Doctor Who_ Nightshade - Mark Gatiss [18]
the Mexico Olympics, the Paris Riots and man on the moon.
Trevithick didn’t say a word. Instead he simply pointed at No, that was ‘69, wasn’t it?
the window like some dying medieval bishop catching sight All she’d known of this time was her mum’s enthusiasm of the Grim Reaper.
and the evidence of faded home movies. Yet even these Jill rubbed a hand across sleep-misted eyes and turned silent figures in vibrant colours mouthing and waving on round. The sight of the smashed window turned her cold.
warm beaches seemed to have something of the era’s She remembered the time her flat was burgled and how indefinable presence about them. Ace’s mum with high, she’d thrown up at the sight of devastation. But it wasn’t the lacquered hair and garish mini-dress laughing as Uncle financial loss, or even the mess, which had upset her. Rather Harry goosed her from behind. Harry’s mint-green Hillman it was the sense of invasion; the idea that some stranger had Minx with its Batmobile tail-fins gliding into the distance as ploughed through her private things, destroyed the sanctity the family waved him away. All this to the achingly of her little nest.
comforting trill of the film projector.
She felt the same thing now and the same desire to vomit.
The Doctor returned from the counter with two mugs of Trevithick looked at her, a little fear in his eyes.
steaming tea. It was nice and warm inside the café and Ace Jill then became aware of another sensation. An insistent, took off her donkey jacket with some relief.
pungent smell wafting from the shattered window. It was
‘Ta,’ she said and took a deep draught of tea. It was a little like bad meat. Or the rancid smell of a dead animal in the too hot and burned the roof of her mouth.
road...
The Doctor was staring into the middle distance, his inky black eyes distracted and fathomless. He drank some tea 52
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DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
almost without thinking. Ace decided it was best to keep The Doctor sighed and gazed past her again, his eyes quiet. Mrs Crithin’s tranny played a song which Ace could seeing different places, different people, different times ... ‘I remember Uncle Harry humming in his familiar way. It wonder if I’m not being a selfish old Time Lord. Keeping drifted across the café as Mrs Crithin mopped up some you from better things.’
spilled tea.
‘But Doctor, you’re all I’ve got! I don’t want anything else.
‘Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never Not yet. Where else could I go?’
end. We’d sing and dance for ever and a day ...’
The Doctor put up his hands. ‘It’s all right, it’s all right.
Quite suddenly, the Doctor seemed to snap out of it and I’m not about to abandon you. I just thought... perhaps...
fixed Ace with his most charming smile.
perhaps it’s time to stop all this aimless wandering. That’s
‘Well, Ace,’ he mused, rubbing his finger around the rim all.’
of the mug, ‘how are you keeping?’
Ace nodded slowly. She’d been right then.
It was such an odd question that Ace was momentarily
‘I’m not daft, Doctor. You’re talking about yourself, aren’t taken aback. It was the sort of thing old aunts or distant you?’ she said, cocking an eyebrow. The Doctor looked at cousins ask just before they remember they haven’t seen her in mock indignation and then his rumpled face you since you were knee high to a grasshopper.
collapsed into a resigned frown. ‘Yes. I’m talking about
‘What d’you mean? You see me every day.’
myself.’
The Doctor smiled, but it was a thin smile. ‘I know, I It had begun to rain again and Mrs Crithin switched on know. But I mean ... how are you? Really. In yourself.’
the dirty-yellow lights to brighten things up. Sheets of rain Ace frowned.
lashed against the big, plate-glass window. There was a
‘Oh, I’m not putting this very well, am I?’ said the Doctor, quality of stillness in the air too, as in before