The Rings of Poseidon (33 page)

The autumn would be spent in analysis of the
finds and the writing up of Alicia's thesis. All mention of the
ring would, of course, have gone but there would still be the
talisman and that strange pattern to record. The team would
probably break up once this year's dig was over, but the caravans
and cabin would stay for further excavation of the site next year.
Although there were still some weeks to go, Alicia couldn't escape
the feeling that the real work was done.

Gill listened to the beating of the rain on
the caravan roof and lay in Steve's arms.

"I am all women and you are all men," she
said, thinking back to the words they had heard the night before.
"That's a rather strange idea, but I do sort of feel like all women
at once when I give myself to you, like I did in this place once
before. I want to love you totally and completely."

"And I want to love you just as completely,
like I did in another place in another life," answered Steve. Gill
felt comfortable and fell asleep smiling.

Frank was listening to the rain as well, and
thinking that at least in the Yucatan peninsula the rain was warm
and that was quite a good reason to stick to the Mayas in
future.

Manjy wasn't listening to the rain at all,
she was thinking that a compromise with her family now looked
probable. Neither Alan nor Alicia heard rain, because they were
already both asleep.

Epilogue

"Congratulations," Steve said, shaking
Alicia's hand. "We all knew you'd make it, of course," he added
with a rather wicked grin. "Doctor Alicia Graham! How does it feel
to be so intellectual and so eminent?"

"Not much different than I felt before
really," Alicia told him good-humouredly. It was true she didn't
feel much different, but there are relatively few Afro-Caribbeans
in academia and she considered that she ought to do some
trailblazing.

"What next?" asked Gill.

"The University found itself with a gap in
the staff of the department when Professor Harrington died
unexpectedly," answered Alicia, "They offered me a post if I
undertook to go back and finish the excavations at Linksness."

"You agreed?" asked Gill.

"Absolutely," replied Alicia. "You don't get
many second chances of a post in academic life." She didn't add,
'especially when you're a woman and black', but she thought it.

"You don't get many second chances of
anything in life, especially happiness," said Gill. "I should
know."

"You seem happy enough now," Alicia
observed.

"We are. Very," said Steve.

"Yes. I'm sorry I couldn't get to the
wedding, but I couldn't change the date of the viva voce part of my
degree. I wish I'd been able to make it."

"It was really rather a quiet affair," said
Gill. "It was important to me that Steve and I should commit
ourselves ..."

"First day of the rest of our lives, and all
that," Steve added.

"... but all the usual trappings weren't that
important."

"Did any of the others make it?" Alicia
wanted to know.

"Well Frank had gone back to America, of
course, but Alan came and so did Manjy and her fiancee. Her husband
now."

"Talking of which," said Alicia, "Or should
that be 'whom'? Here they are."

Manjy had come through the door with a tall
man of Indian extraction aged about thirty. She was wearing a
smart, dark blue cocktail dress. The skirt was knee length and it
was the first time Gill had seen her wear anything other that 'T'
shirt and jeans. Apart from her wedding three weeks before, when
she had worn a Sari.

Manjy spotted them and headed in their
direction, husband in tow.

"Hello Alicia," she said, shaking her hand
"and congratulations."

"Thank you. This, I take it, is your
husband."

"This is Pratap," Manjy said, and the tall
man shooks hands with Alicia as well. "Pratap is a doctor in
Nottingham," she said.

Alicia had often been at the receiving end of
both deliberate and unintentional prejudice and was trying to be
careful not cause offence. "Congratulations to you both as well. I
hope you're going to be happy together." She wanted ask whether
they had met before the wedding, but didn't like to.

"Neither of us like to upset families by
rejecting our community totally, but I think we are fortunate,"
said Manjy. "We both have our careers but we both respect each
other as well. I'm very fond of Pratap already."

"Last time I saw you, you were wearing a
Sari," Gill remarked.

"And the time before that, you were wearing
an ankle length dress," retorted Manjy.

"Touché," said Gill, laughing.

"You wear what's appropriate," said Manjy,
more seriously. "I haven't abandoned my family or my culture. I'd
still wear a Sari where it seems appropriate."

"And jeans when it's cold," said Pratap. "She
only wears short skirts when the weather is warm, and that's
nothing at all to do with me," he added.

They all laughed.

"You know that Alan got a job up in the
Orkneys?" asked Steve.

"Yes," said Alicia, "I wrote a reference for
him."

"I'd no idea that he'd taken up with one of
the volunteers," said Gill. "You could have knocked me down with a
proverbial when he told us."

"I think he'll be made available for part of
the time next Summer," Alicia said, "and his wife - Carol she's
called - will be free as well." In the silence that followed she
added, "And what will you do now?"

"I've got my post-grad place at York," said
Gill. Steve has a job with a transport firm up there. Motor
engineering."

"I don't know how permanent that is," Steve
commented. "You never know. I might go to University myself. It's
never too late to learn, is it?"

"Well, I had better circulate a bit among the
other guests. Can I leave you four to help yourself to food and a
drink," said Alicia. "I'm making coffee shortly."

"I'm glad it's somebody else for a change,"
said Steve, and ducked to avoid Alicia's playful punch.

* * *

Somewhere else in the Midlands a nurse handed
Juliana a little bundle and she smiled. Ian was there and her
wheelchair was next to the bed.

"She's really a rather sweet little thing,
isn't she," said the nurse to the doctor, indicating the baby.
"You'd never know she had brain damage."

"The accident to the mother, possibly. Though
there was no sign of any damage to her. I believe she was quite
severely crushed," said the Malaysian doctor, thinking to herself
that this soul must have quite a karmic debt from somewhere.

Mike Crowson – Former
teacher, former Secretary of the Green Party in its early days - is
an Occult and Esoteric Consultant, offering free and unconditional
help for those in genuinely occult or psychic difficulties, based
on some 40 years of study and research. He is a Mason, Rosicrucian
and an Adept of the Western Mysteries, and can be found and
contacted at:
http://www.mikecrowson.co.uk

His books include:

Witchmoor Edge
Series
:

Witchmoor Edge

On Edge

Outside Edge

Over the Edge

Edgeways On

Female of the Species (Short Stories)

All are (or will shortly) be available as
ebooks through Smashwords or favourite supplier

Occult Novels:

The Rings of Poseidon

Only the Darkness

Heat Stroke

The Flag and the Flower

The Riddle and the Key

Wytchmoor Peak

(and ‘Sealed Entrance’ coming shortly)

Parallel Loop (Short Stories)

The first three are available free as .pdf
from obooko.

All will eventually be available as ebooks
through Smashwords, some as free downloads)

Non-Fiction:

Psychic Lifeline

(Recognizing and Managing Psychic &
Occult Harm)

Poetry & Plays

What’s Left for Tomorrow (Poetry)

All This Homework’s Killing Me (Play)

The Poser in the Porsche (Play)