Incarnations ~ Part 3 & Last

Incarnations ~ Part 3 & Last

By Len Morgan

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way Stig…”

“Don’t call me that, don’t you ever call me that!  You’re not Harley!   You’re… just like all the other filthy Synths!   You lied to me; you used me for the benefit of their disgusting clone cult.   Only one man ever earned the right to call me Stig and he died, all alone, eight thousand years ago!   You represent everything we fought against and detested. Cloning is an unnatural abomination.  There is only one way to renew the human race and that is not by growing and inhabiting artificial bodies.”

  “I didn’t ask to be cloned; the colony needed the largest possible gene pool.  The Orbitar passed through a cloud of irradiated hydrogen, and all those who were awake at the time were sterilized.   Natural reproduction became impossible for them but they still needed to run the ship and keep it on course.   Without the genetic material from the Anti-Synth’s, who died in stasis, there would now be insufficient variety to guarantee our survival.   If you refuse to meet with the intelligence running this world we will all die anyway, we have nowhere else to go.   The irony is that the colony will not survive without clones from the ranks of the Anti-Synth Activists.”

“Don’t even think it!” Stig yelled.   “We were banished because of our opposition to their perversions, now they want me to be their salvation?”   He remembered all those perfect young people rushing to discard their humanity at the first opportunity.  “Huh!  If it were up to me the whole damned human race would die out here and now.”

“Well, it’s up to you man, you – prima-freekin-Donna.   So you may as well open the airlock right now and let that noxious stuff in,” Harley glared at him.

  “I’m tired, I need to sleep on it,” said Stig climbing into his sleep pod; they were nicknamed peanut shells.  Space is at a premium on a two-man scout ship; he had just enough room to curl naturally into the foetal position.

“Don’t sleep too long, we only have air for a day, maybe I’ll be able to scrub some oxygen from that stuff out there,” said Harley gazing out through the Plexiglas dome at the maelstrom of debris outside.

Stig’s subconscious registered the occasional muffled thump as something heavy struck the outer skin of the scout ship as he slept.

.-…-.

 He had a dream.   In his dream, he met with two tall slim humanoids.   Both were over seven feet, hairless, with pale green-tinged translucent skin.   He was struck by their intelligent gold-flecked viridian eyes.

“We have been waiting a long time to meet a member of the human race.   From your broadcasts, your race appears extremely violent, aggressive, and stupid.   Fortunately, we do not judge by appearances.   Do you suppose we could ever trust your kind to administer our world?   We were once very much like you.   We were proud and certain that everything we did was right.   But, we made mistakes, and because of that, we ceased to exist on this and many other worlds. We are the Mooli, your kind may encounter us, in the flesh, sometime in the future.  Other races arrived to occupy our worlds but they also made mistakes which resulted in their extinction.   Knowing what happened on those worlds, we decided we would test all future prospective immigrants for intent and commitment to the future well-being of this world.   We decided that only ‘true-born’ creatures could be valid test subjects because they are free from the taint of engineering, and, bred true to the nature of their race.   If your race wishes to stay you will submit to this test.   You have ten hours to comply.  You leave your ship and proceed to the wall where you’re disabled unit awaits.  You will answer one question which will allow your companions to either repopulate this planet or will result in their complete destruction.

What if I choose not to come?  He thought.

In such an eventuality you will all die!   You have nine hours and fifty-eight minutes… 

“Ugh!”   He awoke with a start.  

“Stig, did you hear that?   Did you receive their message?”

“I did and don’t call me that!”

“Sorry, Captain Stephan Tavishar Imo-Gordannovich!”

Stig roared with laughter.   “Ok, I get your point clone; call me Stig, but only for the next nine hours fifty-five minutes.   Deal?”

“Affirmative!”

“We need a plan.   We need to know what their question is likely to be.   We need…”   Stig paused to think.

“What say we just settle for breakfast?”

Stig smiled, “the condemned men ate a hearty breakfast.”

“Hardly!” said Harley throwing him a freeze-dried ration-pak and a flask of liquid nutrients.

“This changes nothing you understand, natural procreation is the only way humans should ever reproduce.”

“But, we have frozen semen and eggs, and the facilities to start life again, naturally as it should be,” said Harley.   “Despite what they have made of me I agree with you one hundred percent!   There must be preconditions to settlement on this world and I know I speak for the others still in the Orbitar.   We will only create clones for the CM’s we brought with us, but natural births must become the norm once more.”

