The Sons Of Cleito (The Abductions of Langley Garret Book 1) Read Free Page B

years hadn't been our best years, and with her working a lot more, and being away an awful lot more, combined with my doing a lot less and not really giving a fuck about it, we had drifted from each other a little. I'm not sure how it happened because it was by way of such small increments it was difficult to comprehend that each half-inch was adding up to the mile that now came between us. It was probably at about the half-mile stage that I started drinking a little more to fill the space she used to occupy. There were occasional discussions of course, but at about the two thirds of a mile stage they started focussing on my uselessness and laziness and her paying to feed and house me.
    When I did try to make the point that I had done that for a very long time as well, it was normally classified as ancient history, past the statutes of limitations, and therefore inadmissible as evidence. When we reached this stage in our occasional discussions, we then both resorted to saying fuck a lot and not speaking to each other at all for a week or two. At about the three quarters of a mile stage we both gave up on having occasional or even rare discussions, which was good in some respects as it stopped us swearing at each other, and from that point we seemed to have mutually accepted and agreed that ignoring each other was the most prudent solution.
    The sun was threatening to rise, and the darkness through the window at my shoulder was just beginning to be tinged with red. I watched as the deep red glow on the horizon changed slowly to a very dark orange, and then a few moments later I heard a change in the sound of the jet's engines and then the feeling of falling. For some reason my mouth couldn't help stating the bleeding obvious.
    'We're landing,' I said, and was not surprised to be answered with a simple nod. As the man opposite me didn't seem at all bothered with fastening his seatbelt, I didn't either. 'And where we're landing will be a question for after we land I suppose.' Another nod – and a sniff.
    There were no cabin crew to announce well-rehearsed safety messages before landing or to collect headphones, and there hadn't even been a hint of breakfast. I saved myself another knowing nod by concentrating on my view from the window and as the sun eked its way closer to the horizon, its rays slowly lit my view. Sea or ocean became clear below, and as the plane banked, I could see a few white peaks of waves. It meant I was very definitely a long way from Switzerland. Helen flashed into my mind again as I gazed at the endless water below me and I wondered what she would do when she arrived back home, or if she had arrived home already, what she had done. My sense of time was completely confused, and although my watch said twenty-five to six, I had no idea what day it was, or how long it had been since I was taken from my apartment. The only calculation I could make was that as it was early morning below me, and my watch agreed, that I hadn't travelled too far from Switzerland. Or if we had, we had headed roughly north or south and not east or west. Adding one more factor to my calculations, I reasoned that as there were no seas or oceans remotely near Switzerland to the north, we must have travelled south.
    I caught my reflection in the window and noticed I needed a shave, and as I ran my hand across the whiskers on my chin, I calculated that I hadn't shaved for about two days, so perhaps Helen was due home today. Once she discovered my suitcase and some of my clothes were missing, along with my laptop and phone, what would she think? My brain was using some logic for the first time since I was taken from my apartment, and although quite pleased with myself for my time and day calculations, I wasn't nearly as pleased with my calculations as to what Helen would think and do. We'd had our ups and downs, which were almost uniquely downs in recent years, so I doubted that she would call the police and report me missing. Maybe she