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‘There’s smoke coming out of the chimneys,’ says Clough. ‘Probably burning a virgin for the harvest.’ ‘I should never have let you watch The Wicker Man,’ says Nelson.
US Air Force.
Hmm, at that time it was the Army Air Corps, USAF founder in 1947
Barry looks at them under lowered brows. Ruth once told Nelson that most Europeans have four per cent Neanderthal DNA but clearly this is only an average.
She doesn’t show him the letter because she knows that the exclamation mark would cause him actual, physical pain.
‘Druids are ancient shamans,’ he says reprovingly. ‘It’s one of the oldest known religions.’ As far as Ruth’s concerned that’s nothing to be proud of.
Ruth’s previous experience of Shona on digs tempts her to say no. She knows that Shona’s initial keenness will soon wane and that she will gravitate, as if drawn by a siren call, towards the nearest cappuccino. Shona’s coffee breaks have been known to take several weeks.
Frank once said that he preferred women to look natural but, in Ruth’s experience, that’s what they say before they run off with an exquisitely made-up bottle blonde.
‘I’ve sorted out some photographs for you,’ says Ray, pointing towards the table. Ruth leans over to look. The faded pictures show huge aeroplanes with men standing on stepladders to reach the propellers, sprawled on the wings doing repair work or just grinning beside the monstrous creatures, dwarfed by the great khaki wings. ‘They were B24s and B17s,’ says Ray. ‘The B17s were the famous Flying Fortresses.’
Thorpe Abbotts
‘Who told you about prisons?’ she asks. If it was Nelson, she’ll kill him. ‘They’re in The Wind in the Willows,’ says Kate. ‘We had it at school.’
The consultant thinks that there may be further damage to the pulmonary artery. ‘That’s lungs, isn’t it?’ says Lindsay. ‘I didn’t like to ask too many questions.’ ‘I think so,’ says Nelson, wishing he’d paid more attention in biology lessons at school. He’d only really been interested in sexual reproduction, but that’s a Catholic boys’ grammar school for you.
Nelson remembers that Alice O’Brien teaches creative writing. So you can get degrees in that now. Jesus wept.
