Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [12]
Even arriving at the ashram didn‟t cheer Jeremy up. A high wall protected a complex of white stone buildings - offices, living quarters, conference buildings and an expansive open-sided celebration hall in the shade of an ancient tree. A bubbling stream, which ran alongside the main path, and the occasional cry of a foreign-sounding bird completed the scene.
Certainly, the turmoil of hooting and shouting that had accompanied the latter part of their journey from the airport was a strong contrast to the low murmur of the crowds of white-clad disciples in the ashram. But it all seemed to Jeremy as cold and functional as a newly built car park; and the people, glancing at him with ill-concealed hostility, as alien as a bunch of Martians.
He was given some sort of chopped up veggies for his dinner - no potatoes, no meat - and then, to top it all...
„Here‟s where you London lot will be sleeping. Yours is number nine,‟ said Brother Dafydd, who wore the long robe of a teacher‟ like Brother Alex.
Horror! It was worse than the dormitory at Holbrook. He‟d thought all that was behind him when he left school. Twelve people crammed into one small room - and to be expected to climb a ladder to the top of a tower of three bunk-beds, squashed in the middle of the others...!
Once, on a February holiday at a five-star hotel in Tenerife, he‟d seen Mama go into full grande dame mode when she wasn‟t satisfied with her room. „You expect me to pay your preposterous rates for this garret?‟ she‟d said to the quaking manager. My husband used to be Master of the Ferney. His hounds lived in a better kennel than this!‟ And so on and so on. She and Jeremy had ended up in the owner‟s suite.
Jeremy wasn‟t quite so successful.
„You‟re lucky you‟re not sleeping under the kitchen sink, boyo,‟ said Brother Dafydd. „We‟ve got to find room for nearly two hundred of you.‟ He ticked off Jeremy‟s name on his clipboard and turned to the next on his list.
Well really! Twenty thou for an iron bedstead and his nose touching the ceiling? He‟d see about that! A word to Brother Alex...
„If that‟s a railway station, they must have had a power cut,‟
said the Brigadier, staring at the monitor, which was totally dark.
„Really, Lethbridge-Stewart, is it necessary to be so negative?‟ said the Doctor as he set the controls to „stand by‟.
„I programmed the TARDIS to arrive in an inconspicuous corner. I expected the screen to show us exactly what it is showing us now.‟
The Brigadier was unconvinced. „One way to find out,‟ he said,
„Indeed,‟ said the Doctor coldly, putting out his hand to the door control.
„Stop!‟
The two men turned in surprise at Sarah‟s yell.
„I don‟t think it would be a very good idea to open the door, she said. „Look!‟
They both looked up. Filling the monitor screen was the face of a curious and very large shark.
The TARDIS was at the bottom of the sea.
Jeremy had a pretty good idea where Brother Alex would be found. He‟d gone on at length about the purpose of their flight from Hampstead. They were going to get their reward -
and that meant first joining Mother Hilda in Bombay.
Mother Hilda! Next to the Great Skang himself, the very centre of their devotion. Brother Alex would have gone straight to her.
But it wouldn‟t be so easy for somebody like Jeremy. Her bungalow had a fence round it even taller than the massive helpers (known as guards, he‟d learnt on the introductory tour) who stood glowering either side of the gateway.
For a moment he was tempted to forget about it and accept that he would have to be crammed in with all the others, no matter how common - as Mama would have said... though he‟d learned by bitter experience not to use the word himself.
The thought of his mother stiffened his resolve. She wouldn‟t give up so easily. On the other hand, she would have put the fear of God into the guards and talked her way