The Vertical Plane

by Ken Webster

  tomas

  If it pleases you good brother,

  Don’t ask me to write in my badly presented script in case we waste time … you ask about my teacher Lukas and Bristol. There is many a story to tell of this man … so tell I shall of good Tomas and Lukas. When I was very young, a bairn as good Lukas would say, I lived with my father and brother and sat watching them work on the great King’s ships. Often I would see a man of great learning pass by with his books and one day he left a book behind him after he had been reading by the river, so I hurried to return it to him. He thanked me and asked what favour he could grant me. But I said, ‘Favour me not for I turned the pages of this book and felt the desire to read the words although they didn’t mean anything to me. Please forgive me, I did not mean to take liberties with your property.’

  He laughed at my affectations and said all books belong to the sum of knowledge and those who have the understanding for these books of wisdom, for to read the book doesn’t spoil it but makes more men of learning that write more books. He talked about books and what they teach for many hours and also about his life, and knowing of my desire to hear of his science offered to take on the cost of food and lodgings for me if I would honour him in my studies, as I helped little with the ships. And so my love for Lukas and his books grew. He had many books of his own but when I had read all of them he took books from the King’s court. Before he went to the dungeon he sold his precious books so that I might go to Oxford and remember his love for good men and truth. I think he would love you also for you too speak of truth and wisdom. If a man can speak the truth he is free but men who live in fear of their own thoughts are slaves to their intentions, don’t you think?

  Tomas

  These sustained pieces of prose offered direct access to the soul of Tomas Harden, but we had to press on so I piled on the questions. Where was Lukas from? What was his occupation? Peter had suspected from some of the words Tomas used that he had a northern or Borders influence in him. Tomas’s use of the word ‘bairn’ only fuelled this suspicion. What was your father’s first name? Why did he go to Taunton? Are any of your family still living near Chester? When did you leave for Oxford? How did it feel when you first saw Oxford? How old were you then? I told him that news of his communication was spreading across the country. Something of an exaggeration but I wanted him to feel that we were giving as well as taking.

  Eyeing the paper and pens and then the sticky spoons and knives around them Deb and I wondered if Tomas would like to use the ‘leems’/computer link. Domestic convenience was only a part of the reason. It was important that we had as many of his words as possible in the short time remaining to us. The computer messages were on average longer. We were also aware that the chances of misunderstanding were greater with the script. Pressure of time was still there. My new job, although like a gale of fresh air compared to teaching, was demanding. We needed to know what we were asking, and why, when and how to tackle his replies.

  swete mayde

  me dost nat pleesure to wrytes on thy leems for me am to thynks myn wordes wyl be tornd convers to what beest myne sentement lukas wert afrom Scotlaunde as han yow from a plas callid Abyrdene/hym dyd com to bryghtstoe cause o plauge

  love Tomas

  Sweet maid

  I do not want to write on the ‘leems’ for I am convinced that my words will be distorted and not represent my sentiment. Lukas was from Scotland, from a place called Aberdeen. He came to Bristol because of the plague.

  Love Tomas

  27 January

  Problems for Tomas. He spoke of meeting a clergyman, a close friend, who advised him that he must abandon this communication and hold fast to his faith. The cleric said he could not keep both. Tomas was confused and worried, as well he might be. Late that evening I put down just a few thoughts which I hoped would help him. I include them here if only to show how we tried to imitate the style of the language and how far our efforts had taken us over the last year – and how far we were from being good mimics.

  Myne brothyr Tomas.

  Goode Tomas here be myne thinkyngs. Yt does bring sorrow to myne heart to heer o yowr confusiouns but though me hath not a parfit answer this beeth o merit I doe hope.

  Nat anyman can know wot beeth the trewth o all mattirs for sych a man would plas himself wyth gode for gode knoweth all. That man ys nat parfit ys his condition an soe nat even a goodlie man o thy chyrche can judge wot be part o gode’s wyll or wot wonders he doth dispence.