“Nice words Harley, but are you sure we can speak for everybody?”

“Honestly, I don’t know but Anti-Synth’s are not in a minority here.”

.-…-.

  “When you’re up against it, time passes swiftly,” said Stig as he took the symbolic step from the craft onto the planet ‘Hellegron’, the word just came into his head.   He looked back at Harley who gave him a reassuring smile.   “The first step on Hellegron for humankind,” he said.   He looked down, at his boots, his first step had been into mud, and there it was on his left boot.   But there was none on his right, which was planted thigh-high in lush ryegrass.   He looked back at Harley once more; he was gazing into the distance.   As he turned his eyes to follow that gaze he saw Hellegron transformed.   Blue sky wispy clouds and a warm sun shone down.   Harley stepped from the ship, and side by side the two headed for the distant hills where the wall had once stood.   Neither spoke for an age, each cocooned in his own private thoughts.   The debris had gone but the final Rak-nid unit still stood where it had come to rest.   As they approached, it turned towards them.   Then it led them into a small copse of hardwood trees.  The growth was lush and fertile, Harley bent down to pick a yellow and white daisy-like flower, it smelled aromatic, he crushed it between his fingers and held it close to Stig’s nose.

“Chamomile?” Stig voiced his surprise.

They entered a clearing with an open pool of gently undulating water.  It was crystal clear and fed by a small waterfall.   The polarised sunlight reflected off droplets thrown up by the cascading waters, creating a rainbow.

“Beautiful,” said Harley.   He went forward and dipped his hand into the water it felt cool and inviting.   He dipped his tongue and tasted it.   “Sweet water,” he said taking a mouthful and swilling it around before swallowing.  “It’s good.”   He turned towards a cluster of weather-worn rocks and sat down.  

After only a moment Stig joined him.  

Harley removed his boots and began to undress.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going skinny-dipping,” said Harley and waded out into the pool.

“Wait!” said Stig alarmed by some sixth sense.   But, he was too late; Harley was in the pool and swimming around without a care in the world.   Stig smiled, always the cautious one, always the laggard…

The Rak-nid unit stopped beside him and he felt at peace.

“There are now three versions of your race, living harmoniously, on the Orbitar.  Homo-sapiens, Homo-synth, and Cristal-Minds.”   We are here to determine which should inherit Hellegron?”

“Did you hear that,” Stig asked.

“I heard it,” said Harley heading towards the bank.

The football-sized Rak-nid was describing figure eight’s on a clear patch of grass between them.

“I think we can all coexist well enough here,” said Stig.

There was no reply. 

Harley shook off the water and started to dress.  “Is that the one question?”

“I doubt CM’s could colonize unaided, they need humans or clones to utilize them,” Stig reasoned.  

A ball of light formed twenty feet above the pool.   It hummed faintly, they could smell ozone.  The light flickered - blue - green – yellow.   Then it turned red and a beam of white light flashed towards the Rak-nid illuminating it momentarily, then the unit and ball were gone.

“Shit!” said Harley.   “Better be careful what we say.” 

Stig moved closer to him.  “We all know that I’m the only original so there is no doubt who will inherit Hellegron.   All I ask is that you try to return to natural childbirth as soon as possible.”   He turned towards the centre of the pool, “do your worst!” he said.

The ball of light reappeared above the pool - blue – green – yellow.   It turned red.

“No!” Harley screamed and dived at Stig in an attempt to save him.

The beam of white light flashed illuminating them both...

.-…-.

For two days the screens on the Mother-ship had shown nothing but white noise.  Suddenly they burst into life.  

A tall figure with subtle green skin pigmentation appeared.  

“Our planet Hellegon is bequeathed to the children of Earth!”

The colonists watched as Stig and Harley stepped from the scout ship. 

“A price was asked of the last natural-born Human.   A price both he and his cloned companion were prepared to pay in order to secure your safety.”  

They watched in silence as the two friends stepped onto Hellegon then witnessed Harley skinny dipping, the Rak-nid being vaporized, and finally, they witnessed the price Stig & Harley paid to secure the planet.  

“They asked only that you return to your roots as soon as possible, and honour their Anti-synth belief.”   The transmission ended, and full communications were restored. 

