Doctor Who: Big Finish - Short Trips [028] - Indefinable Magic by Neil Corry

Author:Neil Corry
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
Publisher: Big Finish
Published: 2009-03-02T22:15:37+00:00

Pass It On

Simon Guerrier

An adventure of the Second Doctor,

with the Sixth Doctor

Mabel didn’t see the man and the man didn’t see Mabel. She was making her way down Wells Street, lugging her groceries home and idly imagining a handsome prince declining his crown for her. She barely noticed the little man with his face looking straight up at the sky before he bashed into her.

‘Oh!’ he cried, leaping backwards, landing one foot on the edge of the pavement and one foot in the road, arms windmilling as he vainly tried to keep his balance. His fingers struck the large paper bags Mabel held tightly to her. One parcel escaped as the man fell backwards into the road. He covered his face with his arms, and plums and orange pippins rained down on his elbows.

‘I’m very sorry,’ said Mabel in the voice she reserved for tradesmen – a good enough impression of how they spoke on the wireless. As she stared down at this strange man in his dishevelled tailcoat, she felt a sudden surge of anger – this hadn’t been her fault!

‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ he said miserably as he sat up. Anyone else would have got out of the road immediately, but this odd man with the careworn face stayed there, as if getting his bearings. She concluded that he must be some kind of vagrant or vagabond, and felt a thrill of revulsion.

‘Anyway,’ said Mabel, still speaking like the BBC.

‘Oh yes, I mustn’t delay you,’ said the man, struggling to his feet.

His bandy-legged posture made her think for a moment he’d done himself an injury, but he quickly hopped about gathering up Mabel’s groceries and tins. Two tins of meatballs had rolled down the road and he gamely chased after them. She felt torn – she could just walk away, hurry across Oxford Street and into a side alley and lose him for good. Yet here he was, collecting her items, impishly eager to please. Her fingers played with the end of the fox fur round her neck. Something in her might have screamed in frustration but she kept her lips pressed tight together.

‘There,’ he said eventually, presenting the soggy, torn bags with her shopping stuffed inside. ‘No harm done. Well, not really.’ His eyes twinkled with mischief as if this had all been some kind of prank. With his unkempt hair and clothes he still had an air of quiet authority about him. He might have been ruined by the stock exchange six years before, Mabel imagined, but she felt that, rather than just getting on with things as best one could, as everyone else in the country had needed to, this man was relishing his dishevelled state. Oh, look – his left shoe’s sole was coming loose, flapping and slapping against the pavement. Perhaps he was one of these artist types who played at living as a tramp.

‘You should pay more attention to where you’re going,’ she chided and his smile faltered, his eyes opened wide in remorse.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.