Story: The Disappearance (XVIII)

(Part O , XVII , XIX)

"An Interlude In The Pub"

"Long day?"

I stared morosely into my glass of frankly inferior beer and responded with the epitome of a vacuum. The barmaid moved on and I nursed my beer until it was duly drunk. Then a soda water and lemon appeared and slowly followed the beer into the great abyss of drunk drinks. I was never a big drinker but life for non-imbibers always seemed to consist of an endless battle between sugary water and glasses of milk in pubs.

Carter, my long-time partner, sat down next to me. "When I woke up this morning, I definitely didn't expect any of this." She ordered a beer, drank some, and then grimaced. "Especially THAT." She peered at me curiously, putting a crocodile grin back into its cage where it would live to grin another day. "Thanks for the note."

"No problem. It must have been pretty confusing. I know it was for me." I chuckled like a man with a migraine who had been up for a thousand years.

"Some day I'll find out your name and then I'll hold it over your head every time I get dragged into one of these ridiculous interludes." She punctuated with slightly anguished sips of her beer. "I could have done it already, I suppose, having been in your digs. Maybe I already did."

"Keep talking. I've had the kind of day that no-one else would ever believe, or believe three times in parts." I plucked out a napkin a napkin and a pencil and literally sketched out my subjective sequence of events as Carter talked about hypnosis, our formerly unimpeachable commissioner, and how long we had until the event of the supposed implosion at McGonagle Biscuits. "Twenty hours to go and, not withstanding a trap, we're going to have to deal with it."

"And then the commissioner."

"Yes, and then our dear lovely crooked commissioner. Let's put him in the same place as our lovely prisoner and see what happens."

Carter patted me on the shoulder. "Best get back and put the prisoner back to sleep. And get a hire car. Don't be long. There are things to do."

"Thank you, Danielle. I'll be along in a moment. There's one more thing I need to do here." A steadiness had seized me, dispelling a queasiness I hadn't even known was there. No more overlap, no more multiple mes out there in the world. Just one self again. One splash of water in the restroom was all that was needed and then it was time to get on.

Outside in the bar I tipped the barmaid a drink and walked out into the sunshine. It was a lovely day, the sun was out, and all reality was going to have to be saved. All because of a few cheap biscuits.

Next: We go into the final straight!