A Cure for All Diseases. Reginald Hill

TO: [email protected] SUBJECT: sex on wheels!

      Hi again!

      Well that was fun! If the berries & nettles have made her 20 years younger – she must have been nigh on 100 before. Fits under my grasping at straws category. Ready to beleive anything except that youre going to die.

      Back to the land of the living. Now where was I …? Oh yes. The foot of the hill.

      The road up North Cliff seemed a lot steeper than when Id come down – & showing off to the bart had taken more out of me than I thought. By the time I reached Witch Cottage I was ready for a rest – so I sat on the little garden wall. There was an ancient motorbike plus sidecar parked outside. Some poor sod hoping to alleviate his saddle soreness by having needles stuck in his bum – I theorized.

      I heard the door open behind me – & glanced round to see Yan Lee ushering a man out. He was wearing motorbike leathers – & putting on a helmet – but the brambly beard was a dead giveaway. It was Gordon Godley – the healer from Willingdene. I remembered Tom saying hed agreed to come over – to check the set-up here in Sandytown. Remembered too my sense he knew a lot more about the set-up here than hed let on.

      & when I saw them exchange a hug & a kiss – not a one cheek peck either – but a full lip job – & I thought hello! – not so unworldly after all – bit of pillow talk going on here Id guess – wonder if theres a book on faith-healing in that Teach Yourself series!

      When he clocked me sitting on the wall – he stopped dead in his tracks – like hed seen a rabid Doberman. Behind him Miss Lee gave me her little Oriental bob – went back inside – & closed the door – leaving him & me standing – facing each other – both stock still – like a pair of gunfighters in a spaghetti western – each waiting for the other to make a move. While his biking leathers didnt do for him what they did for the bart – they did have a juvenating effect – & I adjusted my estimate of his age down a few notches – more 45 than 55 –

      He cracked first & finally started towards me like a man on his way to the gallows!

      Funny – not nice having a really off-putting effect on somebody – not even somebody you dont care a toss about! Id have moved off without passing the time of day – but I felt I owed it to Tom to make it clear – in case Mr G hadnt grasped it on our previous meeting – that I wasnt a permanent blot on the village landscape. Wouldnt want it on my conscience that I was responsible for putting the Sandytonians out of reach of godly Gordons healing hands!