]”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“I’m [?] [?] [?].”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The farmer was both
excited and disappointed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">They
<i>were </i>communicating, which explained the first emotion, but the translation
was far too sketchy for him to fully appreciate what they were saying, and that
produced the second.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
went back to the farmhouse and checked the translator’s ReadMe. It was written
even less clearly than the herd’s translation, it seemed. He wasn’t good with
this technical stuff. But he’d spent enough on getting this far, so he
persevered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Square
brackets around a query hook indicated uncertain translations, as he’d
suspected. Connected sets of square brackets showed possibilities unclear from
context, that had seemed pretty obvious. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The
problem was one of information: there <i>was</i> meaning being conveyed by the
cattle, but the ellipses were frustrating his attempts to uncover it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
checked the company’s storefront and found that there were multiple service packs
and linguistic tweaks that could be downloaded straight to the device for a small,
regular fee.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He looked out through the window at the
cattle in their stalls and wondered: <i>is it really worth it?<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So cattle could talk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So what?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What did it really matter?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And even if he could understand their <i>utterances</i>,
surely he wouldn’t understand their <i>references, </i>the experiential
uniqueness of their differences – the set of perceptual and conceptual universals
that applied to their way of seeing the world – their <i>alienness,</i> for
want of a better word, would surely be too far a gap for his own, societally-constructed
set of references for him to traverse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So let it lie, then. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But it was lonely here, out on this
frontier planet. Sure, his isolation was self-enforced, a way to escape from
some bad choices and even worse actions, but it didn’t make the solitude any
easier to bear. Just because he had escaped one bad situation, didn’t mean he
hadn’t replaced it with one equally awful. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">He
was lonely. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So
very lonely. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">And
hearing voices over interspace links was fine and all, but voices in real time,
in this place, were kind of exciting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Even
if the voices were just those of the first herd he was tasked to watch over.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Surely
even the voices of cattle were better than the silence of his own failure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He pressed <b>[BUY]</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">First things came first.
He ran the original sequence through the newly enhanced software to see if it
made any more sense to him. It couldn’t make any <i>less</i> sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>His finger was trembling as he toggled <b>[TRANSLATE]</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“Fed up with this.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“Tell me <b>[around?]</b> it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“I mean, is this it? Is this our <b>[life]-[existence]-[lot]</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">now? Standing <b>[in]-[on]</b> a <b>[field]-[wasteland]-[plain]</b>?
Forever?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“<b>[Cast]-[Aspect]-[Appearance] </b>that
way.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“I don’t <b>[discern?]</b> it. Why? I mean
what did we do to deserve this? There’s a whole <b>[world]-[planet]-[environment]-[ecosystem]-[bigger
field]</b> out there to <b>[explore]-[exploit]-[graze]-[conquer]</b>. </span><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended";">And we’re stuck here?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m <b>[timid?]</b>
so.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You seem <b>[deplorably]-[horribly]-[terrifyingly]</b>
calm about this.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m working on a <b>[plan]-[scheme]-[stratagem]-[poem]</b>.
Now shhh. Eat. Wait. I’ll talk to you soon.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The farmer sat in the
farmhouse, fretting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He’d put the herd back in their stalls with
anxious caution, seeing in their slack features a new craftiness that he would
never have seen without the intervention of the translator. They had been
silent as they filed into their barn, but he knew that was not their natural
state. Were they staying silent because they feared he could understand them? That
was a terrifying thought. Too terrifying. He locked them down for the night,
his mind reeling under the weight of his new discoveries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was a lot he needed to think about,
and none of it was pleasant. Most of it was summed up by the idea that one of
his cattle had a </span><b><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">[plan]-[scheme]-[stratagem]-[poem]</span></b><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Three
of those potential translations seemed like bad news. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Very
bad news indeed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It
was disconcerting to think that one of his livestock might be formulating some
kind of plan against him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">A
plan for what? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Insurrection?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Escape?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Murder?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A poem would be better, he thought. Quite <i>a</i>
<i>lot</i> better.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Maybe
a sonnet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He needed to know.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was only one way to find out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>o o o o o <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The same two,
speaking conspiratorially by the fence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The farmer made sure they could not see him,
using a device-printed parabolic microphone array. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“We are <b>[hidden]-[unobserved]</b>, aren’t we?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“I <b>[think]-[believe]-[hope</b>]
so.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“Good. I can’t go on
like this. <b>We</b> can’t go on like this. I don’t think it will<b> [end]-[come
out]-[terminate]</b> well for us.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“You <b>[think]-[intuit]-[suspect]</b>
that the <b>[man]-[other]-[creature]</b> means us ill?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“Some of us go in the <b>[barn]-[structure]-[church]</b>