“This is the Orbitar – we accept those conditions unreservedly." 
  
"Captain!  We are now in communication with all the Lander's, and only one scout ship has failed to check-in that of Stig & Harley.”

“God, will you look at that Ensign?”   

“It’s a view from one of the Lander's Captain.  If that isn’t the Earth down there then it’s her twin.”  

“Seems they encountered some pretty foul weather down there,” said the young Ensign who bore a remarkable likeness to Harley.   “Do you think Stig knew the truth?”

“I’d like to think he did, and ultimately acted in the common interest of us all,” said Captain Stephan Tavishar Imo-Gordannovich, (Stig2).

...Ends

Copyright Len Morgan

WINDERMERE REMINISCED

WINDERMERE REMINISCED 

By Peter Woodgate

Blues and whites and pinks are seen

from houses on the hillsides, green,

that divide the lake and sky

a scene that visits you and I

these mornings as I open wide

the shutters, now securely tied

to greet the warm and gentle breeze

That drifts across my face, I sneeze

then look back at the bed and you

and see you have awoken too.

Then, softly, I caress your face

you turn around and we embrace,

I whisper that I love you, then,

we hear the chiming of Big Ben.

Copyright Peter Woodgate

Incarnations ~ Part 2 of 3

Incarnations ~ Part 2 of 3

By Len Morgan

 The Earth they returned to was a far different place to the one they’d left five years earlier.  

“Something is wrong,” said Harley.  

“I think our clothes must be out of fashion.”

“Judging by the looks we’re getting it’s more than that Stig.” 

A young woman wrinkled her nose in distaste, “Filthy Retro’s.”

Stig shook his head in puzzlement, and they hailed a hovva-cab.

“Hylton hotel.”  They jumped in the back and watched the hovva’s altimeter rise to sixty feet, in the blue zone, they accelerated fast.

“Some things never change,” said Stig.

“Such as?” said the hovva jockey.

 “Blue cabs have two speeds, full, and stop.”  

The hovva jock grinned, “New Birmingham.”

“How did you know?” Harley asked.

“Nobody in Lonton would be seen dead looking like you.”

Stig looked at his suit, then at Harleys, and shrugged.

“So you were right after all,” said Harley in disgust.

“You’re Retro’s,” the jock said noting their puzzled expressions he grinned.  “Those are your original birthday suits.  You don’t see many bodies over twenty-five in Lonton these days.   Word to the wise, you need to get yourself an upgrade and have your minds CM’ed soonest; you’ll be lucky to gain acceptance anywhere if you don’t.   Most hovva jocks won’t even pick up a Retro – unhygienic,” he said tapping his nose knowingly.  Hormones, pheromones, sweat; I’ll have to decontam when I drop you off.

“Ah!”   Realization dawned.   “We’re just back from Mars station.  Been away for five years, are things really that bad?”

“Do yourself a favour guv,” he said in jock-speak, “here’s a copy of the Lonton visitors guide, you need to do some serious reading bring yourself up to date.” He handed a laser coin to Stig, “just three sov’s I’ll add it to your bill; there are readers in every room at the Hylie.”

“The what?” said Harley.

“The Hylton.   Here we are sir, that’ll be thirty-five... er thirty-eight sov’s,” he swiped Stig’s card and the cab was gone before their feet hit the walkway.   They confirmed their reservations, sent their luggage up, and set out to discover what had changed so drastically.

‘WHY SETTLE FOR LESS THAN PERFECTION?

 WHY LIVE ONE LIFE, 

WHEN YOU COULD BE FOREVER YOUNG!’

  The advertisements glared - in multicoloured Tri-dee - from every available external wall and skyspace within the city.   A seductive female voice reinforced the message, in their minds, as they passed within ten paces of each Tri-dee display.

‘BE ATTRACTIVE TO THE OPPOSITE SEX, BE FOREVER YOUNG AND VIRILE, REGAIN YOUR SEXUALITY!’

CHANGE YOUR GENDER.

.-…-.

They arrived at ‘Scott’s forever Jazz’ an infamous Night Club that had been the home of British Jazz for more than a century.

“How much?”

“Thirty sov’s to you.”

“How much to them?” Stig asked.

“Twenty,” the doorman answered challenge revealed in his eyes.  “They’re Synth’s you’re Retro’s.   Won’t be long before your sort are eradicated altogether.  Thirty, take it or leave it.”

