Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [59]
Sarah still had, at the back of her mind, the image of the Skang in her photograph, with the proboscis that had apparently been responsible for the fearsome deaths on Hampstead Heath, but somehow it didn‟t seem to matter anymore. This place was a sort of paradise; and its young inhabitants were the most beautiful people she‟d ever seen.
She could feel happiness as a physical sensation throughout her body, almost oozing out of her skin. As the Brig had implied, the Doctor‟s prediction of planetary disaster seemed ludicrous. One had to humour the poor old codger, of course, but that was as far as it went.
While her seniors were exchanging polite platitudes with Mother Hilda, she was scanning the knots of people behind her, on the lookout for Jeremy. After all, that‟s why she was here, wasn‟t it? On behalf of Mama, to make sure that he was safe.
There he was, up at the back, waving like mad!
As a smile of sisterly affection spread across her face, she noticed something with a small but very real shock, like briefly touching the terminals of a naked lamp socket. What?
She couldn‟t stand him! Snobbish, rich and dim - a combina-tion that meant he took for granted the idea that he belonged to a superior species of mankind - he was very difficult to like. And yet, as soon as the general melee of welcoming Skangites swept forward, she found herself eagerly pushing her way through to him.
„Jeremy! I can‟t tell you how glad I am to see you,‟ she cried, and gave him a big hug. It was the truth. But somewhere, deep down inside, there was the other Sarah, a very small one, watching what she was doing with utter incredulity.
As she drew back, she became aware of a tall young woman, standing behind Jeremy, with a look of surprised disdain on her face.
„Won‟t you introduce me to your friend, Jeremy?‟ she said.
„Oh, yes. Sorry. This is Sarah. She‟s at Metropolitan too.
She‟s worked with me on a couple of stories.‟
One way of putting it, thought Sarah.
„I‟m sure you had great fun together,‟ said the girl.
Miaow!
„This is Emma, Sarah. Turns out her flat is in Sloane Street too, only a couple of doors down from mine! Extraordinary!
Isn‟t that right, Emma?‟
„Yah,‟ said Emma. „Must be fate. See you around, Jeremy.
Ciao!’
She nodded to Sarah, turned and walked away with a greyhound grace that she must have learnt at one of the posh modelling schools. Lucy Clayton? Did they teach her how to be such a cow too?
„Is she your girlfriend?‟ said Sarah, seeing Jeremy unhappily gazing at her retreating back (with its unfairly small bum).
„Sort of. Well, I‟m sort of her boyfriend. One of them. Sort of. You know?‟
„Poor old Jeremy.‟ She really did feel sympathetic!
„It‟s like that with us, you know. Sharing and all. I mean...‟
He stopped. He was blushing.
Well, well, well!
„Mother Hilda told us that you were on your way,‟ he said, brightly.
„How did she know?‟
„Don‟t ask me. Come on, the food‟s out of this world - and there‟s lashings of it.‟
Sarah looked round. Mother Hilda was leading the Doctor and the rest of the little group, which had now been joined by Bob Simkins, towards the tables. Great. She‟d rather been off her food since the Captain had been killed. She‟d only had a small slice of toast for breakfast, and now she was ravenous.
But where to begin? She picked up a plate, and surveyed the choice. It was all vegetarian. You‟d expect that from a cult that was derived from the Hindu faith, as Mother Hilda‟s book had said. But it didn‟t seem to matter. There was every sort of salad, artfully designed to be a feast of colour as well as taste; there were cooked vegetable dishes - green, red, yellow and purple with white and brown rice; if there was a pasta shape that had been invented, it was there, in its own particular sauce. And the fruit! Red-black and golden grapes the size of plums; actual plums so ripe that the skin was bursting with their juice; oranges like miniature suns; apples and pears and quinces and kumquats and...
„Here,‟ said Jeremy, pouring out a sparkling juice from a crystal flask. „Have