and don’t come out. What do you <b>[think]-[intuit]-[suspect]</b>?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span> </span>“[?][?][?][?]”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“[?]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“So what do we do?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“Spread the word. Talk
to the others. We <b>[object]-[show disapproval]-[fight]-[rebel]</b>. And we do it
soon.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The farmer unlocked
the crate and took out the thermic prod. He hadn’t needed it out of its crate since
the herd arrived by delivery craft a few weeks before. The herd had been
agitated and dangerous, anxious from the long journey, and they had needed the
prod’s not-so-tender urgings to get them to behave. Once they were compliant,
with any recidivism punished with the prod on a low setting, they had stopped
being any trouble.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What trouble could they actually be?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They were cattle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Domesticated. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Stupid.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He hadn’t been a farmer for long, but he
knew that much.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He suddenly found himself regretting his
decision to even <i>become </i>a farmer. Before he touched down on this planet
he’d never thought about where his meat came from and had been shocked to find
the creatures he was tending to not only had faces, but they made rudimentary
sounds too. Discovering that those sounds constituted a <i>language</i>
actually made him feel physically ill. Discovering that they were planning to <i>rebel</i>,
well that terrified him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The ad he’d answered had been for someone
to raise a herd on a frontier planet, no questions asked. He had needed a <i>no
questions asked </i>kind of opportunity, so he’d applied, more in hope than
expectation. They’d employed him immediately. He’d boarded a shuttle and got
thrown out here. He honestly didn’t even know the name of the planet. He knew
nothing about livestock and was given basic instructions. Keep the herd fed,
watered, sheltered at night, maintain the security devices – which amounted to
mending stun fences, and checking the logs of drone turrets – and try to keep
himself from going slowly insane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When members of the herd reached a certain
weight – measured by pressure plates in their stalls – they were taken to the
processing centre. He used electric ropes to get them through its door and then
the process was fully automated, but he knew what ‘processing’ meant, and it
did weigh upon him sometimes, but then he’d remember the credits he was earning
with so few opportunities to spend them that a year or so in the future he
could see himself going back home, holding his head up high.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But this?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This was insane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He checked the company manuals and databases
but could find no protocol for dealing with suddenly scheming livestock.
Perhaps it wasn’t necessary. Perhaps there was nothing to worry about. Perhaps
cattle made plans all the time but were unable to act upon them. Because they
were cumbersome. Because they lacked intellect. Because … well, because they
were cattle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He checked more databases to try to
identify the particular breed of cattle he had in the field. Maybe the reason
they put them out here on this planet was because they were dangerous, and the
reason they employed someone like him was because he was expendable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He certainly hadn’t heard from the company
since he’d got here, so was this some kind of experimental farm? The shuttle
had arrived, and he’d taken the livestock off, and there had been no signing
for the consignment. Plausible deniability? Or just lax business procedure? Thinking
about it, there had been no one on board the shuttle, it had been automated,
and he was still waiting for it to leave.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Leave?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Was that the answer?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Commandeer the shuttle and get the thrack
off planet?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was tempting …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What kind of business model was that? Leave
someone alone on a planet tending a hazardous flock, on the off-chance that it comes
out all right?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That was stupid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He was being paranoid. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Seeing conspiracies like seeing shapes in
the clouds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was madness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Madness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But when he slept, the prod slept with him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“We set?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span> </span>“Tonight.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span> </span>“The<b> [others]-[remainder]
are clear on the [plan]-[scheme]-[stratagem]-[poem]?”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="font-weight: bold; mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“Clear and ready.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“What is that …<b> [thing]-[object]-[creature]-[abomination]
</b>anyway? Does it<b> [take]-[draw]-[abstract] </b>pleasure from our suffering?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span></span>“I don’t know. But I
want to be the one to<b> [end]-[finish]-[destroy]-[kill] it.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="font-weight: bold; mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span> </span> </span>“I thought you’d never
ask.”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">So this was real. This
was as real as it got. Turned out the expense on the translator and its tweaks was
pretty close to being the best credits he ever spent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If he hadn’t bought it …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If he hadn’t bought it, he’d never have
known what was coming.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He’d never have been able to prepare.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This … this was war.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Livestock, it seemed, were a whole lot
smarter than anyone had ever given them credit for. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He kept trying to find the exact breed of
cattle he was dealing with, but nothing came even close. So, he’d been right,
he was sure, that the company was trialling a new breed, one that they knew was
dangerous. Otherwise, why employ <i>him. </i>When something seemed too good to
be true, then maybe it was. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Well, he wasn’t going to let <i>livestock</i>
get the better of him. It was meat, nothing more. Mobile meat. He wasn’t going
to let meat get the better of him. If only he knew more about the breed … <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He stopped.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe there <i>was</i> a way to find out
more about them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe there <i>was </i>documentation on the
herd, and it had been left for him in the shuttle. And he’d been too inexperienced
