Seven Steps to the Sun Read Free Page B

watching some gallant sailor going off to sea. He made his way round to the east end of the lake, to a small coffee shop. A duck looked at him from the water and laughed in a cynical fashion. The smell of newly-mown grass was strong, and Mike could almost hear the sounds of a Sunday afternoon cricket match on the village green.
    'Yes?' said the mini-skirted waitress, showing off her hips by shaking them.
    'Coffee, please,' said Mike, sitting down at the small metal table.
    'Anything else?' inquired the girl- Mike shook his head, and the girl turned, revealing a very compact behind.
    A motley selection of humans sat stuffing their stolid faces with cakes and inedible-looking sandwiches. No wonder the British economy was in such a pathetic way. Mike couldn't quite see these people around him as the driving force behind the swinging, advancing, new economic growth that the Government had been urging.
    'That'll be one and nine,' said the waitress. Mike felt in his pocket and produced a handful of pennies. He laboriously counted out the money, but was four-pence short. In his wallet he found three ten-pound notes. The girl grudgingly took one.
    'Your change,' she said curtly, bored with this Inattentive young man.
    Mike felt elated as he began to ponder on the morning's meeting. A boat with a young couple in it noted its way gently along without the assistance of oars.
    The idea that Professor Smitt had mentioned to him was developing. Although much had been written on time travel, he felt that the new idea had the makings of a very good story. His central character would be a musician, perhaps a top-flight concert pianist who knows that his illness cannot be cured for some time to come. He is involved with an eccentric physicist, who suggests that he should be thrown forward in time, say ten years. The pianist is both amused and angry at the ridiculous suggestion, but after consideration he goes back to see the professor. The man had vanished. He searches round the laboratory, and without warning is swept up into a time change. The mechanics of the time change could be left to Professor Smitt, Mike thought, as he finished his coffee.
    He left the coffee shop, and strolled towards Marble Arch. The urge to work was now very strong. Mike decided to go home and start writing. As he walked along over the green turf, the story began to take shape.
    Once the pianist was in the time machine each episode could deal with another period in time. One reason would be that the pianist was summoned from his own time to a future where music has almost been lost, and musicians were needed to fill the gaps. The stories should be almost pure adventure but with a strong social background. In fact, if there were going to be thirty-two or -three episodes, then the overall social picture could be the slow breakdown of civilization as one knew it today. Mike's mind was now really racing. Once he'd sketched the outline, he could see the television people to find out their reaction. If he worked into the night he felt he could get the outline done, and tomorrow go to the TV company.
    Reaching Park Lane, he was just about to hail a cab when he changed his mind and descended into the subway leading to the Marble Arch tube station. He found a telephone booth and dialled Pete's flat. The phone was eventually picked up and the line started to blip. Mike forced in a sixpence and waited for the machine to digest it.
    'Hello, Pete?'
    'It's not dinner time yet, is it?' came a very sleepy voice.
    'No. Listen carefully. I'm going back to the flat to do some work. I want to get a story outline finished tonight, so I think we'll have to scrub dinner unless you want to drop round for a bite later on,' Mike said in a rush.
    'Going home to write. Can't afford to take me to dinner, so collect food and come round when I'm ready,' came Pete's yawning reply.
    'That's it. What time?'
    'Seven,' Pete said and the phone went dead. Mike replaced his receiver, and smiled.
    He