Dimensional Observer Part Iii:

Michael Retsina

Description

“Both Susan and Michael were disappointed because of Lisa having left. Will she come back and confirm she is a traveller from the past, like they think?” to be written on the back cover.

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 16 février 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665592703
• Langue: English

Extrait

Dimensional Observer Part III:

THE CAUSE OF IT





MICHAEL RETSINA








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© 2022 Michael Retsina. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/02/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-9269-7 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-9270-3 (e)






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CONTENTS
1 Game of Snooker with Andrew and Laura
2 A Surprise Visitor at the Cinema
3 Susan’s Accident
4 Lauren Pops In
5 The Postcard
6 Evening at the Pub
7 Lisa Returns
8 Lisa’s Story
9 Paul’s Gambit
10 Paul’s Move
11 Lisa’s First Night
12 Susan Comes Round
13 The Breakthrough
14 Lisa Lodges with Michael
15 That Weekend with Lisa
16 The Birthday Party
17 A Game of Monopoly
18 Bonfire Night
19 Searching for the Boy
20 The Glove
21 Gathering Information
22 The Stake-Outs
23 Lisa’s Birthday
24 Trying to Flush Him Out
25 Office Christmas Dinner
26 Office Christmas Disco
27 The Giveaway
28 James’s Story



CHAPTER 1

Game of Snooker with Andrew and Laura
I t was the third of July, and Michael Morrow was driving home in his blue Vauxhall Astra on this warm Sunday evening. He wore glasses and a blue shirt with charcoal-grey trousers and black shoes. He thought of Susan Morrow, who was a laterally inverted version of himself from an alternative universe. He then thought about Lisa O’Connor, who he and Susan were absolutely sure had travelled here from around 1874. Both women had arrived at about the same time last January. Lisa, who had recently lodged with him for three days, had left two days ago.
When Susan and Michael looked on an ancestry website, they had realized Lisa was Sukie Elizabeth Doyle, who was about 30 years old in 1874. They had come to the conclusion that the world she had come from was parallel to the one we are in. Lisa had appeared to have travelled through time because the world she had come from moved fractionally faster than this one.
When Michael arrived at the flats, he noticed Gary, Martin, and Lauren Scully, a rough-and-ready trio in their early twenties. Lauren’s elder brothers each stood about five foot nine. They wore black jeans with brown leather jackets over white T-shirts. Lauren was quite a lot shorter than them, but had similar chestnut-brown hair. She had large dark-brown eyes and wore baggy, oversized blue jeans, which helped cover up her plump figure, although she wore a tight white T-shirt over her bulging bra. They were drinking and making lots of noise in the woods to the back of the flats, as they competed with each other to do wheelies on their bicycles. Michael saw Lauren quickly look in his direction. She waved to him as he walked to the main entrance of the flats.
That evening, as he prepared his meal, he missed Lisa and wondered what she might be doing. He had a few drinks to make himself feel better before putting on a DVD, which he watched as he ate. He’d cleared up and was just about to go to bed when he heard Lauren and her brothers, sounding quite drunk, near to the back entrance. He heard what sounded like Lauren burping loudly and then a bottle smash.
She said in a broad Yorkshire accent, “Shit! That’s Rottweiler piss. Fuck! They shouldn’t be marketing such crap.”
Her brothers laughed. One of them said, “You’re fucking right.” Michael heard an empty can noisily clatter on the ground. The same brother said, “I won’t be fucking shopping there again.” They talked about the recent England football match.
The other brother said, “All right, Richard?” Apparently one of the elderly residents, Richard Steadman, had arrived back at the flats.
Richard responded calmly in his deep, elderly voice, “Yes, fine, thanks.”
Lauren said, “Well, it’s rickety Rick with the stick. The bellend! What have you been getting up to tonight? Been to Blue Jean’s again, have you?”
Richard replied, “Yes.” There was a pause. Michael imagined what he could easily say in reply: “Mind your own bloody business” or “She wears better jeans than you.”
