Dialogues of the Dead

31 But now the boy begins to feel it go. Yet still, even at this moment of ultimate danger, his heart must be singing with the thrill, the thrust, of it. Then the bike slides away from under him, they part company, and man and machine hurtle along the road in parallel, close but no longer touching. I come to a halt and turn my head to watch. In time it takes probably a few seconds. In my no-time I can register every detail. I see that it is the bike which hits a tree first, disintegrating in a burst of flame, not much - his tank must have been low - but enough to throw a brief lurid, light on his last moment. He hits a broad-boled beech tree, seems to embrace it with his whole body, wrapping himself around it as if he longs to penetrate its smooth bark and flow into its rising sap. Then he slides off it and lies across its roots, like a root himself, face up, completely still. I reverse back to him and get out of the car. The impact has shattered his visor but, wonderfully, done no damage to his gentle brown eyes. I notice that his bazouki case has been ripped off the pillion of the bike and lies quite close. The case itself has burst open but the instrument looks hardly damaged. I take it out and lay it close to his outstretched hand. Now the musician is part of the night's dark music and I am out of place here. I drive slowly away, leaving him there with the trees and the foxes and owls, his eyes wide open, and seeing very soon, I hope, not the cold stars of our English night but the rich warm blue of a Mediterranean sky. That's where he'd rather be. 1 know it. Ask him. I know it.

I'm too exhausted to talk any more now. Soon. Chapter Five

On Thursday morning with only one day to go before the short story competition closed, Rye Pomona was beginning to hope there might be life after deathless prose. This didn't stop her shovelling scripts into the reject bin with wild abandon, but halfway through the morning she went very still, sighed perplexedly, re-read the pages in front of her and said, 'Oh hell.' 'Yes?' said Dick Dee. 'We've got a Second Dialogue.' 'Let me see.' He read through it quickly then said, 'Oh dear. I wonder if this one too is related to a real incident.' 'It is. That's what hit me straight off. I noticed it in yesterday's Gazette. Here, take a look.' She went to the Journal Rack and picked up the Gazette. 'Here it is. "Police have released details of the fatal accident on Roman Way reported in our weekend edition. David Pitman, 19, a music student, of Pool Terrace, Carker, was returning home from his part-time job as an entertainer at the Taverna Restaurant in Cradle Street when he came off his motorbike in the early hours of Saturday morning. He sustained multiple injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. No other vehicle was involved." Poor sod.' Dee looked at the paragraph then read the Dialogue again. 'How very macabre,' he said. 'Still, it's not without some nice touches. If only our friend would attempt a more conventional story, he might do quite well.' 'That's all you think it is, then?' said Rye rather aggressively. 'Some plonker using news stories to fantasize upon?' Dee raised his eyebrows high and smiled at her.