BACK AND FORTH-I

CHAPTER 1 ( 1 of 16 chapters)

                                                      BACK AND FORTH

                                   or - Anton, I'm Only Here For the Beer

                                      A short story by Antony E Bradbury

                                                        Dateline...AD-2040

    As Peter and I cruised toward my home, I felt the Peugeot's powerful Hydrogen fuelled engine thrumming us masterfully and silently along, giving us a most pleasurable and exhilarating ride along my one kilometre driveway, with saluting poplar trees both sides. The female deer were grazing, and the young bucks, antlers seeking to apprise, strode majestically among them, keeping note the presence of the alpha male.  Ahead of us, is my new home. I am pleased to see that most of the structural remodelling work I envisioned has been completed. Some scaffolding is still in place; depleted piles of sand and bricks lay nearby, as if abandoned, yet slowly diminishing.

   George Barnes, an architect of some note and good repute, whose services I am pleased to retain, had noticed our arrival and had paused in the entrance hall, waiting to greet us. In his hand, George held a furled document, blueprints, and the tangible evidence of our joint creative efforts for remodelling my historic Georgian home, sometime remodeled in the 1960s.

  We pulled up smoothly under the porte-cochere, then we made our exit from the sleek automobile that seems so at home in these luxurious surroundings. We shook hands warmly with George and Mick Hoskins, the builder's foreman, standing alongside him. As I did so, I looked about noticing there's still considerable window work to be done, especially with respect to the frontage.

   "Well, George," I asked with a hopeful expression, "when can I expect this to be finished?"

   I gazed up, looking over the remaining scaffolding, then I noticed George and Mick had moved from my immediate presence to be seen admiring Peter's new Peugeot W07, the world's first fully, none commercial, Hydrogen fueled vehicle. Mick and Peter soon begin chatting regarding vehicle's mechanical refinements, with Mick softly stoking the luxuriously soft Hermes leather interior. I turned about, to command George's attention, which is focused on the plans in his hands.

   "Such a wonderful piece of technology. A marvel of engineering, don't you think?"

   "I've to admit it's quite some machine. However, at this precise moment I'm more  concerned with the progress being achieved here; you know, on the house." I put my frustration aside and guided my thoughts to George's telephone call I'd taken the previous day, on the subject of minor structural problems that needed my approval before  moves to commence petty remedial work.

   "Mick's men have found something rather unusual and somewhat bizarre. We'd discovered a wall of what is apparently an entrance to a cellar that's not shown on your original plans. It's part of a supporting structure of this wall, here." he continued, his finger tracing over a red pencilled in line he'd added to highlight the structure. "Some investigation at the council office has turned up an abandoned coal shaft from the early eighteenth century that's roughly in this location. For the sake of safety, I feel that we ought to leave the wall alone and re-route the water feed to the pool via this route, and I need your approval to proceed," said he, scanning my expression.

   I perused the drawing and asked him to take me to the wall in question so that I might see the structure for myself. Not that this wall is any different from any other. After all, I thought, a wall is a wall. I followed George through the entrance hall to see what Mick's men had uncovered. I stood beside what obviously used to be a doorway, now bricked up and partially-plastered over.