to check for it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was a slim chance, but a chance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was better than knowing nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The field was quiet,
but he felt that the eyes of the herd were upon him as he made the trip over
the hill towards to the landing site. He was carrying the translator, but none
of them were conversing, so it was useless, dead weight for his trip to the
shuttle. Great choice of equipment. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Powder
dirt puffed up as he moved, but he ignored it. <i>Keep your eyes on the prize</i>,
he thought, somewhat hysterically.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The shuttle was different to the one he’d
been shipped here in, but then it would be. This was a cattle transporter,
obviously. It had been designed for conveying a whole herd, and thus it didn’t
follow the same aesthetic principles. Still, looking at it now – when he wasn’t
concerned with his task of rounding up the cattle that had flowed out of it
when it landed – he thought it looked a bit … well, disturbing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Something about it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Something that made his hackles rise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He approached the craft, wondering what it
was that was making him uneasy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He supposed, if he was honest, that it didn’t
seem to follow the usual rules of design <i>at all, </i>that it looked to have
been the product of … <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was a sound behind him, and he turned
to see the herd moving in on him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Those slack, emotionless faces surveying
him as they moved in towards him. How had they breached the fences? Dodged the
security measures? Known to follow him?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He brandished … the translator?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Great choice of weapon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Why hadn’t he brought the prod?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Suddenly the herd started to run. He
believed it was called ‘charging’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For all his technological and evolutionary
advantages, he was powerless against the sheer weight of their numbers. They made
up the ground so quickly, and then they were smashing into him, lashing at him
with their feet and heads, and he went down underneath them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Unbelievable pain from so many sources.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Three of his legs were smashed, his front
arms crushed, and he’d lost at least four of his eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The herd trod him beneath their feet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then they were passed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He was wounded, horribly wounded, but
alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then the bull that had expressed a desire
to </span><b><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">[end]-[finish]-[destroy]-[kill] </span></b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">him loomed over him, and he tried to get up,
succeeded only in switching the translator ‘on’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><b>“</b>We came in peace.” </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">It said, looking down at him with its pair of
eyes. </span><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><b>“</b>We meant you no<b> [harm]-[injury]-[insult].”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The farmer felt confusion wash over him, the
horrible bipedal bull seemed genuinely hurt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "OCR A Extended"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">“Looks like we’ll have to do this the<b>
[ancient]-[old fashioned] </b>way. So die, you piece of alien<b> [refuse]-[detritus]-[discard}-[excrement}.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The bull stamped down on the farmer’s face.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The farmer fell into
a medicinal coma, awakening briefly only when the roar of the spacecraft taking
off broke through the fog.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then oblivion returned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">The crew of the USS Chimera
returned to Earth with little idea of the reason behind their detention on the planet they had designated Alpha Sigma Nu. The creature that held them captive
had been unlike any they had encountered on their voyage, and their escape
quickly became legend in celestine circles. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The report that they passed another craft
entering the planet’s orbit on their way out suggested that their escape had
not only been dramatic, but also timely.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Memorial services were conducted for the
astronauts taken for torture, and no return voyages to Alpha Sigma Nu were
authorised until further investigations could be carried out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">o
o o o o<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Three weeks late, the
<i>actual </i>cattle transporter touched down on Klaah. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-21402554017639106662021-01-19T09:11:00.003-08:002021-04-09T10:20:13.820-07:00A is for ... APHELION<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Up there, above the treeline, the
sky was ink. A blackness uncontaminated by starlight, and no moon shone. Danny
thought it was the darkest sky he had ever seen in his thirteen-and-a-half
years on the planet, and something about its totality, its utter emptiness,
affected him at a deep – and to him, unidentifiable – level of his being. It
made him feel an odd mixture of things. It made him feel afraid, but it was
also kind of exhilarating.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They were outside on
the porch outside the cabin. There was Danny, of course; his sister, Kate; mum
and Grandpops. They were sitting on the garden furniture that they’d got that
day off NoticeSpace: four wooden chairs, an oval wooden table, and a tatty old
parasol. From an old lady who was moving away, back to the city, and didn’t
want – or need – to take them with her. Seemed like a lot of people were going back
to the cities of late, and many of them left a lot of their possessions behind
them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was Danny who’d
spotted the ad, organised the collection, and now, here they all were, trying
out their new furniture under a strangely empty sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops had pretty
much insisted that they sit outside, to give Danny’s acquisition the respect
the old man thought it deserved and, even though the night air was starting to
gain a chill, it still wasn’t time to move back inside. Truth was it wouldn’t
be that much warmer inside the cabin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mum had that ‘I’m
tolerating this but I’m not happy’ face that she seemed to wear far too much
these days. Kate just looked bored and irritated, and no change there either.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops, though, had
been watching Danny as he scanned the sky, and his grizzled old head nodded, as
a liver-spotted hand flapped at the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Darkest night.” He
said, his gravelly voice knocked down what sounded like a whole octave by the cold.