Harley handed over sixty sovereigns, and they entered the darkened barroom following the distinctive smell of certain illicit substances.  They were drawn by the allure of the decadent lyrical music so well beloved by them both.

“I don’t like the looks we’re getting.”

“Ignore them, enjoy the music,” said Harley.   “Two beers here please.”

They waited five, ten, fifteen minutes.   “Beer please,” Harley chanted for the tenth time.   As the barman passed for the eleventh time he grabbed his lapels.

“You don’t get it, do you?  You’re not welcome here.   You Retro’s are trouble waiting to happen.   Piss off!”

“Really?   So, what sort are we then?” Harley raised his voice.

The barman gave a nod to two waiting bouncers, “these gentlemen are leaving, show them the door!”

“We paid sixty sovereigns to get in and we haven’t even had a drink yet,” said Stig.

“Will you leave quietly sir?”

“Will you refund our admittance?”

The man towered over Stig grabbing his coat collar.  

“Hands off the material!” Stig’s slow even tone served as a warning.

The answer was a tug on his collar.   He responded by gripping the little finger of the bouncer’s right hand and pulling hard.

“Aaagh!”

Another man appeared from a back room.   “Give em a drink Kendall, they’re our guests, none of your racism here, drinks are on the house gentlemen.”

.-…-.

They left the club in the early hours of the morning, a little the worse for wear.   They’d called a hovva but it never arrived, after ten minutes standing around, they started to walk.   They’d walked about a mile in the general direction of their hotel.   The streets were quiet.

“I think we could be lost, partner.”

“I’m the navigator,” Harley said, “We’re not lost until I say so.”

“Ok, which way do we go then?”

“I don’t know.   We’re lost!”

“Ah!”   They turned a corner and saw a group of people ahead.  “We’ll ask directions.”  As they walked they could hear a police siren in the distance, but coming closer.   The vehicle swerved around the corner, and the group scattered.   Stig and Harley were alone.  Surrounded by armed police in full riot gear.

“Lay on the ground with your hands above your heads!”

“What are we supposed to have done?”

“Get down, now!”   Harley complied but Stig stood defiant.  “Take him down!”  There was a hissing sizzling sound, and taser wires hit Stig in the chest and he went down.   They were bundled unceremoniously into the back of a black van.   At the police station, they were thrown into a cell with six others.

“What are we supposed to have done?” Harley yelled.  

“It’s what you haven’t done,” said a voice behind them.   “We’re Reto’s that’s reason enough to bring us in.”  

Stig regained consciousness slowly, and Harley helped him into a sitting position on the floor.   “They’re not allowed to do that, they have to warn you before they fire those things, that’s the law."

“Not anymore, according to these guys.   Not since the Conversion Party came to power…”

“We’ve been off-planet for the last five years, what’s happened while we were away?” said Harley.

A young woman took up the story with relish. "The old political parties were more conservative and wanted to outlaw total cloning for cosmetic purposes. Their view was to allow a gradual conversion on a needs basis.   But, worldwide conglomerates were geared up for it and although it was outlawed in Europe and the America’s they simply went into Asia and set up shop there.   Suddenly tourism to that continent increased a hundredfold.   I can’t believe you guys missed all that, it started four years ago in 2185?”

“We were out in the asteroids busy making money.   Didn’t much matter to us who was in power down here, none of them did anything for us,” said Harley.   “We did hear something about a landslide victory by the Conversion Party (CP), Stig here said it must be a misprint.”

“The CP are just conglomerate lackeys.   With them in power, there are no constraints on what the new industries can get away with.”

“When the cloning technologies took off, it was CRAAM Industries that cleaned up with their mind transfer technology and their (Crystal Memory) 'CM mind storage cubes'.  Miccasoft and Hartington Industries engineered genetically perfect clones from their clients own DNA.   They are beautiful cosmetically screened replacements for the imperfect creations of nature; catering to all tastes fads and fantasies of Earth’s most discriminating consumers.”

“But, it happened so fast.   How could people allow it?” Stig asked.

“Because overnight, there were no old or ugly people.   Suddenly everybody in the city was aged between twenty and twenty-five.   Those who cannot afford an upgrade sell their souls to get one.   Then, to further boost sales the industry manufactures fads and new selling angles.   Sex changes are no longer formidable or irreversible.  The very rich have more than one body, and can change sex daily.”

