Free The Man Whose Dream Came True by Julian Symons

going to get married, but it was broken off.’
    ‘You’ll think I’m a prying old woman.’ She gave a trill of falsetto laughter.
    ‘You haven’t been prying at all. And I think of you as just the same age as myself.’
    ‘That’s very nice even if you don’t mean it. Remember, there are just as good fish in the sea.’ Her hand, podgy and slightly wrinkled but ablaze with the stones she wore, touched his. As they walked back to the Seven Seas he asked her to call him Tony. He learned her name which, rather dismayingly, was Violet.
    On the following day they were going out of the door at the same time, and he accompanied her on a tour of the town’s jewellery shops. She was looking for a pearl choker and examined some that cost three and four hundred pounds, but she did not neglect rings and bracelets. He was impressed by the professional way in which she looked at the things and bargained with the jewellers. In the end she placed a diamond and ruby pendant round her ample neck and asked him if he liked it. He said truthfully that it was very pretty.
    ‘You really think so?’ She said to the jeweller, ‘I’ll give you a hundred and fifty.’
    The price was a hundred and seventy-five. The man raised his hands in despair, but she got it at her price after some haggling.
    ‘Will you take it off, Tony.’ He stood close behind her, his fingers touched the back of her neck, warm and smooth. He was aware of a faint tremor in her body as he undid the clasp. In the glass her brown eyes, warm and ardent, looked into his.
    ‘You’ll think I waste money, but you’re wrong,’ she said afterwards. ‘I may be a fool about a lot of things but I know what I’m looking at with stones. I don’t keep them for ever. I sell them after a few years, and I almost always make a profit.’
    ‘I thought you were wonderful. I could never have got the price down like that.’
    ‘Nothing to it. He wouldn’t have liked it if I’d just said yes to the asking price.’
    He decided to make his financial situation clear. ‘A hundred and fifty pounds. By my standards it’s a fortune.’
    She patted his hand. ‘Dear Tony, you’re so straightforward. That’s one of the things I like about you.’
    That evening they had a séance, or rather a table rapping session. It was against Widgey’s principles because she only approved of seeing the future in the cards, but it turned out that the deaf man and his tottery wife were interested in the world beyond, and the five of them sat at the round table in the parlour with the lights out. For some minutes nothing happened.
    ‘What’s that?’ said Deaf aid. ‘I heard something.’
    They sat in silence. Tony repressed an inclination to giggle. Three sharp knocks were heard. Mrs Deaf aid grunted something unintelligible. Widgey said, ‘Have you got a message? Is it for one of us? Two raps means you have.’ Two knocks sounded. ‘Is it for Mr Bennett?’ So that was Deaf aid’s name. One knock only. ‘For Mrs Bennett?’ Again one knock. ‘For Mrs Harrington?’ Two knocks. ‘Is it a close relative?’ Two knocks. ‘Her husband?’ Two knocks.
    Tony’s right hand was gripped by Mrs Harrington’s left. She held it tightly, the rings pressed into his fingers. She continued to hold it as questions and answers continued, slowly because as always in table rapping the answers were confined to plain ‘yes’ and ‘no’. When she herself began to ask questions about life over there her hot fingers slithered over his palm. It appeared that Mr Harrington was happy on the other side, although he missed Violet.
    ‘You were always so busy down here. Are you – is there enough for you to do?’ Two knocks, rather peremptory.
    Falteringly Mrs Harrington continued. ‘I have bought a pendant and I should like your opinion on it.’
    The response to this was an absolute fusillade of knocks, irregular ones which gradually became fainter.
    ‘Don’t be angry,’ Mrs Harrington said pleadingly.