The Quick Brown Fox Read online

  With great excitement for his first date since his transformation, he lit the candle in the centre of the table and nervously went over to the bed to check whether there were any creases in evidence even though he knew there were none. He glanced at his wristwatch anxiously realising that she would be arriving within the next few minutes unless she used the female prerogative to turn up late in order to make an entrance. He went to the small window to look down into the street below. He would be able to see her crossing the square but with the exception of an old man, a woman and a boy, she was not to be seen. At that moment, he considered that the impossible might happen. She would decide not to come and stand him up. He shook his head visibly. She wouldn’t do that without a reasonable excuse and there was none that he could think of in his anxiety. And then, as if by magic, she appeared at the edge of the square. He turned quickly, his heart beating like a drum in his chest, to check that everything in the room was perfect and he waited patiently for her near to the door. The moment she knock he opened it to face her.

  ‘Come in!’ he greeted readily, taking her by the arm and drawing her into the room.

  She paused to look around with a gentle smile on her lovely face. ‘This is just like my room in Samarkand,’ she told him.

  He took her coat and pointed to a chair at the table before turning on the CD player so that romantic music permeated the room.

  ‘Would you like to dance?’ he ventured.

  ‘Sure,’ she replied, ‘but it’s a bit crowded for that in here, isn’t it?’

  ‘All the better,’ he said, laying her coat on the bed and then placing his arms around her waist.

  The music began to play and they hugged each other moving on the same spot because there was no space to dance properly. It suited Don well as dancing was his Achilles heel. The smooth voice of the singer reverberated in the background.

  ‘The party’s over. It’s time to call it a day. You burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away. Now you must wind up, the masquerade. Just make your mind up. The piper must be paid.’

  He stared deeply into her eyes enjoying every moment of the song. ‘We must do this more often,’ he said amorously.

  ‘I’d like that,’ she responded in cooing tones irrationally entering into to dangerous ground. ‘But I thought you were going to play the field with women after your transformation.’

  ‘I thought so too,’ he returned easily, ‘but a good friend of mine gave me some sound advice. He told me that cursed is the man who achieves his ambition. Well, to be honest, I don’t want to be cursed. And then, when I saw you without the mask, I knew what destiny had in store for me. Other men can chase the woman. You’re the one I want. You’re my princess. Would the princess like to kiss the frog and turn him into a prince?’

  ‘It’ll be my pleasure,’ she replied eagerly.

  Their faces moved towards each other and they kissed passionately.

  ‘I’m not sure we did that right,’ she told him teasingly.

  ‘It must be these lips,’ he returned. ‘You see they’re not mine really if you know what I mean.’

  She laughed and they kissed once more... for much longer this time. Don was in his element. Life in the past had been so bitter and painful. Now it was all coming together and he had three people to thank for it plus Jake who had arranged it all. Most surprising was the fact that it had all happened as a result of an obstinate attitude by his colleague Robert Harris. Then the Cosmic Joker had brought Anya into his life and suddenly the world became a wonderful place. It seemed to be too good to be true, especially as Anya clearly felt the same way about him. Yes... it was a wonderful world!

  ***

  However, every story has a beginning and an end, The value depends entirely on the wealth of the incidents which occur in the narrative in the middle. As far as characters are concerned, it’s the things they do that makes them good or evil. Within the continuum of time during which each life is only leased for a certain number of years, this tale ends with a double feature that relies on two specific factors. The first relates to the future that lay before all the characters mentioned in the saga and to explain, in brief, what actually happened to them.

  The Baker brothers, Jack and Dean, were forced to abandon the patent attorney business after the sudden death of their brother, the patent agent. Jack eventually became employed as a salesman in a large insurance company. Dean took a course in computing and, in time, became a worthwhile IT engineer.

