The Cat Is Back!

by Michael White

  Henry had worked late for several nights after that, sharpening axes and saws and so on, but now on this early morning at last they were ready. As promised the squire had departed late the previous evening, but not before calling on Henry who was at work in his smithy, to re-iterate his plan.

  “Make sure it is cleanly done” he had called to Henry as he departed, and then he was gone.

  Henry frowned as he continued on in the dark. He had since then gathered several more men to assist him, and his contingent now stood at about eight men who would do the cutting and the pulling, and several others who were there purely to assist as necessary. He thought however that once the cutting had begun then a larger crowd than that was almost a certainty.

  Late last night he had loaded the sharpened axes, ropes and saws on to his small hand cart and Abraham Sprottle and Oliver Sulyard had driven the cart over to the churchyard where it would be watched over by the pair until just before dawn, at which point the two men would begin unloading the tools. Henry had considered going with the cart but he had reached the conclusion that a brisk walk for the mile or so to the church yard would clear his head for the long day that was ahead.

  As he proceeded down the rough road dawn now began to take a hold and a few minutes later Henry extinguished his lamp as he no longer required it. He took a moment to check the lightening sky as he did so, and wondered if the clouds slowly ambling in over the hills to the west would bring rain. He was pleased however, to note that the air was quite still for an autumn morn, which he felt was a good sign. He continued on his way a little longer. Slowly he approached the small hill, on the other side of which he knew stood the small chapel. Already he could make out the high branches of the oak jutting above the rise in the road. He was nearly there.

  Suddenly he stopped. He held his hand up. No wind. It was quite a calm morning. Somewhere far off in the distance a cock could be heard crowing. He looked at the branches of the oak once more. Scowling to himself he stared once more at the upper limbs of the tree, the base of which was concealed behind the hill. With alarm he began to wonder that if it was such a calm morning, why were the branches of the oak tree that he was about to cut down shaking slowly from side to side? With a startled cry he broke in to a run.

  Over the hill. Down in to the church yard. Registering the small cart now unloaded beneath the base of the massive Oak. About which Abraham Sprottle and Oliver Sulyard were chopping at the tree with their axes. Judging by the size of the cut in the base of the oak they had been at it all night, and had by now probably cut a good third of the way through the trunk. As Henry raced between the grave stones the tree suddenly lurched a little to the left.

  Directly towards the small church itself.

  Gathering speed now Henry flew towards the now slightly frightened men who were looking up to the top of the tree in confusion and indecision.

  “What are you doing?” screamed Henry as he raced across the graveyard. Then, at the top of his voice, “Stop! For God’s sake you fools, stop! The tree is going to fall on the church! Stop!”

  Dad Comes To Visit

  Now this must have been a Monday or maybe a Wednesday. Actually, it was Wednesday because it was fish and chips and it is always fish and chips on a Wednesday, see. Dai came down the stairs and sat on the couch with a right old strange expression on his face. I was watching a bit of telly at the time. Can’t really remember what. Anyway I said to him, “What’s up with your face then, Dai?” He looked at me in a kind of odd way and said, “Well now Gwen I don’t want to worry you but your Dad is sitting on the bed upstairs, like.” Now I laughed out loud at this and swore at him for a bit, which made him look kind of really pissed off. Well, sort of.

  See, my dad has been dead about eleven years now. IU knew the date so well as it was three years after my ma had died. Not that there was much chance of forgetting, Therefore, I concluded, there was not much likelihood that he was sitting on the bed upstairs. So, wondering what he was up to I decided to play along. “What’s he doing then?” I giggled, and for truth this seemed to make Dai even angrier. “He’s not doing nothing. Just sitting there.” Dai paused for a minute and looked quite serious. “I only went in to get a towel like, and he was just sitting there. Turned to me and said, “Hello Dai” and I kind of ran back out of the room. Gave me a right fright, so it did.”

