Free Tollesbury Time Forever by Stuart Ayris, Kath Middleton, Rebecca Ayris Page B

humbled it until it became a mere breeze that skulked away into the trees.
    “What you been up to boy? What have you done?”
    There was no further sound but that of my world falling apart.

6. A Man Who Needs A Drink
     
    Guilt consumed me though I had done nothing wrong. I hadn’t been ‘up to’ anything as far as I was aware. I had met some strange people, that was all; and wasn’t Zachariah Leonard one of the strangest?
    Weepy and Nardy had troubled me, yes, and they had played with my mind, without doubt. Zachariah, however, shook me to my very core. It was in the way he looked at me, in the way he moved in so simian a fashion. It was in the primeval potential for horrific violence that emanated from every taut sinew of his grubby, perspiring body. He had asked what I had been up to. I had been equally curious as to where he had been the previous two days.
    I manoeuvred myself into a sitting position and crossed my legs, my hands upon my knees. He sat opposite me some six feet away in the exact same pose. Thus I faced him.
    “You found the shirt then?” said Zachariah, nodding his head towards me. “Fits you well.”
    “Thank you,” I replied. “Is it one of yours?”
    “Not quite, boy; not quite.”
    “When did you get back?” I asked
    “Just before you did. And just in time, it seems.”
    Zachariah lit his pipe and sucked, his cheeks hollowing as he did so. He looked momentarily imbecilic before puffing out the sickly smelling smoke and lowering the pipe once more. His eyes simmered like pools of hot oil. He was truly indestructible.
    “So boy, who were you running from? What put the fear in you? Not seen fear like this since the last time?”
    “What last time?”
    “Just answer my questions, boy. You know how this works.”
    I put a quivering hand to my forehead hoping maybe it would in some way steady my mind. Sweat was upon my brow and trepidation was within my heart. I had the feeling Zachariah knew all the answers, knew exactly what I had just experienced, about Weepy, Nardy, Penny Shoraton and the boy; knew everything and was just confirming to himself to what extent he could trust me; if indeed trust was a concept of which he was even aware.
    “I’ve just been wandering around the village. I went down to the harbour and all around there.”
    “Just wandering around, boy?”
    “Yes, just wandering around.”
    “So what feared you, set you running so?”
    I had to tell him. To delay would likely be to perish.
    “I met two men who asked me some questions. I must have upset them. One of them got angry with me and I had to get away. So I ran back here. They didn’t mention you and neither did I. I promise.”
    Zachariah listened and then took a deep breath. I got the feeling he was trying to suppress a burning rage, cooling it with this long intake of stale air.
    “Two men you say?”
    I nodded, watching as he chewed upon his bottom lip with his yellowed teeth.
    “One big and one small?”
    I nodded again.
    “You did right, boy,” he said eventually. “You did right.”
    At that moment, looking at Zachariah as he in turn stared at me, I wasn’t entirely sure where I was safest. I detested this feeling of insecurity, of doubt and foreboding. My situation was as abstract as time itself although exactly what time of day it was would have given me some measure of relief, something for me to at least cling to. The constructs of my existence were fading in and out of vision, the solidity of what I knew to be true crumbling all about me.
    And what had he meant by ‘the last time?’
    “What should I do now?” I asked, meekly.
    Zachariah closed his eyes and puffed upon his pipe for some moments before answering me.
    “They will come for you again,” he said. “Maybe not right away, but they will come for you. They don’t give up. They never give up. Do what you been doing, boy. You be doing well.”
    “I don’t understand what’s happening,” I said to him. “I don’t understand at