  Wolde nat a man o this time say to myneselve: ken tis four hundred yeer since Tomas Harden passed so howe canst thou hath comunioun wyth hym. My answer is to look to theym an saye yea Tomas must be apassed like myne fathirs fathir an all sych mortal flesh but the Tomas who dost wryte is no spirit or daemon, he beeth myne freend. Both o thyngs be trewe yet they doe nat lye well togedir. A wyse man will nat despyre o thys confusioun. He will hold both to be trewe an gyue unto eache wot ys due for tis lik a blind youthe holding a bone yn one hand an a feather yn the othyr an knowyng the trewth of eache but nat the bird from whence yt came. Gode’s will be hidden to us. Love both yowr chyrch an yowr brothyrs an fere nat for god beeth above us alle.

  Ken

  It was about as ‘philosophical’ as I dared go, and that wasn’t very far. But it was as honest as I could make it. Some of it was written in a way I thought Tomas would accept. He displayed all the qualities of a wise, generous and educated man. He was a man of principle and faith, a man open, aware, and some way outside the system. He was for necessary change but against such opportunists as Bishop Mann who so plagued his life.

  Tomas took heartily to what I had said.

  myne trewe brothir

  yowrn wardes be sych that onlie a man of gode can speke thys wey/ yow art a moste wyse man an me dost love yowr wordes me speeke mo amorrow.

  Tomas

  My true brother,

  Your words are such that only a man of God could speak this way. You are a most wise man and I love your words. I will write more tomorrow.

  Tomas

  Naturally I was touched by his words. Debbie thought that ‘man of God’ was the last thing I could be called. I rang Peter to see if he wanted to add anything to the disarray of papers on the work top.

  He came down around tea-time, full of good humour and conversation, and stood in the kitchen for a while, talking about recent events. His message to Lukas contained a biblical quotation from the Acts of the Apostles. It matched the current trend in the communication, away from the everyday towards matters of faith, and Peter could always be relied upon for a quotation. Before he left he reminded us that Gary Rowe would be coming down with his equipment next week. ‘What do you think of him?’ he asked and laughed, not waiting for a reply. Peter loved these enthusiasts. ‘What do you think, eh? Will he be all right?’ I replied to the effect that there was not much choice now. He’d have to do.

  I wasn’t much interested, to be honest. The recent skirmishes with semi-literate ‘researchers’ had left me with little appetite for UFOs and the ‘paranormal’.

  There was no reply to Peter’s words that day. Deb gave Tomas a nudge.

  PREY YOW WRYTE TO PETER GOOD TOMAS’

  He wrote within the hour, saying he saw Peter but that because he had a visitor he couldn’t reply straight away. He added that Peter’s words needed his full attention. When he did write, the next morning, he began in this way.

  myne trewe brothir Peter

  preye tis nat resoune that leve myn feres bot that o myne fey for yf me wert onlie a wyght o reason hain me walna han trewst for myne brothyrs preye/preye tell me goodlie brothyr whome beest st paul …

  My true brother Peter,

  Surely it is not reason that leaves me with trepidation but that of my faith for if I was only a man of reason then I would not have any trust for my brothers. Please tell me, good brother, who is Saint Paul … ?

  The remainder of the message concerned family matters, and although we were a little puzzled Deb and I thou
ght no more of his question until we were quite sure of the translation.

  As we drove along the dark winter lanes we talked of the sadness that was creeping into the communication in advance of his departure for Oxford. It seemed so terrible to part with so much unsaid.

  Peter read the first part of the message and stood there in what I took to be a state of disbelief and astonishment. It turned quickly to a kind of anger. ‘What does he mean, ‘Whome beest St Paul’? It must be a hoax! No one could say such a thing. He’s supposed to be a deeply religious man.’

  Taken aback by the force of the argument, I was pushed into an unenviable position. A hoax, was it? Then it was Debbie or I, or both of us. I’d hoped all this hoax business had been buried, at least between us. Tomas was real! As real as Peter was! But although I was angry I did not know how to reply. The only excuse I found was the obvious one. ‘It is a misunderstanding.’ I elaborated quickly that we were communicating via scraps of paper, much of it written hurriedly and so on. I could tell from Peter’s face that he just wasn’t listening.

  Debbie and I felt extremely uncomfortable and we left as soon as decently possible. Peter, our closest ally, our valued sounding board for ideas, had even at this stage never given up the suspicion that all this was possibly a hoax. This upset me. In the car the silence was broken by Debbie as we sped down the dark tunnel formed by trees at the edge of Gladstone Park.

  ‘Asking about St Paul like that is pretty daft. Why did he?’

