" Well you better not be making a mess up there, you two!" my mom said."We're not..."Then she was gone again."That was too fucking close," Sheila said...I put the magazines away and closed up the trunk, replacing the sweater exactly as it had been. We composed ourselves, and caught our breath. Then we headed downstairs"Man, you guys are sweaty! What were you doing up there?" It's just hot up there, mom. You know that," I replied with a nervous chuckle."Want a cookie, dear?" mom asked Sheila.She. Her hand rose to her cheek as if to question what she had felt.Ben grinned and repeated the stroke. Sarah gasped and her eyes grew wide with surprise. She reached for the pouch that held her nugget of the silvery-white metal and instantly Ben heard her question."Ben? Was that you? Have you somehow found a way of touching me from miles away?" Yes, my love. I've got lots to tell you and Elizabeth and I should be home before dark tonight." I dreamt that you had pulled the skins over me last night.. "Yes. If the Black Knight just disappears then I'll be hunted down and killed."He nodded. "Okay then gramps. I'll take this off your hands." He shoved me and I fell over painfully. Fuck it, I had hoped he'd actually pay me. Bastard.Well, at least he didn't kill me.Lying there in the hedge, I smiled as he pulled the armour on then started walking off towards Grebley Valley. Idiot. He actually believed me when I said that the knights had assembled in Waveney Valley.For some reason I had a sudden. In my whitefunk, I sipped tea and argued with myself. Gerhard was silent across thetable, letting me nurse my wounds alone. I tried to bargain with myself--"just give it time and things will get better."If great cinema plays good against bad; a protagonist against anantagonist, then who was the antagonist in this story? The bicycle girl?Henry? Anna? Gerhard? Me? I didn't know and with the fog swirling aroundthe windows of the bed-and-breakfast, I wasn't sure I wanted to.What I really wanted was.