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SHORT FAT STUBBY FINGERS PRESENTS:

EPISODE 19

When Mary had first set off after Martin’s Mercedes she had no idea that the dozen or so cars that she was travelling all around her were, all bar one, about to reveal their true intentions for entering the motorway – SPEED … and speed alone.   But their speed, at that stage, as they travelled towards the motorway entry, was much more moderate than what was to come.

It was a speed that Mary was more than happy with, and she never thought to look behind her to ensure she had additional cover should she need it.   She had fully expected that it would be following her, block by block.   And, as a result of her inaction, she was unaware that the nearest traffic to her little group was sixteen blocks away, on the far side of James Street, impatiently waiting on the red light to change to green.   And the queue that was constantly forming behind those waiting at the lights at James Street was growing by the moment.

By the time the lights at James Street finally turned green the queue behind the now moving traffic that was attempting to cross James Street was stretched back to the lights twenty five blocks behind Mary, who was, by this stage, now entering the motorway entrance ramp, and not yet aware that her cover was about to be blown wide open.*

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Seven and a half hours after the policeman fired his speed gun in pure frustration at Mary as she drove past him on the otherwise empty highway, the first car to arrive after her rolled up in front of Trenthamville’s only hotel, ‘The Rat and Mouse’.

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   Standing behind the reception desk inside the ‘Rat and Mouse’, William Jones, manager, owner and publican of the hotel scratched his head in disbelief at the growing number of cancellations for the weekend’s bookings that were being rung through.   The cancellations were coming in so thick and fast that at first he thought it to be some kind of practical joke somebody was playing on him.   ‘Perhaps the chef,’ he wondered … ‘wanted the day off to go fishing.’   However, when several of the callers mentioned the incident on the freeway he reluctantly began to accept the loss of trade he would suffer as a result, and when he saw images of the carnage on television he immediately regretted his selfish thoughts as he could imagine in his mind the sadness that so many homes would be feeling at that very moment.

But it was not until his head began to pound, not until he went into the quietness and solitude of his private room, not until he sat quietly in the subdued light with a tall whisky in his hand, absently sipping on it as he reflected on the communication he had just had with the Guardians, did he begin to fully realise the consequences of what had really happened at the motorway on-ramp … and then he too found himself becoming helplessly entangled within the web that was beginning to be woven tightly over the village and inmates of Trenthamville.   And all William could do was hope and pray that the guardians were right … that he was on his way.

Go to Episode 20 pt1