Sand Glass

SAND GLASS

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

The End

Here was the
dawn. Waking me. The first thing I did was go and plug the phone
back in. I was drinking tea and trying to put my socks on with one
hand, when it rang.

'Hello?' I
couldn't get the left one on, so I sat down and swapped hands.

'Hi there. Is
it Davey Milnes?'

'The very one.'
I couldn't get it over my heel.

'You might find
this a bit difficult.... But I know you. A little crazy isn't it?'
female voice, definitely female.

I stood up,
hopped on one leg, and somehow got my thumb stuck in the tight
ribbing. I was hopping backwards overbalancing.

'Yerch!!'
crashing over a chair and a table lamp, I landed on my back. I was
still stuck and now it was impossible to get up. 'Ow! Oh! I mean
hello.... Are you still there?'

'Yes. Still
here.' Female and sympathetic sounding.

'I'm afraid I
fell over..... I'll be alright in a minute. Just tripped over a
small occasional table, due to err.... Socks....' I put the phone
handset down on the floor for a moment. I disentangled myself and
was sitting in the middle of the carpet.

'Hello!
Hello....'

'Yes. Here. Ok
now.' I grabbed it and put the speaker to my ear.

'Are you
alright?' she said worriedly.

'Marcia?!' I
could hear the pause, and a sudden expulsion of breath.

'Yes. But you
don't know me.'

'Of course I
do! Where have you been? You were nowhere to be found at Main.'

'Davey! I'm
outside!' she shrieked down the phone.

'You are.....
Where?'

'Open your
door! I'm here!'

'Alright.' I
took the phone away from my ear, then put it back again, 'don't go
anywhere.'

'I'm standing
on your front path. Just come and let me in!'

Marcia hugged
me so hard I thought she'd crack my ribs.

'Kitchen's
through there. Shall we?'

I did coffee.
Marcia did that thing you do when in a stranger’s house;
subconsciously check all the doors. I saw her eyes flit back and
forward while I performed the coffee making ritual.

'Nice.' she
said, her eyes settling back on me, 'So you know me because?'

'Marcia.... You
were.... After. I'll just get the milk.'

She looked at
me in that calculating way that I was so familiar with. A thought
suddenly occurred to me. 'You're not with Hanson are you?'

'With Hanson?'
she stared and fidgeted with a messenger bag on her knee.

'I'll tell you
which one I am.' she said firmly, 'then you tell.'

'Which one of
what?' I put the coffee in front of her.

‘Which version
of course. I know I’m still retentive. It’s a bit of a surprize,
but I don’t think I actually started again. Something odd happened.
I was there; then I simply was somewhere else. I didn’t know that I
had remembered what it felt like until I remembered…. Sorry this is
all coming out wrong. Do you want me to leave?’

‘No. No! Of
course I don’t… you mean that after you fell off the cliff you
ended up back here?’

‘Not here. A
couple of miles from Main Base. But it was warm… which was really
weird. I sneaked in and got my stuff. I think I was just there on
shift change over. It was six by the Main’s clock. I left in a
really bad snow flurry. The car belongs to a friend who wants to
sell it; tax is about to run out. I think that is a good a place as
any to hide an untaxed vehicle. She rang me last night to say I
could keep it. All for taxing the thing next month. Anyway,’ she
sipped some coffee, and made a face; ‘Is there any sugar?’

‘Here.’ I
pushed the bowl towards her and gave her a spoon, ‘Do go on.’

‘Well, I drove
all the way home without stopping. I slept for a day; and then have
being trying to get in touch with everyone ever since. Something
must have changed. I don’t know what. But your number is the
same.’

‘It’s been the
same for years. Even the previous tenants had this number. I just
pay for it.’

‘Not in your
name?’

‘No…. I just
pay the bill. That suits everyone.’

‘So only things
that are directly connected to a person can be changed.’

‘Marcia…. I’m
not sure I know what you’re talking about. But if I’ve got this
straight… you survived a fall from a precipice? And you arrived two
miles from the Base in a mini heat wave?’

‘That’s
right.’

‘So you got
there the day before us.’ I told her what Sam had said about the
weather going really strange.

‘Do you have
it?’ Marcia was frowning expecting a negative.

‘You mean the
force lines. The tribal tattoo. Yes I still do. I think something
helped me to drive out of Main base without anything changing.
Perhaps we better tell all from where we lost contact.’ I waited
for Marcia to look at me again, ‘do you think?’

‘Yes. I do
think.’ So she related all the experiences that she had been
subject to in the strange places that we called “Cloud Field”.
Marcia wanted something from me now. The truth.

I told her
about the letter I had from Jules. I offered to let her read it,
but she declined. So I just explained about Jared and the accident.
It had been the most significant thing. I guessed that her reaction
might help me decide if I could trust her or not. I saw her bowed
head, then serious eyes; I was sure that we had come from the same
“Line of Consequence”. Just a pity the bad guys always got their
hands on a lot of cool equipment.

‘You will have
to go back.’ said Marcia with some finality.

‘Go back?’ I
felt calm; but wondered why she had said this.

‘Yes. You have
something the rest of us do not… one experience, one thing. You
have not decided.’

