I saw, so clearly now, the picture of myself filling in the deep gouges that Aunt Ada had made in the soft earth. I saw myself letting fall the fine soil, obliterating every single mark she had left on the surface. I had left no trace – no trace at all – I’d made sure of that all right. What I hadn’t counted on was Aunt Ada’s thoroughness. It was that that had given it all away – had given me away. I hadn’t thought about the seeds.
Now, so beautifully, in letters two feet across, a glorious crop of cos lettuces spelt out her special name for me: TOM-TOM.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bernard Taylor was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, and now lives in London. Following active service in Egypt in the Royal Air Force, he studied Fine Arts in Swindon, then at Chelsea School of Art and Birmingham University. On graduation he worked as a teacher, painter and book illustrator before going as a teacher to the United States. While there, he took up acting and writing and continued with both after his return to England. He has published ten novels under his own name, including The Godsend (1976), which was adapted for a major film, and Sweetheart, Sweetheart (1977), which Charles L. Grant has hailed as one of the finest ghost stories ever written. He has also written novels under the pseudonym Jess Foley, as well as several works of nonfiction. He has won awards for his true crime writing and also for his work as a playwright. There Must Be Evil, his latest true crime study, was recently published in England.
Taylor’s classics The Godsend, Sweetheart, Sweetheart, The Reaping, and The Moorstone Sickness are available from Valancourt, as is his newest thriller, The Comeback (2016), the author’s triumphant return to fiction after a long hiatus.
This Is Midnight: Stories Page 19