“Used to be people who said that there’s no such thing as an all-dark night.
Can’t say that with any certainty these days.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mum folded her arms as
if settling in for something against her will and she didn’t care who knew it,
a silent protest immediately mirrored by mini-mum Kate. Danny wasn’t certain that
his sister even knew she was doing it, it was more like a reflex. She wanted to
be like her mum. Always had. Replicating her mannerisms was a new power move, but
a natural continuation of her personality’s evolution, even if it was
unconscious. Self-insight had never been one of Kate’s strengths. Emotional
survival was. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">People deal with things in
different ways</span></i><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">, Danny thought. <i>I just search the boards for the
junk that people leave behind when they give up on the country.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I remember when the sky
was full of stars,” Grandpops continued, his voice catching in his throat as if
spiky, or maybe sharp. “And when I say ‘full’ I mean <i>full.</i>”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops face seemed
to freeze in an expression of regret and Danny was afraid he’d had a stroke or
something, but then the old man smiled. It wasn’t a smile about the present,
Danny felt, but one that was all about the past. A time machine smile, taking
him back to better days. Danny wished that he could have seen those days, but
he kind of felt them, anyway, if only vicariously, reflected in an old man’s
smile.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What were they like?”
Danny asked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops’ time
machine smile became rueful.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“There were <i>constellations</i>.”
He said, and his voice was tinged with wonder. “Shapes and patterns we used to
see in the stars, connecting the stars up with our minds eyes with imaginary
lines like those old dot-to-dot puzzles you kids used to do, back when … well,
back when you could. I used to know the names of all the constellations, your
mum will tell you, I’d point them out to her. The Mud Skipper. The Burning
Crown. The Meat Hook. The Lamplighter. The Old Lady’s Elbow. Zappa. The Long
Clock. The Brood.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He fell silent, like
he’d frozen up again, but the dewy wetness around his eyes told Danny that it
was sadness that had stilled his tongue. He looked to mum for confirmation of
these facts, but her face was neutral, implacable, unreadable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The sky was <i>crowded</i>,
back then.” Grandpops suddenly intoned. “Even on nights where there was no moon
there was light enough to see by. Not for reading, or anything like that, but enough
to see your way.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Somewhere distant a
solitary dog howled, giving the darkness a voice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Seemed apt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So, what happened to
them?” Danny asked, knowing the general <i>meat </i>of the answer, just wanting
to hear the story, to hear how Grandpops would tell it. “To the stars, I mean.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The old man leaned
forward so his face was close to Danny’s. His eyes were milky and wet. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We made a mistake.”
He said. “A horrible mistake. We reached too high with too-short arms and too-clever
minds. We grew to think that the night was a bad thing. We lost too many hours
to it. When it gets dark the world is nowhere near as <i>efficient </i>as it is
during the light. We wanted to be efficient. We wanted everyone to have a job.
We wanted daylight all the time. We wanted less crime, less accidents, more
light.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It probably looked
like a good idea on paper. Ideas do that. Flatter themselves. Flatter the
people who had them, too. Then the clever minds pick up those ideas and make
them manifest. They work away in their labs and offices and turn an idea into a
reality. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“That’s what they did.
Politicians. Scientists. Entrepreneurs. People who should have known better.