‘There is
something bothering me.’

‘Oh;’ said
Marcia, ‘What’s that?’

‘How did you
know to leave Base…. so err quickly.’

‘You mean
without being debriefed?’

‘Yes.’

‘I saw Hanson.
I saw him… from a distance. He didn’t see me. I listened in on a
few bits of indiscreet grumbling by the technicians, so I got my
stuff and scarpered. I can’t tell you anything else at the moment,
because I was panicking. I knew that Hanson was up to something. He
always was up to something. But the particular something, he was up
to this time, could be a step too far even for him.’

I told her what
had happened to us at Main, and how we had escaped with all hands…
as it were. How everyone had gone home. I expected her to be
frustrated by this news but she looked thoughtful.

‘It’s for the
best,’ she said, ‘as long as they don’t remember anything the
Company will leave them alone.’

‘The company?’
I was suspicious then.

‘It’s my name
for them. Like “The Firm” or “The Crime Bosses”’ she sighed, ‘I
suppose I will just have to accept what happened. I know about
Jared. But I didn’t know about Janey… the fact she was actually
here, in London. Poor Janey! She never knew we were all here, all
this time. I mean our Janey of course… sometimes it gets so
confusing.’

‘There is
something else. I thought about it a lot at the time… but now I
don’t know if it is really relevant.’

‘What?’

‘How did you
activate that tag?’

‘Easily.’

‘How
Marcia?’

‘I can’t tell
you.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because you
will need to work it out. If I tell you you’ll forget it
completely.’

‘Why do you
think I can change anything?’

‘Because You
can! That’s all. I can’t. I’m too enmeshed in all the stories of
the people who got involved in this. It would take a life time just
to undo what I personally had already done… I’m sorry Davey, I
truly am, but there is a piece of information you do need to know.
It may help.’ She gulped some coffee and waited.

‘Marcia… you’ll
still be my friend I promise. Just say what it is.’

She looked
away. Than straight at me, her eyes like amber coals. ‘I introduced
Hanson to the project.’ She looked away.

‘You did?’

‘Yes. But
there’s more. I hooked up with him after Jared’s accident…. I
always know it wasn’t an accident when I’m outside of Main, back
here that is. The information’s sort of there, but hazy on the
Base. But the minute I get in the transport, that knowledge is
gone. They knew that I might blab. So Hanson kept me under close
scrutiny.’ Here she winced seeing my enquiring look.

‘I’m not
ashamed of the relationship itself you understand. An ex, is an ex,
is an ex… so I believe. But I had only a brief liaison with him out
here. He was very charming, and persuasive. I was feeling unhappy
at the time, and fell for it. The business with Jared had knocked
me for six. I really had been sweet on him you see. Admiration from
afar. At the party we talked for ages. It was wonderful. He gave me
his number down here. I was going to meet up with him the following
week. Then the accident happened…..’

‘Why did they
leave the party that night? Why didn’t they stay?’

‘I believe
Jared had an interview for a course he was going on. And Janey
being Janey always took a lift with him if she could. They were as
close as two siblings could be. Practically inseparable as
kids.’

‘Isn’t Jared
older than her, surely…?’

Marcia raised
her eyes to me; ‘Don’t you understand? It was Janey’s birthday; and
it was Jared’s birthday too.’

‘What are the
chances of that? Hitting the same day…. Must be weird.’

‘No you idiot!
They are Twins.’

I made a
sandwich. My mind had started to whirl around with too many bits of
information. Slicing tomatoes had always held my attention, the
right type of knife, the right amount of pressure to break the skin
smoothly and create a thin, even slice.....

'Davey!' Marcia
pulled me back. I looked up.

'Oh! Yes. Would
you like tomato in yours?'

'How can you
make sandwiches at a time like this?'

'At a time like
what? I'm sorting files upstairs.' I tugged my fringe with my free
hand.

Marcia's eyes
filled with tears.

'Marcia! Tell
me what's up?' I put the next tomato down and went and hugged
her.

'I'm sorry....
It's so hard to be the Class Tart, who let the Clever Ass in on it
all. Even the thing with Jared....' she buried her face in my
shirt.

'Marcia; It's
going to be alright.' she looked up at me, 'Really it is.'

'You seem so
different today.' she said suddenly. She stopped sobbing, 'You
are.... It's like.' she stood up, and went to the cutting board,
'Let me.'

I indicated to
her it was ok. Marcia got to it at lightning speed. Oddly enough,
despite the fact that she had been chef in charge of the
expedition, I had found it hard to frame as an idea in this
reality.

'You really are
a Chef?'

'You bet!' she
smiled, and started to cheer up. She put two plates on the kitchen
table.

'That's
fast!'

'Of course. Out
here I own a restaurant, a tea shop, and a small shop unit that my
cousin currently rents from me. It fun, filling, and you can always
get Yorkshire tea.'

'You have lots
of people working for you?'

'Err.....
Thirty Six.'

'Always a good
number.'

'Oh? Why is
that?' she bit into the sandwich.

'More than days
in the month. Leaving enough minutes to finish the job before it
gets to the hour. But not so many that the minions can dawdle.'