“You’re joking!”

“Yes I am, but it’s only a matter of time.  People who resist the sales pitch are made to feel inferior simply because they are ageing and display a few wrinkles.  Age and decay, they say, are imperfections.  Society considers the elderly to be, disgusting unhygienic and vulgar perverts.  Old people are attacked openly in the streets and refused medical aid.”

”Since we returned we’ve not seen any old people,” Stig said.

 “It’s accepted practice to discard your natural body in your mid-twenties, then plan to replace it every ten to fifteen years.   By convention, new clones start life at the age of twenty.   They age three to four months for each year that passes.   So, anybody over the age of twenty-five is considered to be old.”

“But, there are plenty of young people under that age.”

“Because, it’s illegal to replace the body of a person under the age of twenty, except in extreme life-threatening circumstances such as terminal illness, accident trauma, spinal injury, drug or alcohol dependency, they all came under this category.

The tendency was to have children by natural childbirth whilst still in a natural body, but in the interests of hygiene, this is on the decline.   There are plenty of sperm and egg repositories so new life can be created on-demand.”

They were all released without charge, the following morning.  But, the government’s policy of continual harassment was a constant reality.

.-…-.

They were awakened by room service, mid-morning, and went down to the dining room for lunch.  

“Can I help you, gentlemen?”  The waiter wrinkled his nose in distaste as he handed them menus then beat a hasty retreat.

A waitress returned to take their orders.  

She kept her distance and avoided physical contact with them. 

When they had eaten, Harley broke the silence.  “I think it’s time we started looking for somewhere to live, outside the city.”

Stig nodded, “We need a property in the country, something large and run down, something affordable.   We can carry out renovations with the help of our friends.”  

“Or, we could go back to prospecting the asteroids,” Harley suggested.

“No,” said Stig, “let’s buy a bus and get as many Anti-synths as possible out of here and start a Colony.  Let’s get the transport first, and take it from there.”

That was exactly what they did.

.-…-.

  Stig and Harley moved out into the Essex countryside and founded their colony.   Six months later they began to face up to the establishment; the big three who had a stranglehold over what remained of humanity: 

The conglomerates - Hartington Industries the worlds major clone manufacturing multinational.

The giant CRAAM Company that had long enjoyed a monopoly in CM, storage devices and on mind transfer technology.

Then finally the Miccasoft Corporation who specialized in manufacturing the raw materials used in the production of synthetic flesh. Able to grow twenty-year-old clones, to order, in just one week.

 When peaceful means proved ineffective the Anti-Synth’s became militant, industrial saboteurs, thorns in the side of the establishment.   They were named as Terrorists and hunted down.  They existed outside of normal society, underground, and outside the major cities.  They suffered from one major disadvantage, unlike the Synths, they could not change their appearance or aroma.   So, inevitably they were ferreted out, one by one, by mechanical sniffer dogs.  

The Governments/Conglomerates were engaged in a secret project to send a colony out to the stars.   Legislation was passed to allow the transportation of antisocial groups to Mars station, there to be pressed into the service of the star-ship Orbitar.

   On arrival at Mars station, they were transhipped and joined the crew of the Orbitar, the first deep-space migration probe.   Many others, so-called undesirables became passengers on that ship.   Together, they embarked on a one way trip to the stars.  Most of the travellers were Anti-Synths.   But, ironically, of the thousands of idealists who embarked on the journey of the Orbitar only one was destined to reach their journey's end.

Copyright Len Morgan

My Computor

My Computor

By Sis Unsworth 

I don’t like my computor, it always gives me grief,

I know each time I shut it down it does bring me relief.

Sometimes I get an email, I’m not sure if it’s a scam,

I can’t do rocket science, the computor thinks I can.

I don’t like my computor, it often makes me scream,

When things I just don’t understand, appear upon my screen.

They really are essential, frequently I’m told,

Is it that I’m stupid, or am I just too old?

I don’t like my computor, don’t mean to be a bore,

At certain times I wonder, just what I have one for?

However, I will persevere, and hope I just might win,

Or else you’ll find the bloomin thing, inside my rubbish bin!

Copyright Sis Unsworth

The Brown Has Won.

The Brown Has Won.

