by Winona Kent
The wagon, and its driver—wearing clothing that would not have been out of place in 1825, including a bright red handkerchief knotted around his neck—awaited.
“Hello, Mr. Deeley,” Charlie said, with great fondness.
“Hello, Mrs. Collins,” Mr. Deeley replied, with equal affection.
He helped her aboard. And then assisted the children. And finally, Nick, who had decided to join them, as he had a free afternoon and was as nosy as an old woman when it came to Charlie’s love life.
After ensuring that all of the children, and Nick, were safely accounted for, Mr. Deeley took his place beside Charlie on the seat, and jiggled the reins.
“Our first stop,” he announced, “is The Dog’s Watch Inn. You are all too young to have seen the inside of this establishment, but I can tell you that it once did double duty as the village lock-up.”
“I’m not too young,” Nick said.
“And I’ve been in the village lock-up,” Charlie added, sharing a secret smile with Mr. Deeley.
Mr. Deeley drove the wagon into the pub’s parking lot, and stopped.
“Downstairs is a horrible dark cellar where the inhabitants of this village—guilty and innocent alike—were imprisoned until it was their turn to stand before the magistrate.”
“Were there rats?” asked the red-headed boy.
“Rats,” Mr. Deeley confirmed. “Spiders. Great creepy crawling things with six legs and enormous eyes.”
The children peered over the sides of the wagon at the pub, studying its foundations with a renewed interest.
Charlie turned around, so that she was facing Nick.
“I’m perplexed,” she said. “How is it that Ron Ferryman and Mrs. Collins switched places with me and Mr. Deeley, and Mrs. Collins arrived as herself in 1825, but Ron Ferryman was immediately mistaken for Mr. Deeley?”
“I don’t know,” Nick answered, truthfully.
“And how is it that I can arrive back here, and everyone knows it’s me…but Mr. Deeley is not mistaken for Ron Ferryman at all, and is immediately accepted as himself, with no questions asked?”
“It’s one of those mysteries,” Nick replied, “that has yet to be solved. And the best I can do is theorize that when Ron Ferryman accidentally crossed into Mrs. Collins’ spatial plane, her act of throwing the bottle past his head resulted in a spurious positive charge at one end of the space-time continuum. Which in turn caused a simultaneous delinquent discrepancy at the other end. And there was an anomaly in the persistence of memory.”
Charlie looked at her cousin. And then at Mr. Deeley. And then at her cousin again.
“An anomaly in the persistence of memory…?”
“It’s a term we use in physics,” Nick said, “to account for anything to do with shifts in collective awareness which can’t otherwise be scientifically explained. If you’re active in the anomaly—if you’re a catalyst, for instance—you cause a ripple, an incongruous plop, that can’t be rationalized, although you can very definitely observe the result.”
“That’s all you are, then,” Charlie said, nudging Mr. Deeley. “An incongruous plop.”
Mr. Deeley considered this suggestion for some moments.
“He really doesn’t know, does he?” he concluded.
“He doesn’t,” Charlie said.
“Next,” Mr. Deeley announced, to the children, “I am going to take you up the hillside, and show you what used to be a very grand manor, with servants and gardens, a stable, horses and a truly excellent groom.”
“Will there be tea?” the red-headed boy inquired, mindful of the refreshments promised in the brochure that had advertised the tour.
“Tea,” Mr. Deeley confirmed, “fizzy drinks, sandwiches, crisps and chocolate. Served in a very special picnic spot up on the hillside.”
He nudged Charlie back.
“I anticipate no incongruous plops.”
He jiggled the reins attached to the Clydesdale’s harness.
“Come along, Marie-Claire…let us continue our adventure.”
More from Winona Kent
Skywatcher
Robin Harris grew up watching the 60's spy show Spy Squad, starring his dad, Evan Harris. So when the police deem the mysterious death of a Russian woman with rainbow-colored hair a suicide, Robin knows better.
Robin soon finds himself in the middle of an awesome plot that seems to be lifted directly from one of his father's old Spy Squad episodes, and, as he discovers, his father really was a spy. Now Robin and his brothers have inadvertently walked onto the scene of a real life-and-death spy drama, and as far as the free world is concerned, Robin's entrance into the family business comes not a moment too soon.
The Cilla Rose Affair
A novel of espionage, intrigue, and mysterious sound waves underneath London.
Evan Harris's experiences as a spy helped make him a star playing one on TV. When Britain's best-loved breakfast show DJ dies, only Evan knows what it has to do with a pirate radio station, a long-lost diary, a suspected double agent, the London Underground, and mysterious sound waves underneath the Fitzroy Theatre.
So Evan recruits his three sons to help him unmask the traitor deep within the British spy community in a sting operation not unlike a storyline from his own cult 1960’s TV show…
Cold Play
Jason Davey ran away to sea after the death of his wife, finding work as a contract entertainer aboard a cruise ship, the Star Sapphire. But when faces from his past come aboard as passengers, Jason's routine week-long trip to Alaska becomes anything but relaxing.
Jason's wife once worked for Diana Wyndham, a beautiful and eccentric actress. And hard-drinking ex-rocker, Rick Redding, once toured with a band Jason has strong ties to. Now Diana occupies one of the ship's luxury suites, and Rick dwells in the stateroom next door. Between them, they may know more about Jason's secret past than anyone suspects.
Jason narrates his—and the Sapphire's—story with drama, humor, and a touch of the supernatural as he tries to survive a trial by fire and ice on the journey to Juneau, Skagway and Glacier Bay.
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