People with a wafer-thin grasp of quantum theory, enough knowledge to push back
the darkness, but no grasp of the chain of cause and effect they were invoking.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops’ brow was
furrowed. He had been a farmer, not a scientist. He understood the land, the weather,
the crops, the vehicles, the livestock. His mind did not stretch to Dirac and
Bohr, to Feynman and Heisenberg. Danny knew a little physics, probably more
than Grandpops if he was honest, but he still didn’t understand exactly where
humanity had taken the wrong turn. Grandpops understood it even less, but his
voice was comforting, and he had – at least – been there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“They put light into
the sky.” Grandpops said. “Can you imagine the arrogance? They found a way to
change the properties of darkness, to turn it into light. They built a Larger
Hadron Collider, hundreds of kilometres in circumference, and they used new
sub-atomic particles and negative entropy, or was it new negative particles and
sub-atomic entropy?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Danny didn’t think it
was either of those, or not exactly, but he was thirteen-and-a-half and didn’t
want to question his Grandpops.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The problem was,” Grandpops
continued, although the problem obviously was that Grandpops was all out of
science, “that the energy wasn’t sustainable. We had twenty-three years of no-dark
nights, and then the light went out. There wasn’t a bang. There wasn’t
anything. Light just died.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops sighed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“All artificial light
died. Electricity started to misbehave. Some kind of <i>entanglement</i>, I
think they said. Particles connected invisibly, impossibly, started to unravel.
Change one thing, something else changes. Cause and effect. People just didn’t
understand what they were doing enough to see the connection. Things went downhill
fast from there.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Danny frowned. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The stars.” He said,
impatiently. “What happened to the stars?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops slumped back
into his chair.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We stopped looking at
them.” He said. “Simple as that. Put all that light down here and we drowned
them out. Made our little ball of mud and human ingenuity so bright that we
stopped being able to see them. Didn’t realise that us seeing them was what
kept them up there. Observation, you see. The observer affects the outcome of
quantum events. And reality itself altered when we stopped looking. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“They took the micro world of quantum phenomena
and made its tenets apply to the macro world. To the macro universe. And we found
out far too late. When our lights faded out, all we were left with was the
small sprinkling of stars we’d managed to hang on to.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Danny shook his head.
This bit had never tracked with him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So how are THEY still
here?” He demanded. “Not tonight, of course, but most nights. We stopped
looking at them too …”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops spent a
moment to think about it, a long moment where he could just have easily fallen
asleep.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I used to think it was
all to do with the distance.” He said. “That the ones we got left with were the
ones so far away that they haven’t realised we stopped watching them. I don’t
think that anymore. Wanna know what I think now?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Of course I do,
Grandpops.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Now I think that they’re
the stars that no longer exist. They died long, long ago. It’s still to do with
the distance, but it’s not that they didn’t realised we stopped looking at
them, it was that they were dead before we stopped watching. Thing is their
light takes so long to get here that it looks to us like they’re still there.
They aren’t. The stars we can see are just ghosts.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He laughed a dry leaf
chuckle, the coughed, coughed again, then coughed some more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mum took it as her
cue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Okay,” She said, “Time
to go back inside. All this talk of stars and ghosts is doing no one any good
at all. If that’s the kind of thoughts that this new furniture gives us then
maybe we need to get rid of it. I’ll put up an ad on NoticeSpace, if I can get
any paper …”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grandpops got up from
her chair and there was a creaking sound that was either the chair or Grandpops.
He headed towards the cabin. He moved slowly and, it looked, painfully but when
he reached the door he turned around and gave them another of his smiles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Reckon we should keep
the furniture.” He said. “Danny did a good job of getting it for us, it would
be a shame to lose it now.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He turned back to the
door.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We’ve lost too much.”
He said and went inside.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mum followed him, then
Kate. The door slammed behind them, like they’d forgotten about Danny.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He sat there a little
while longer, looking at that all-dark sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No stars.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maybe tomorrow night
they’d be back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He hoped so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He really, really
hoped so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As he got up to go
inside, he didn’t look up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8255227892533535585.post-45944770241318008852021-01-19T09:10:00.000-08:002021-01-19T09:10:22.615-08:00Mission Statement<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41jJz9Tzdjsf71UydSqKkB1FeNyr5ZW4o9yVqGuS12pbwzmQekdz-15VJwX_TEmoBdO3Vm8WQHh2K1D8anJ1y6NxQeFvzpi2bBHJYUl19SBGPPRaFgXsgVtvB-SoY3KgCTX13WuLV24M/s194/Untitled-1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41jJz9Tzdjsf71UydSqKkB1FeNyr5ZW4o9yVqGuS12pbwzmQekdz-15VJwX_TEmoBdO3Vm8WQHh2K1D8anJ1y6NxQeFvzpi2bBHJYUl19SBGPPRaFgXsgVtvB-SoY3KgCTX13WuLV24M/s0/Untitled-1.bmp" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>No frills, all thrills.</p><p>I'm going to post a story a week here.</p><p>For 26 weeks.</p><p>All new. An A-Z. It's going to be good.</p>Mike Lancasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159072432777325802noreply@blogger.com0