The Planet Dweller

by Jane Palmer

  ***

  Diana was still in carpet slippers and dressing gown at a time she would usually be hard at work in the museum filing something or checking the older wood for rot and beetle. She slopped some milk onto a pile of cornflakes and automatically shovelled them down. Only after dropping the bowl into the sink and scratching her disorganised head through a mop of unbrushed hair did she try to remember what had hit her in the early hours of that morning. Just as some semblance of order returned to her thoughts, the front doorbell rang. Only stopping off at the mantelpiece to snatch up her brush and push the hair out of her face, she swung the door open to see the small twins’ mother.

  ‘Why hello, Cherry.’ She smiled, ‘Are you about early or did I get up late?’ and ushered her through to the living room.

  ‘I think you are a little late, it’s nearly ten past nine.’

  ‘That’s late for you maybe. I’ve got the day off, though. Have a cup of tea.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Cherry said, practised in the art of suffering the way the English brewed tea. ‘I hope I haven’t disturbed you from anything?’

  ‘Only wondering where the rest of me is. Now’s the time I wish I never gave up smoking.’ Diana handed her friend a cup of lukewarm tea.

  ‘You had a rough night?’ Cherry inquired carefully, not insensitive to the trauma some women go through when much older than herself.

  ‘I’m still not sure when it started or when it ended. I suddenly woke up this morning not only wondering where I was, but who I was as well.’

  ‘Has Dr Spalding...?’ The frantic waving of Diana’s hand told her she was on dangerous ground. ‘Perhaps it was the heat? It was very warm last night.’

  ‘Perhaps...’ Diana suspected there was a more sinister explanation.

  ‘Is Julia up yet?’ asked Cherry, bravely taking a sip of the brown fluid.

  ‘Not her. She plays hard and sleeps long.’

  ‘Good. I think there is something I should tell you about what happened yesterday.’

  ‘Oh goodness, yes,’ remembered Diana. ‘It didn’t upset the twins did it?’

  ‘Oh no. It was because they were so excited about what happened that it made us wonder.’

  ‘Wonder? I know Yuri doesn’t usually make a habit of folding up dead drunk in the middle of the day, but...’

  ‘No, not that. It was what happened inside the ring.’

  Diana looked at her in amazement. ‘That was only some story they used to cover up for Yuri. You know what children are.’

  ‘Our children are no less mischievous than anyone else’s.’ Cherry, having to admit that the tea had defeated her, replaced the cup on the tray. ‘As they are twins, we have a way of knowing if they are lying or not.’

  A peculiar feeling of apprehension tingled Diana’s scalp. ‘Go on?’

  ‘Whenever we think they invent stories, we question them separately. If the story differs in the slightest detail we know they are lying. If they both stick to the same story, then we know they are telling the truth.’

  Diana looked at her in disbelief for a moment before replying, ‘You mean to tell me you think that the story about the fairies in the ring is true?’

  ‘We believe they saw what they described to us,’ Cherry told her carefully. ‘We do not know what it means, of course.’

  ‘If it’s true - Julia was telling the truth as well. What did they tell you?’

  ‘They said that they were dancing around inside the ring when the grass started to move. Julia pulled them away from it and they watched as this spiral box full of shapes rose from the ground like solid smoke. Yuri came down and told them to keep away from it, then said something about switching it off. He put his hand inside the ring. The shape knocked him over and disappeared with a flash of light.’

  ‘That sounds like Julia’s story. What the hell could it have been?’

  ‘Perhaps there is a generator fault somewhere and it is affecting the electric cables?’ suggested Cherry.

  Diana shook her head. ‘No. I remember the time when that meadow was ploughed regularly. All our water, gas and electricity comes from the street. The supply to Yuri’s cottage comes in above it. ’

  ‘There must be some explanation for it. That scientist friend of yours could easily explain it.’

  Diana flinched inside as she remembered the way she and Eva had poured scorn on Yuri the night before.

  ‘I’ll have a word with Yuri first. I promised to call in and see him later,’ she said uneasily.

  ‘He is all right?’ Cherry asked.

  ‘Well, he probably slept well last night.’