kce

She jotted down the details.
‘So these people really exist,’ she said when she looked up again.
‘Absolutely,’ I assured her. it’s a matter of public record now.’
‘And what’s their story?’
‘We’ll come to that at the proper time. If you do succeed in getting in
touch with them, they’ll tell you what they saw, and you can compare it
with what I’ve told you. You’ll find that it matches at dozens of points —
too many to be attributable to coincidence.’
She grinned and flapped the pad in the air. ‘Total strangers who can
confirm your story. That’s the distinguishing feature about your case that
grabbed my attention in the first place. The presence of another group of
independent witnesses is a spectacular bonus.’
I nodded. ‘The really fascinating part of their story is not merely that
their particulars matched mine, but that they remembered things I didn’t.
I’ve recently seen their drawings of the event, and there is no mistake that
their drawings are of the same thing. But they included fine details that I
must have missed, and these later matched evidence collected in the field.’
‘By the researchers?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Mum?’ a voice called from the door. I turned around to see my
seven-year-old, Brian. ‘When’s dinner going to be ready?’
Wendy stood up to stretch. ‘Hello,’ she said brightly, addressing my
child.
‘Come in darling.’
Brian sat on my lap. ‘This is Wendy. She’s come to help Mummy with
her work.’
‘Hello,’ my son said shyly. ‘What’s for dinner, Mum?’
‘This might be a good time for a break,’ Wendy said, and stopped the
tape.
‘Apricot chicken. How does that sound, Brian?’
‘Good.’ He wriggled out of my arms, and I got up as well.
‘Go and get your brother and sister, tell them it’s time to come in,’ I
called out to the fleeing figure. I turned back to Wendy. ‘You’ll stay for
something to eat?’
‘If it’s not too much trouble. I like apricot chicken very much.’
I smiled.