There were, as I’ve said, low privet hedges on both sides of the garden – leading to a small, wrought-iron gate on the street corner. A concrete pathway then led to the front door. Curiously, the gate had been secured with a chain. This did not seem to make any sense because the gate itself was low enough simply to jump over and was therefore not designed to keep intruders out. Maybe it was meant to keep pet dogs in – I don’t really know. So, why mention it at all? Well, it had obviously presented an obstacle to someone who had come to deliver a parcel to the residence. Instead of taking it to the front door, the parcel had simply been dropped by the gate and left for the residents to find later . Serendipity! Regardless of its contents, I decided the parcel was mine – and I immediately took possession of it. Having done so, I left the somnolent guard to his snoring and discreetly returned to the crypt to examine my prize. o0o I was pleased to note that David had apparently missed me. He met me at the door of the crypt and displayed what I interpreted as unusual attention towards me. However, given that he had been largely ignoring me for some days, this was not saying a great deal. “Hey, Dave,” I whispered exultantly and held the parcel high. “Santa’s been! He brought you a prezzo. You must have been a good little zombie!” He emitted an amused sort of grunt – leastwise, that’s how it seemed to me. Maybe his rudimentary brain still computed ‘Santa’ and ‘prezzo’. These concepts are, after all, deeply ingrained in the psyche of all western children. I placed the parcel on the floor. It was wrapped in several layers of stiff, brown tar-paper and tied with numerous turns of thick twine. (Ah! They don’t wrap ‘em like that anymore, do they?). There was an envelope pushed roughly under the twine but not otherwise secured to the parcel. Was it meant to go with the parcel or was it separate? I decided to put it aside in favour of watching what David would do with ‘Santa’s prezzo’.
Penn-bloodh lowen, Shishir!langbot langbot