Dialogues of the Dead

dick: And this was definitely Rye? This was Miss Pomona? geoff: You know it was, Dick. It's coming back now, isn't it? Like the councillor says, takes a bit of getting bold of. When I saw her pointing the Purdy at me, I just said, careful, my dear. Not good form to point a gun at anyone. It might go off. Then it did. Still thought it was an accident when I found myself here, but once I got talking to the others . . . Well, I should have known, pretty young lass like that fluttering her eyelashes at me and saying she was really interested in night fishing and she'd heard I'd got this boat out at Stang Creek - must have heard that from you, I suppose, Dick - no, it didn't make sense, I thought, not unless maybe she fancied me. Don't suppose that made sense either, but I have been fancied in my time, and an old cavalry horse don't pay much attention to anything else when he hears the bugle playing! Who knows, out in the country, snag a couple of trout, hake them over afire, bottle of vino, anything can happen. And it did!

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d i c k : It's coming back now but I still can't believe it. We were getting on like a house on fire. She sent out all the signals. They seemed unmistakable, but I still needed to be absolutely sure. No way I wanted to risk our working relationship by giving her cause to think I was taking advantage. So I left her alone to give her time to think things over, cool off, if that's what she wanted, but when I peeped through the door, she was standing at the window taking her clothes off. Well, that was it. Couldn't be clearer, I thought. I slipped out of my kit in a trice, then ^ just to keep it all light and easy, I grabbed a loaf of bread and a knife 'r; ... we'd been talking about how nice toast tasted made over an open ^ fire ... and I went back in and said that I thought we'd have some ''I toast afterwards. But she looked at me as if she wasn't listening ... S well, to tell the truth it was my erection she seemed to be looking at... ] I was well aroused, and she seemed to be really focused on it... quite ' flattering, really ... and she came towards me, and I felt her take thi '' knife from my band, and next thing I had this feeling in my stomach, i; oddly it wasn 't a pain, not at first, just a very strange and not at all ' distressing feeling which got somehow all mixed up with my desire for her, and she held me very close to her, and I felt myself beginning to, go. I'd read about young women swooning with desire in Charley Penn's , books and I recall thinking, I must tell Charley it happens to fellows too, and Rye was screaming with passion, at least that's what I took it ' to be though it did seem a bit strident, then suddenly it was as if I'd ; been grasped from behind and dragged backwards to the floor, and after ' that I've no idea what happened... g e o f f : You got used for target practice by the look of you. Hello, what's ', all that noise down by the river? /,

stuffer: I'll go and see. ; geoff: Notice anything about the councillor? ' dick: Apart from that hole in the back of his neck? No. ,| geoff; His breath. No pong. One of the few advantages of this place. Lots of sensory switch off. All these wounds, no pain. And no smell. Plus you can see that damned attractive telly girl running around in the next-to-nothing and not get randy, though you may not feel that as an advantage. They really are making a din down there. Must be something happening. Let's go and see.

dick: I can't get over it. Rye Pomona. But why ... ?

geoff: No doubt there'll be answers by and by. Councillor, what's going on? stuffer: It's these two. They say they saw something out there on the river in the mist.