  Rose Harris continued working in the local hospital as a nurse for many years to come. Her relationship with the one-armed entrepreneur Mr. G. strengthened gradually and, after a couple of years had passed, she went to live with him in his London apartment. They never married and had no children but they lived quite happily together. Mr. G. , after the business of the Faberge Eggs, decided to keep on the right side of the law. He had made his fortune by selling four of them for a massive amount of money to collectors who believed that they were buying the real thing. On one occasion, the news reached one of the national newspapers who even published a photograph of the object, but it raised no suspicious and so nothing more ever came of it. After that, he bought a partnership with a Market Maker who ran a book on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. Each year the bonuses were quite remarkable in size and they kept him well served in Havana cigars and bottles of Jack Daniels whisky.

  Jake gave up collecting debts for loan sharks. He was paid handsomely for his efforts by Mr. G. and he flew off to Barbados to relax in the shade on the sandy beaches in the warm sunshine for the rest of his life. His henchman, went to Clacton-on-Sea in Essex to sell cockle, whelks and jellied eels from a stall near to the sea front. It as something that he had always wanted to do and his wish finally came true. Sidney Taffler, the jeweller, after recreating four superb Faberge Eggs, collected his money from Mr. G. as promised and he disappeared into the woodwork leaving his shop in the East End of London vacant. Rumour had it that he had flown to the Solomon Islands to avoid any investigation by the police into the sudden appearance of four Faberge Eggs even though three of the collectors kept their purchases entirely secret.

  David Coleman spent two-and-a-half years in jail following the sentencing, his term being commuted for good behaviour. He was not treated kindly by the inmates there who abused him regularly. Consequently, on his release, he was a broken young man with no prospects. He went home to his father who welcomed him back and after a while realised that he had no alternative with regard to employment as an ex-convict and so joined his father in the motor car sales business. Zelda finally gained success with a dating agency whereby she was introduces to a man whose wife had died of cancer two years earlier. The chemistry between them seemed to match and, in addition, he had a ten year old son from his previous marriage. After a while, they decided to get married and they lived happily onward with a son and a daughter in tow. She never arranged another school reunion.

  Dr. Sinclair fell ill six months after undertaking the cosmetic surgery on the scientist and he died shortly afterwards. However, Don never learned of his passing. Mai Wan was much more fortunate. An old friend from Hong Kong moved to Britain and tracked her down. He was a psychiatrist who had started up his own practice and asked her to become a partner. She readily agreed and moved away from Limehouse as fast as she could. Both she and her psychiatrist partner as still in practice today. Hywel Griffiths, the Welsh teacher, continued to stay at Limehouse. He was keeping well away from all the creditors who hunted him and being there seemed to work in his favour.

  As far as Don and Anya were concerned, they married in secret and she continued working with him at Universal Energy Inc. until a child came along just over one year later. They actually had three children in due course, two boys and one girl. Perhaps it was not surprising that their second son was obese, ugly, had large ears, failed to speak clearly and was
very gauche in his manner. It was clear that he would need to find another surgeon such as Dr. Sinclair in the future if he was to be transformed like his handsome father.

  The brainstorming unit was allowed to continue and that was where the second part of the ending featured for when Martin Tarrant became the Controller a most unusual enigma occurred.

  Just after he arrived to take up the appointment, Tarrant emerged from his office and almost blundered into Don in the corridor.

  ‘Ah,’ uttered the Controller ‘I was just about to come and see you. There’s a project we might get our teeth into. I want to discuss it with you.’

  ‘Perhaps we can meet in your office in half an hour,’ suggested Don on his way to do something else.

  ‘Of course,’ continued Tarrant. ‘Half an hour’s okay. By the way. As we are a brainstorming unit and some of our ideas need to be security protected from outside sources, I suggest we use a code whenever we telephone each other to make certain we are who we are’

  ‘A code?’ returned the scientist somewhat perplexed. ‘What sort of code?’

  ‘The one I’ve chosen is The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog. It has all the letters of the alphabet in it. Don’t forget to use it!’

  He walked on leaving the scientist in a state of confusion. That was the code used by Jake before Robert Harris was murdered, the one the ex-convict had told him to use. Out of every type of code in existence, how did Tarrant come to arrive at that one? Was that simply a coincidence or not? Only the Cosmic Joker would know the answer! Only the Cosmic Joker!

  THE END

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