Before 24 Billion and Counting

Chapter 12 Part 2 Leaving the pottery.

Tomaso led us into the pottery, now getting very warm with the kiln and the sun, and showed me several pieces of unglazed fired clay some 30cm long and vaguely limb bone shaped, and a smaller number of discs. 

I fitted a disc onto one long piece by slotting a male and female taper together, and then was able to achieve a cupped hexagon with six radial spokes pointing outward and upward from the table on which I worked, using the remainder of the pieces. 

"It's the same principle, but I'm really no wiser as to why Chris, and now I know it must be him, had felt compelled to go to these lengths to demonstrate this. After all, setting aside that it works, it's not exactly an innovation. What's the other mystery?" 

Dorothea said, "Well it's not been one that we lose sleep over but we get a lovely calendar from an engineering company in Istanbul. Every year it comes I mean to follow it up but there's a lot to do at that time of the year and I forget. I assume they made the article you described because we've never had call for engineering works." She went into the shop and came back with the calendar which was indeed an expensive article. I noted the address and telephone of Makarios Engineering. 

I said, "It could be someone who helped Chris with his Q-car." 

"No - we can tell you where that was put together in Ismir. If you like cars it would be good place to visit." The temptation was extreme, but I could not afford the time. I asked for and received the address of these people too.

"Talking of cars, what happened to the Daimler? And why do you still keep the pick-up - does it run?" 

Dorothea replied, "Jessie gave the Daimler away once she felt that driving was beyond her. It was very old and somewhat of an acquired taste. Like the pick up it used lots of petrol. It went to a lad in the village who stripped and sold the leather interior which was probably quite valuable, and he then turned it into a classic racing car. He crashed it on the first outing; it was still good and strong so he didn't lose his life, but the car didn't come back to the village." 

Tomaso took up the story when Dorothea went to answer the shop bell, "There's mystery in the pick up. When Chris died Jessie put it on blocks, and I think she just kept it in memory of him. I asked her why not sell it - because it must be quite valuable, and more so as time went on. She said no - it comforts her with the memories of good times. Besides, she said - it won't allow you to start it. I said - you mean you can't start it - and she said that she meant what she said. Chris had it rigged so that only he knew how to start it." 

I interrupted, "But I heard from Alicia that Jessie drove 

it." 

"Ah yes but Chris was the one who last put it away. When he did that, it shut down. He died before anyone thought to ask him how it could be - well - woken up. I can't get into the bonnet unless I was to use a can opener, the handbrake is on solid, the gearbox is locked in first, and the steering wheel is locked. The ignition key turns but it doesn't unlock the wheel and no electrics come on - although by now I expect the battery is dud. It's under the bonnet." 

"But surely you'd want to get it running again - someone knowing about cars - the people who built it in Ismir - could have helped." 

Tomaso was looking down, thinking, and tracing a doodle with his stick in a layer of clay dust. After a while he said, "Perhaps that's the real mystery. Jessie, and then Dorothea and me have waited for the right moment to act on this, and it never has come. We see it in the garage, big, lumpy, ugly even, and we say to ourselves it's doing no harm, the day's not right, Chris left it here - let it stay. You're the first person to sit in the cab for many years. I think if I try to put it in to words none of us have felt it was ours to dispose of or do anything with. If you look at the sale of the business it's not even ours, and Jessie didn't leave it to anyone. The last she said to us was to leave it in the garage as long as we could until the time was right."