Free Nailed by the Heart by Simon Clark Page B

interesting place; up to bloody here in
history, and I could never get access."

    "Well,
feel free to look around," said Chris. Ruth shot him a look.

    "Oh,
I'll snatch your hand off for that invitation. I'll give you notice,
though I can see you're up to your ears in crap today. But
fascinating place. Manshead here was mentioned by the Romans in 97
AD. A Roman tax collector wrote about it in a letter to his wife in
Rome. I managed to get a stat of the thing from the British Museum.
It also gets a fair bit of press in ecclesiastical chronicles of the
sixth and seventh centuries."

    "Manshead,"
said Ruth. "It's just a lump of rock they built the seafort
on."

    "Just
a piece of rock, my dear? This is a rock and a half. Have you noticed
there're no shellfish stuck to it; not a ruddy one. The rock's a
freak. Look at the geology around here, it's boulder clay with a few
bits of sandstone. Manshead is igneous, probably volcanic. If you
could make the sea and sand and stuff around here all invisible, the
picture you would get would be of the seafort standing on a big black
pillar-what?-maybe two, three miles high, a bit like Nelson's
Column."

    "But
people from centuries ago wouldn't have known that. Why did they make
all the fuss about it?" said Ruth.

    "Magic,
my dear. Place is soaked in it." He gave a wheezing laugh.
"That's what they believed yonks ago anyway. You know, ley-lines
and geomantric forces and that kind of crap. They believed this was
one of the focal points. Where they could get closer to their god."

    "We'll
put that in the advertisements when the hotel opens."

    "Anything
to get the punters in is a good thing," agreed Tony Gateman. "Ah
... must get on." He glanced at his watch. "I was just
passing so I thought I'd call in. Cheerio."

    Just
passing? thought Chris. In those shoes? They were highly polished
brogues. And just passing to where? Apart from the beach and the
marshes there was nothing for miles.

    Tony
began to walk across the cobbled yard and then stopped abruptly. "I'm
having a barbecue at my place tomorrow evening. It'd be lovely if you
could come."

    To
Chris's surprise Ruth said: "We'd love to."

    "Six
o'clock. Make use of the daylight. The name of the house is "The
New Bungalow." On Main Street. You can't miss it. See ya,
folks."

    Tony
hurried away with that amazingly fast stride that only small men seem
able to manage.

    "A
barbecue, eh?" said Chris. "With the natives. I only hope
we're not on the menu."

    "Ungrateful
sod," said Ruth good-naturedly. "If we're going to become
part of the community, we might as well make a start. If we can ...
Chris ..."

    "What's
wrong?"

    "Look."

    Through
the window of the caravan he could see the flicker of the television.

    "Jesus
... I'd forgotten all about the bloody goldfish."

    They
ran to the caravan.

    David
stood with his back to them, a drum of fishfood in his hand, while he
sprinkled ants' eggs onto the surface of the water.

    "Don't
worry, kidda. We'll get a new one."

    "A
new what, Dad?"

    "Well,
a new ... "

    His
voice dried.

    Instead
of lying lifeless on the surface, its big eye pressed to the
underside of the water like a fishy peeping tom, the fish was racing
around the bowl with powerful flicks of its tail.

    "A
new what, Dad?"

    "Oh
... I... just thought a bigger bowl ... Give Clark Kent a bit more
room."

    "Thanks,
Dad."

    Chris
crouched down beside him so he could see the fish more closely. The
shrunken look had gone; its scales blazed with a healthy gold color.

    Shaking
his head, he rose and ruffled David's hair. "Back to work."
As he passed Ruth he kissed her on the back of the neck and
whispered, "I think I'll keep you on the payroll."

    "Why?"

    "For
quick thinking in the face of adversity."

    "You've
lost me, lover."

    "For
buying another goldfish and switching it for poor old Clark Kent when
we were out."

    "I
did nothing of the sort. That is Clark Kent."

    "But
it was dead."

    "It
looked like that."

    "But-"

    "But
nothing. Let