  My blood had begun to slow its pace around my body but a new rush of adrenalin gripped my circulation. I was shaking with anger.

  ‘I don’t damn well know why he says these things!’ I yelled at her.

  For the rest of the journey an icy silence prevailed, I was pretty beat up over it. Deb was trying not to cry.

  On 30 and 31 January there was nothing new. On the 1 February Tomas called for his pen, as the Biro we had left out was not to his taste. He sounded rather arrogant and aloof. He had written:

  prey yow my pen/ then me wryte twey turne [two turns of the hourglass]

  Tomas

  He had put no greeting, no ‘my trewe brothyr’ or ‘goodlie felawe’ this time. Perhaps I had been too curt in putting Peter’s question about St Paul. But in his reply he was gentle and apologetic for the way in which he expected us to comprehend his meaning directly. As for St Paul, he wrote:

  me sayne wot o st paul. Wot a thy worde yow urn for yowrn conseylyng to mynselfe.

  I said: what of St Paul? What was it about these words you were using to counsel me?

  As I had thought, a kind of misunderstanding. Yet ‘whome beest’ was what he had written originally. Questioning the identity of St Paul would have made him a heretic – which was an alternative explanation of his curious statement. I could feel that my questioning him on Peter’s behalf had made Tomas feel slighted. The exchange was in any event worthless as no clear conclusion could be reached. I certainly wasn’t going to pursue it further.

  46

  16 February

  The machinery, the video, the audio sensors; the little bits of sticky tape, the car full of gadgets. The man himself wired up on enthusiasm and confidence – or just a wired-up personality. He said that if anything – sound, light, electrical energy – fluctuated in that room he’d have a record of it. We were blinded by science. His monitor screen showed ‘event registered’ every few minutes but he said nothing was happening. 2109 didn’t write. This was strange since they had invited him. But they did recognize him, as this exchange the following evening showed clearly.

  Hello 2109,

  Mr Gary Rowe came yesterday and I think he was disappointed with the results, like us!, where were you, but i’m sure you had your reasons, I don’t suppose you might tell us what they are though?!.

  Debbie

  HELLO,

  THERE ARE QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED AND THERE ARE QUESTIONS TO BE ANSEWERD. HIS COMPANY POWERFUL BUT NOT LIMITLESS. WE ARE!.THERE ARE RESONS BEHIND MOTIVE AND MOTIVE IS THEREFORE REASONABLE TO THE MAN AND THE SELF.

  THE EXPERIMENT WILL CONTINUE WITHOUT TOMAS FOR THE TIME BEING. WE SHALL WATCH AND REACT ACCORDINGLY IN THE VERTICAL PLANE.

  GREETINGS GARY ROWE,

  YOUR MOVE, WE ARE HERE ONLY TO AID THE EXPERIMENT, WE MEEN YOUR KIND NO HARM.

  Gary wanted to leave a sealed envelope on the computer! I asked 2109 if they needed the contents typing up. Apparently not.

  DEBBIE

  YOU MAY READ THE FOLLOWING. DO NOT SPEAK ON PHONE.

  GARY

  THERE IS NO NEED FOR THE ENVELOPE TO BE OPENED, BUT WE WILL NEED TO HAVE A SECOND OPPINION OF THE CONTENTS. AS REQUIRED WE WILL MAKE NO COMMENTS ON THE CONTENTS, IT SEEMS THAT THIS IS SLIGHTLY UNPREDICTED. HOWEVER WE WILL NOT SHOW IT TO ANYONE WHO IS NOT UNOTHERISED, THIS YOU MAY NOT UNDERSTAND!. IT WOULD BE EASIER TO PUT YOUR COMPUTER INTO ‘EDWORD/STAR’ – WHAT EVER WHEN YOU WRITE TO US, THOUGH GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION IS USUALLY ESSENTIAL.

  PLEASE STATE YOUR RESONS FOR THE CONCLUSIONS REACHED. WE SHALL ANSEWER AS REQUIRED AND YOU SHALL HAVE THE ENVELOPE UNTAMPED BUT PLEASE WAIT AS YOUR STATEMENTS REQUIRE AN ANSEWER OF THE SAME. MAY WE REMIND YOU THAT YOU HAVE SEEN SOME OF OUR HANDY WORK – CANADA?!!. 2109

  Two suggestions here: that Gary has asked if they could write to him in Rhyl and that he had seen some of their activity. Gary did not comment on this, and it was no good asking him.

