You, Me, We Are All Mistakes

13. WE NEED A DIFFERENT ESCAPE

CHAPTER 13
WE NEED A DIFFERENT ESCAPE

Beneath the Dark Peak, Nelson stared at his own stars. Tina's gaze returned down to the floor. On their bench, a wordless impasse had developed between them. Stillness descended breath by breath on the chamber, and no one moved. Their anxiety levels were rising, yet neither would speak first to admit it.

As he focused on the lights above, Nelson detected a twitching beneath Orion's belt. A tiny square of the ceiling folded in on itself, and a small close-circuit television camera beetled out.

"Look," Nelson indicated.

"Oh my God!" snarled Tina looking up, "Is that what this is? If it's some kind of Candid Camera..."

"Jesus, no I didn't mean that..." said Nelson, yet smiling self-consciously at the lens, "... do you think this is my best side?"

"I'm asking one more time Nelson. What the hell am I doing here?"

"I'm not sure."

"Not sure. Not sure! You must have some idea... or you are very stupid. This is hopeless. The only thing I know is that there is £14.79's worth of Waitrose shopping scattered over Finchley Road and thanks to you, the day out I'd planned is completely... completely... ruined!"

Nelson stretched his neck stiffly from side to side and linked his fingers, pushing the palms in a downward motion.

"Well?" demanded Tina.

He swivelled on the bench to face her directly.

"Okay Tina, firstly, I'm sorry for all of this. Secondly, a very long story, short. My friend Duke has disappeared, I think. Duke loves a conspiracy theory and that's an important point. I'm just a palaeontologist who somehow has ended up writing technology articles for Sunday supplements and Computing magazine, which I'm realizing I now hate. I mean, who cares how the new Acorn Electron stacks up against the Commodore 64?"

Tina shrugged blankly.

"My thoughts exactly. Anyway, a couple of months ago Duke loses his sense of humour, turns more inward and his long-coat even stays on indoors. He keeps saying things like 'this one's a real conspiracy' and I'm just replying telling him to lighten up. As I keep ignoring him, he insists I meet him in our local library. He shows me this encyclopaedia he's found there that looks like it hasn't been opened for years. Bingo! It has a neat recess cut right out of the middle. He gets this yellowing NASA envelope out of his pocket, and it fits perfectly in the recess. He swears its genuine, then and tells me to read it. Sure enough it's from NASA to a Doctor Grimaldi, and he used to live where you live now. That... is the reason I came to your place in Swiss Cottage."

"And got me out of the shower."

"I'm also sorry about that."

"Get on with it."

"The letter talks about Grimaldi's opinions on rockets and the first Moon landing. But the letter is dated... get this, 1927! Not just once, twice. That's over fifty years before Neil Armstrong told us how smug you can be as the first one there. Duke seems to clock this guy in big dark glasses, tells me to keep the letter safe, and then leaves the library very quick. And that... was the last I saw of him. What would you do? We grew up together. He's like a brother to me. So, I tried to return it to you, we know what happened there. Anyway, if it is a fake, then someone is going to a lot of effort, and in the most obscure places. So, the wind in my sails I ring NASA and a whimpering brain cell has trouble breathing when I mention Grimaldi and Moon in the same sentence, and then a voice that should be advertising aftershave says We'll be in touch. Then a dark-glasses guy snaps a photo of me outside my home... And here I am! And I still don't know where Duke is."