Trust Read Free Page A

scientific outposts around the world and in space were made aware of the presence of an unidentified object on the outskirts of our solar system. As the progress of this object was tracked it changed course several times before finally heading towards Earth.’ He paused for a moment and shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot. `Although no direct contact has been made as yet, the ship has broadcast a continual signal which, to all intents and purposes, seems to be a distress transmission.’
            A second pause, this time long enough to allow the assembled reporters to fire off a volley of desperate questions at the politician while their associated photographers launched another barrage of flashes. The defenceless spokesman lifted his hands in an attempt to restore some order. `The ship has been led away from land and is currently holding a position some fifty miles from the east coast of England. No resistance was offered to the armed air escort which guided it out over the ocean and, despite continual attempts, no contact has been made with whoever, or whatever, is piloting it.
            There’s really nothing more I can tell you at the present time…’
            As the spokesman was hit with another barrage of camera flashes and questions I stood up and walked over to the window again. There were still flurries of activity in the village streets below. It had stopped raining and the crowds around the sea wall remained. They seemed surprisingly happy and relaxed. Even from a distance I could see that there was a surprisingly calm and peaceful atmosphere in Thatcham.
            I could identify with the people outside. Strange and pretentious as it might have sounded, each one of them was suddenly a friend and an ally. The unexpected arrival of a new and previously unknown life form to the planet already seemed to have made the indigenous human population subconsciously bond closer together. I could see it happening everywhere I looked. People were standing and talking and laughing with people they wouldn’t have even looked at yesterday. Already there were no longer black people and white people or Muslims and Christians and Jews or men and women or upper class and working class. There were just people. `Where do you think Dad would be now?’ Rob asked. I glanced over at him sitting cross-legged on the sofa. He had a deadly combination of concentration, fascination and excitement fixed on his face. If I half-closed my eyes I could see a five yearold Robert watching Star Wars, not a twenty-four year-old watching footage of man’s first confirmed contact with an alien intelligence. I half expected Dad to come into the room. `Knowing what he was like,’ I eventually replied, `he’d either be out there on a boat trying to get as close as he could or he’d still be up in the attic trying to find his binoculars.’
            Rob laughed. `I’d go for the boat,’ he smiled. `He’d have been first on the scene.’
            I’d have given anything for him to have been there watching the world change with us.
            Cold and shivering, I forced myself to move and dragged my tired body into the bathroom.
           
           

4
           
            When I moved to Thatcham I made a real and very conscious effort to try and keep myself to myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be with anyone else, rather I didn’t want to be drawn into communal life. I didn’t want to become just one of the crowd or part of the fixtures and fittings. I wanted some space and some distance from the rest of the world around me. Unfortunately it didn’t work.
            Drink was my problem.
            I was developing a real taste for beer, and it was fast becoming part of the regular routine that I’d vowed never to have. Siobhan, a few friends and myself had got into the habit of going into The Badger’s Sett pub every Friday night for a few drinks. I hadn’t realised that it had become