Lauren continued, “I hope you haven’t worn yourself out with that dipstick an’ all. Err! What’s that fucking shit at the end of it? Ooh! You’ve picked up some crappy chewing gum. I shouldn’t try that bit of crumb, though—it looks fucking worse than the piss I spat out earlier. The bloody shit!” She laughed loudly.
Richard said, “Oh. Bad fermentation, aye?”
“Bad enough to blow you away, old fart.” She giggled.
There was a pause, and Richard said, “Oh. I best get in then, before I light my … ciggy.” He chuckled.
One of the brothers said, “Good one, mate.”
Lauren said, “What? That was crap.”
Richard said, “Well, that could amount to being even more dangerous. Just watch what you put your foot in.” A door closed.
She said loudly, “Well, you cheeky bugger! Fuck off.”
One of the brothers laughed. “I think he just has. Oh, let’s go in. I could do with another Guinness.”
Lauren said, “Yeah. I need to take a leak.”
The door finally closed, and it was quiet. Michael thought about the rum lot they were, and then thought about Lisa again as he got ready for bed.
The following Tuesday morning, he arrived at the office wearing a plain, blue, long-sleeved shirt and maroon patterned tie with a dark-grey suit and black shoes. He saw Melanie Ward talking to Susan. Everybody other than Lisa and Michael knew Susan as Sarah Morrison. This was so nobody else would have any inkling as to whether she had accidentally travelled from a laterally inverted universe. Melanie was about his height and quite thin, with dark-brown hair and turquoise-hazel eyes. She was dressed in the same standard ladies’ work uniform as Susan, which was a plain long-sleeved white blouse with dark-blue trousers and black shoes. Like Michael, Susan was almost thirty. She had dyed ginger hair, and she wore brown contact lenses. Her natural eye colour was hazel-blue-green, just like his, and at about five foot five, she was two inches shorter than him.
She said in her fairly deep voice, which was a little lighter than his, “Hi, Michael. How are you?”
“I’m OK, thanks, and ready for work as usual. Are you all right, Sarah?”
“Yes, I’m fine. There is quite a lot more than usual for me to do today because I have to look at my quarterly stock. I’ll verify it with you later.”
Melanie said, “Yes. I’ll be helping you with that too. I just hope it balances as easily as it did for the March quarter.”
Susan smiled. “So do I. I have enough on with the purchases we did yesterday to replace those extra sales Paul made last week.”
Melanie said, “Yes, but we’ll get through it. Anyway, see you soon, Michael.”
“Yes. I’ll see you later.”
Susan said, “Well, I’ll catch up with you later, Michael.”
“OK.”
Susan and Melanie went into Susan’s office. Michael went into his to prepare for the work ahead of him.
Two days later, when he was cleaning his teeth before going to bed, he heard the sound of somebody breaking wind outside. He knew that it was Lauren when she said, “Wow! Relief at last.” She then shouted, “What are you two fucking looking at?”
There were a few “oohs” from whoever they were.
Lauren shouted, sounding very drunk, “Just naff off! Have you never seen a woman take a leak before?”
Michael remembered seeing the remains of dried-up pee occasionally around the flats.
There was a momentary silence before Lauren started singing, very much out of tune, “Daisy … Mikey, Mikey, give me your answer too. I’m just so fucking crazy, all for the love of you. Just sit me in your carriage so you can do as much to me as you … manage. Then we’ll look sweet, with me on top of your—” She giggled and sounded to stumble slightly. “—sweet thing. On a bicycle made for two. Ooh!” She paused. “Oh, what I could do, oh, what I could just fucking do, if I had another drink. Ooh!”
A door shut loudly, after which it was quiet.
Michael thought, What a … what a girl! He remembered her occasionally serenading and flirting like that with a few of the other lads around. He thought about the misfit she actually was, but he was amused by her ways just as he had been by Lisa’s. He thought about Lisa again as he got ready for bed.
The following Friday afternoon, just after half past two, he was processing the last few June invoices. David Evans, who was the senior accountant he worked for, came into his office to give him some more. David was five foot eleven with grey hair. He wore a dark-blue suit, white shirt, and patterned maroon tie. He said, “Good afternoon, Michael. This should be the last lot of these for June. There’s not so many as I’d thought, considering.” Quite a large pile of them landed in Michael’s tray.
His heart sank a bit when he saw them, but he said, “OK … thanks for those.”
David smirked slightly. “You’re