By Phillip Miller

The brown had won, and the Frog sat crying

And the Fish gulped hard as Billy lay dying

Harry the hat held on to old Rose

And Tommy the Knock said, ‘that’s how it goes’

‘It’s sad’, said the frog, ‘the kid was my light

We drank every day from morning to night

It was a choice, you know, his booze or his pills

He drank so much you thought he had gills’

They laughed and talked about times long gone

And Rose took Bill's hand and sang him a song

The Frog shed a tear and The Hat said a prayer

And they all said that life really was unfair.

The Knock, the Hat, the Fish and Old Rose

Said, ‘let’s tap the Toad’.

‘Yeah! Come on’, said Fred, ‘for Billy’s sake,

Let’s have one for the road’.

Copyright Phillip Miller

IF YOU DO COME WITH ME

IF YOU DO COME WITH ME

By Richard Banks       

It was a book that had to be ordered. Long out of print the only copy listed in the library catalogue was in Colchester. At first, they didn’t know they had it. Their own records contained no reference to Katherine Melrose or any book by her. Then they found it in a dust laden cardboard box with the works of other dead poets. It arrived in Rayleigh at my local library two weeks later with a note saying that it was now part of a library sale and could be purchased for fifty pence. I paid the money willingly, and quietly celebrating my good fortune hurried home.

      There is nothing to compare to an old book. New ones have their attractions I grant you, – that perfume smell, the pristine freshness of each opened page, a virgin land just waiting to be discovered, but old books are better a shared experience, every blemish telling its own story, the smudge of an unwashed finger or thumb, the meticulous creasing of page corners, the occasional annotation, all bear witness to those who have read the same words that you are reading now. A previous reader of Miss Melrose’s book had been a tea drinker (may still be a tea drinker) a circular brown stain indicating that he or she had once placed a hot cup or mug on its padded leather cover. A moment of carelessness I wonder or did the book have no more value to the reader than a coaster?

      There would be other ‘clues’ inside. I turn to the first printed page. It was not, as I had hoped a first edition. Published in 1847 it was the second impression of a third edition. Clearly, Miss Melrose was a popular author in her time; today she is largely forgotten, meriting only four sentences in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. At the top of the page there is an inscription in blue ink: ‘Henrietta Brice, Westcliff-on-Sea, August 1848.’ The copperplate handwriting is neat, well formed letters slanting left to right. So the book first belonged to Henrietta, a young woman no more than twenty years of age. Her writing shows this, not a childish hand to be sure but nothing of the regressive slackness of later years. She has a romantic disposition; if not her ownership of Miss Melrose’s poetry would be a paradox. Towards the foot of the page an oblong stamp declares that the book has become the property of the Colchester Subscription Library. The same stamp testifies that this happened in October 1850. Was this when Henrietta put away her romantic notions?

       I skip the preface and read the first poem, a sonnet, fourteen lines occupying a single page. I read on to page twenty and find another addition in blue ink, a single line beneath the words, ‘the endless drift of unfilled days'. Could this have been Henrietta’s life? In 1848, her education at an end, her progression to the workplace would have been firmly discouraged. Only working class girls sought paid employment and Henrietta was not working class, her ownership of an expensive book proves that. Her role in life as a wife and mother was yet to begin. There might be many years of waiting until the right man came along. Would he come? The world was changing but not quick enough for Henrietta. For now she must fill in time as best she could. On the same page a pressed flower, a forget-me-not.

      Modern-day critics of Miss Melrose’s poetry are less than kind, accusing her of sentimental self-indulgence, velveteen emotions, a lack of intellectual content. These criticisms are harsh, conveying the prejudices of a more cynical age. They ignore her ability to charm, to weave the dream, to give it substance. In her works we see an ideal world tantalizingly out of reach but never out of sight. If Henrietta was to escape her gilded cage she needed dreams, a belief that life, her life, might one day step beyond the limited horizons of 'polite' society.

      I continue reading. The pages show little sign of wear. Unlike the cover, none are stained or smudged. Could I be the first person since Henrietta to read this book? The notion seems absurd, but not impossible. On page fifty-four is another annotation; beside the words, ‘he comes to conquer, feigns to love,’ is written ‘George’. One feels there should be a question mark after ‘George’ but there is none; evidently, his motives, his intentions, were only too clear. Could George be a suitor? If so he was likely to be disappointed. A man who only feigned to love was not for Henrietta, but George was persistent.