  It was only then that I realised that Dai’s hair was still wet. Turning off the Telly I stomped out of the room. “Alright then” I called to him as I went up the stairs. “I don’t know what you are up to but I will play along for now. I’ll just go and...” and when I opened the bedroom door there he was - my dad that is, sitting as large as life on the bed. Only thing was I could see the lamp on the other side of the bed right through him. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, and that’s the truth. “Hello Gwen” he said, smiling. “Hello dad.” I replied, feeling kind of strange inside, “what are you doing here then?”

  King of the Tyrant Lizards

  The silver ship Baptistina dropped out of warp high above the planet Earth and automatically achieved orbit seconds later. This process was totally automated, but on the command deck of the ship the four people there were mostly busy running checks, then counter checks on all systems to make sure all was well. On the large view screen in front of them the planet revolved, filling the screen entirely, growing larger and larger as their descent began.

  “Engaging gravitational dampeners!” barked Glotis. His role of science officer was the most crucial at this stage of the journey. If the ship computer mis-calculated even by a fraction the descent to the planet could get very messy indeed. Sweat speckled his brow, a frown creasing his features through concentration. All four of them switched their view between their personal consoles and the view screen before them, as the planet grew in size.

  “Confirmed” responded Savarex, running a precautionary second check on their descent. This was not standard procedure and Glotis glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, clearly irritated and not making much of an attempt to hide it.

  Commander Trevix sat in his seat, his entire being screaming calm, his view set firmly on the view screen, studying the planet as the raw blue, brown and green slowly began to form clearer images before them.

  “Trajectory?” he enquired casually. Glotis ran a series of commands on his board without looking around to where the commander sat. “Confirmed Normal” he said. Trevix nodded almost to himself and turned to Savarex who was also running a series of commands.

  “Heat shields?” he enquired, almost politely. Savarex paused and switched to yet another sequence on her board. “All normal” she said, and returned to the original key sequence she was running.

  The command deck now had a noticeable tremor to it as gravity began to take hold of the ship during its descent. Trevix knew the gravitational dampeners would take care of the majority of this but nevertheless there was no such thing as either a quiet or a safe descent.

  “Computer” he enquired, “descent ETA?” The computer pinged and relayed the answer via the speakers concealed in the fascia of the command deck. The voice was calm, male and the response instantaneous. “ETA 45 minutes local time in line with current speed and heading.” Trevix nodded and studied the view screen once more.

  Savarex this time. “All systems running in compliance with safety requirements.” Glotis nodded solemnly, his twin antennae swaying in time with his movement. “Deceleration parameters correct.” Trevix stood from his chair, moving behind it and turning to face the view screen once more. “Excellent.” “well done all”

  “We’re not down yet” snarled Glotis through clenched teeth, the tension now more than apparent on his features. Savarex turned to Glotis and threw a glance at Trevix, but thought better of whatever she was about to say and turned back to her board, her fingers running lightly but rapidly across it. Numbers flew across the visual display in response.

  “I am aware of that, Glotis” announced Trevix, s
miling. “Hold her steady old friend. I have every faith in you.”

  Glotis briefly smiled at this, and then continued to pull up screen after screen of data on his display. Savarex seemed to visibly relax. Trevix smiled and returned to his seat. Ahead of him the planet continued to grow, now only a large swirling mass of colours filling the large display. Turning slowly to the console to his right he noticed the fourth member of the crew who was obviously completely unaware that the commander was looking at him.

  “Colin” he said. “What are you doing?”

  Colin blushed a little, the colour flooding his cheeks. He would, unfortunately, never see the other side of twenty stone again, and the same statement would be equally true of the likelihood of him ever managing to catch a glimpse of his feet either. At the moment he was starting to glow as much as heat shield presumably was on the outside of the ship as it skipped into the atmosphere like a small stone skimmed across a pool of water. Trevix could not help but notice that at this moment in time Colin was almost visibly squirming. He would not be at all surprised if he started to suck his thumb.

  “Erm... dusting, commander” he almost whispered, and the squirming increased by about one hundred per cent.

  That’s all for now, though I can be contacted via the links below.

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