Dialogues of the Dead

percy 1 (^ did, ^ dtd. It's a boat, it's a boat, and we can see someone brose | standing in it. They're coming to rescue us. Hooray! Hooray! sam; They're right, you know. Look, there it is, homing through the mist. But let's not be too quick to attract attention. There's no telling what plans this guy might have for us. jax; Who cares as long as he's got a mobile? Yoo hoof Yoo hoo! Over here! andrew: Is someone coming? Maybe they've seen my van. Oh yes, now I see him. But is it a him? I don't believe so. This could be very helpful. I'm sure it's that lass whose car I fixed. She must know where the bridge is. Miss! Miss! This way! dick; Dear God, he's right. It's her. It's Rye, it's Rye Pomona. There, I knew she couldn 't be the Wordman, else what's she doing down here. Rye! Rye! Over here. stuffer: Aye, get yourself over here, my girl, I want a word with you. geoff; Hold on. Hard to see with all this mist, certainly looks like Miss Pomona, but can't spot any, you know, bumpy bits. And that funny mark she's got in her hair, where's that? sam: If it's that girl and she's not dead, I'm going to kill her. Rye Pomona, is that you? sergius pomona: Pomona certainly, but not Rye. Sergius of that ilk. Raina's twin. sam: Sergius ... Raina ... oh bizarre. stuffer: What's he laughing at? geoff: Don't know but it's good to see him a bit more cheerful. Mr Pomona, have you come to take us across? sergius: Yes, but before I come in to the bank and you start embarking, can we get any silly antagonisms out of the way? This isn 't a large ferry and there's quite a lot of you, so we'll be pretty low in the water and

445

the last thing we need is anyone rocking the boat. You do not want to end up in this river, believe me. So if you've got any questions, ask them now. dick: Yes, I've a question. Rye's actions, going around killing people, has this got anything to do with that accident when you died?

s erg lu s: She told you about that? dick; Yes. It started with her hair. I didn't ask but she must have seen I was curious and it all came out, how you crashed the car and two other people got killed, and you yourself of course ... sergius: Ah, that's the version she gave you, was it? A few minor inaccuracies. It wasn 't me driving, for a start. It was Rye. She was so desperate to get to the theatre for her potty little role that she'd have done anything. When I realized she was setting out in Mummy's car, I ran after her and because she was having trouble changing up, I managed to jump into the passenger seat. She caused the crash. She killed me and those other two people. But you're right about one thing. That was where all this started. sam: You're saying because she feels guilty about accidentally killing three people all those years ago, she started bumping us off now? I hope you've got Beddoes over there. He'll have loved this. It's really Gothic! sergius: It's a little more complicated. We were very close, real twins, to the point where we often seemed to share thoughts, and if anything happened to the other when we were apart, both of us felt it. So she was naturally devastated when I died, particularly as it was her fault, and when she wanted to ask my forgiveness, it didn 't seem silly to try and contact me via our shared thoughts as we used to when I was alive. Well, we got a dialogue going in her mind, but she was never sure if it was real or she was just making it up ...'

geoff: And was it real? sergius: How should 1 know? I wasn't sure either if the dialogue I thought I was having with her was real or just my imagining. 1 mean, when you're both alive and can meet to exchange notes, you can crosscheck, right? But with me down here, her up there, how could either of us tell? Unless of course, we got a sign.

sam: A sign? Oh, God preserve us from signs!

stuffer: Aye, one thing I've leamt in politics is any bugger looking for signs is sure to find 'em, and there's none of 'em to be trusted! sergius: You may be right, Councillor. Certainly once she started looking they came thick and fast. In fairness, you've got to understand her psychological state. It wasn 'tjust guilt at my death that -was screwing up her thinking. It was the way her whole life had been stood on its head. Her acting career had been all she ever thought of before the accident, but after she recovered, she gave it up completely. What she told people - indeed what she told herself - was that she did it out of revulsion against the artificialities and pretences of the stage. In fact it was rather more basic. You see, she found she could no longer remember the words!