“If I was I wouldn’t take you in there. No, we want to turn just opposite it.” I led her across the road and down to the turning she had indicat...d, we walked in silence for about fifty yards, I paused for a moment and led her across a side road. On the other side she guided me to the right and up along the side of a small public garden. Her left hand reached out and felt for the railings; as we walked up the dark pavement her fingers tapped along the iron work. We had walked about twenty yards. It shuddered like a dying creature, the foremast snapping like a twig. Sailors scrambled on the pitching deck, readying the pinnace. A howling gust blew the ship sideways, tilting her hard starboard, spilling many crewmembers into the sea.The captain gripped the port rail with all his strength. He would see his true love again if he had to spit in the Devil's eye. They were to be married when he returned. Her face flashed into his mind; blue eyes, long black hair...It was his last thought. The. Wordpress.com/2009/06/c1.jpg]1992 or so. At the Comms company I used to work for, there was a large social group, and much disposable incomewhich was mostly exchanged for booze. There was a man called (We shall call him) Robert Cakewell, which is near enough, and he was married to Linda,she was a lot younger than he was. He looked like Robert Mitchum. He often had parties, and those in the knowwhispered about these parties, in corners. They would apparently start innocuously enough, but for. I found the canteen open and bought a steak pie and a cup of coffee. I put my wand away in my pack out of the way. I found a picnic table and somehow attracted a heap of kids. They asked me a pile of questions, and I ended up in their cricket game, as the wicket keeper. I hadn’t played in years.One of the kids bounced down a real wobbly that went wide, but it somehow ends up in my hands. “Geez mister you sure move fast,” the kid said.I grinned at him and returned the ball for his next go. The.