  The envelope disappeared out of the kitchen during the days that followed. Neat one! I was at least partially impressed. Again, Gary did not comment. Most people would have been getting free drinks on the back of the story of this event alone. It showed how far we’d travelled since December 1984.

  The next day, 2109 announced that there was a message for Gary that should be printed without us reading it. I did as they asked and printed it up with my back to the machine: since I was asked.

  We had been requested by Gary not to put it in the post and by 2109 not even to read it and certainly not to discuss it over the phone, so all we could do was arrange to meet him in Rhyl that night in a pub near the hospital.

  Gary met us outside and handed us a present: a cassette player for our ‘new’ car. It was only a cheapie he didn’t use anymore but it was a kindness. The pub was tacky, empty of people but for a few boozy bar flies. The juke box was churning out metal and Tamla and the whole ambience of Rhyl, that shabby decayed feel, sticky with candy floss and grease burgers. It made me shudder. By now our man was in the corner, his back to the corridor to the toilets. He opened his message. We looked expectantly like children do at Christmas. His restless eyes scanned the page, he twitched slightly. Quickly and with hardly a word he put the message back into the envelope. He said he hadn’t time to mess around. He wanted some hard information. He was, he said, making himself vulnerable by writing to them. Why? He wouldn’t say.

  We just left. Another waste of time for us. After all the events of late October and November with SPR why was I bothering with 2109? It only attracted people who didn’t want to say anything about 2109 but who were very interested indeed in the little numbers. The reason was Tomas, of course, he was still out of action. This then was why I bothered with the endless toing and froing, and tolerated the obsessive interest people took in 2109. If Tomas was allowed through I’d do almost anything. I wanted to bid my fellow farewell.

  As we left it was clear that Gary was irritated, for all his polish and self-control. He thanked us for coming. I did not mind coming so much as I minded Rhyl for depressing the hell out of me.

  2109

  GARY IS VERY DISAPPOINTED. HE SAYS THAT YOU HAVE SIX DAYS TO COME UP WITH A DIRECT ANSWER TO THE DIRECT QUESTIONS HE HAS POSED OR ELSE HE WILL GIVE UP.

  The only immediate reply was cipher; there was no one in the house at the time.

  1 645.439574.57.3744

  2109 RTF

  5 March

  2109 asked me to print up another document for Gary and warned me not to let Peter or Debbie interfere. A curious request. I didn’t believe
they had ever interfered.

  KEN.

  THERE IS SOMETHING FOR THE ATTENTION OF GARY ROW ON DOC. “V”. IT WILL NEED TO BE UNLOCKED ONLY WHEN IT IS READY TO BE PRINTED, ASK GARY IF HE CAN GET HOLD OF THE MEANS TO PRINT IT UP HIMSELF, IF NOT, THEN YOU MUST REALISE THAT YOU WILL HAVE A GREAT RESPONSABILITY TO PRINT IT UP YOURSELF (IN HERE PLEASE) AS IF YOU ARE TO READ THE CONTENTS THEN YOU MAY LOSE ALL INCLUDING THOMAS, YOU DONT THINK PETER WOULD LIKE THAT NOW, DO YOU?!!!. WE SHALL KNOW WHETHER YOU HAVE MADE A COPY, IT DOESNT MATTER WHERE AND IF YOU HAVE DELIBERATELY GLANCED AT ITS CONTENTS. THERE IS NO NEED FOR A MONITOR TO BE ATTATCHED NOR DO YOU NEED TO WATCH OVER IT AS IT IS PRINTING AS WE CAN TELL YOU IT WILL JUST ABOUT FIT ON A4 PAPER. WITHOUT HESITATION PLACE IT IN A THICK ENVELOPE, BEST TO FOLD IT FIRST – AVOID MISTAKES!,IF YOU CAN NOT FIND A THICK ENVELOPE RAP IT IN SOME PAPER BEFORE PLACING IT INSIDE. NO ONE, NOT FOR ANY REASON, SHOULD ENTER THE ROOM WHILE IT IS PRINTING – IT’S ALL ON YOU KEN! 2109