      Clinging to page ninety I find his visiting card, ‘George Bovis, Chief Clerk, Martins Bank, Lombard Street, London, EC3’ On the reverse side is written, ‘sorry to have missed you, fond regards, George.’ So George had come calling and Henrietta was out – by accident or design?

      Her parents, if they were in, might well have been pleased to see him. A young man with a secure job in the City was a suitable young man. Already a chief clerk he would surely make manager. If these thoughts were theirs they were not Henrietta’s. The card is folded and creased, picked at in one corner. The poem on this page is titled, ‘The Stranger at the Hearth’ - accident or design? The poem is a long one covering five pages. It deals with a loveless marriage. The words ‘damned’ and ‘condemned’ are underlined. In the penultimate verse the heroine mourns for, ‘he who loved and may still love.’ This too is underlined.

      I read on but the printed pages have less interest now than the manuscript additions. Henrietta is writing her own story; I may be the first to read it. I turn each page carefully. The next act in this drama is not long in coming. I find it between pages 102 and 103, a poem, five verses long written in brown ink on the notepaper of the Ship Inn. It is a love poem entitled, ‘To look into your eyes'. Expressive of chivalric love the poem is tender, warm, intimate. The last verse reads,

               ‘For those who flee the citadel,

                No more the walls, the curfew bell.

                Sweet world beyond the wishing well,

                If you do come with me.’ 

Beneath it the author has signed his name, ‘Clem.’ Below that is a large X to which Henrietta has added one of her own.

      So, Henrietta had two suitors, George the banker and Clem the poet. She had made her choice, that is clear but was she free to choose? Not yet of legal age, a romantic attachment to a man unacceptable to her parents would have been forbidden. Did they know about Clem? Would they have approved had they known? His poetry would not have been enough that’s for sure, what else did he have? I want to know more. There must be more, another poem, a calling card, more annotations, but there are none. The remaining pages contain only the black print of Miss Melrose’s poems.

      I feel downhearted, cheated. In frustration, I shake the book and from its spine something flutters to the floor. Beneath my chair, I find a ticket to a concert. The ticket is dated 29 August 1850, red lettering on tan coloured paper card. A theatrical company, the Northgate Players, are performing a play at Trotter's theatre near Southend Pier. It is the last night. The play is ‘Paul Pry’ by John Poole. On the reverse side of the ticket are brief details of the Company’s next production in Reading.

      Has this any relevance to the unfolding story of Henrietta, George and Clem? I think it does. The date on the ticket precedes the library acquisition of Henrietta’s book by less than a  month. Then I remember the closing line of Clem’s poem, ‘if you do come with me’. All is clear. Clem was an actor, with a travelling company, the Northgate Players, temporarily resident at the Ship Inn where he wrote his poem. During the Company's summer season he and Henrietta met and fell in love. Whether her parents knew of this or were kept in ignorance we may never know. Either way, their opposition to such an association would have been formidable and unyielding. Within days of the company’s final performance, Henrietta and Clem eloped and married.

      Pure supposition I hear you say. Where is your proof? The facts are too few, you stretch them too far. There is no evidence of an elopement. But there is. It lies on the desk at which I sit, a certificate of marriage received this morning from the Institute of Genealogy. On the 1st September 1850 Henrietta Brice and Clement Jerome married at Gretna Hall in Gretna Green. Their occupations were given as actor and actress. Henrietta was nineteen years of age.

      Of their life together I have no further information. That it can be found in genealogical records I have no doubt. Let it be. The dry dust of history ends only in death.  On the 1st September 1850 they were young, happy and free. The story’s told. No better ending can there be.   

Copyright Richard Banks   

Green eyes

 Green eyes

By Phillip Miller

It tears me up inside and grinds me down

The fact she’s hitched with that stupid old hack

Who rides a bike to work and acts the clown

And sings for his supper down at “Ye Old Smack”

I have the look’s, house, and bundles of cash.

Drive a smart red Porsche and own a large Gite,

and I impress with style and panache,

Rolex on my wrist, Prada on my feet.

He is short and has a pale complexion,

Puny against my body, tanned and strong.

He stands in the shadow of perfection

Happy because she sings only his song.

Then what does she see in him but not me?

Why! She loves him you fool, so plain to see?

Copyright Phillip Miller