Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day by Howard Jonathan L

Author:Howard, Jonathan L. [Howard, Jonathan L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781311809605
Publisher: Jonathan L. Howard
Published: 2013-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

Time passed slowly. Despite his display of sangfroid, Cabal knew perfectly well that he remained in deadly peril until the Bonewind was forced to leave the corporeal realm and returned to its home of negative life. According to the almanac the sun would set at a little after six, which meant he had almost five hours to wait it out. There was no reason why the wards would fail before then, but it would be a foolish man who would not allow for such an occurrence and Cabal was no fool. He settled down to transcribe some experimental results to his permanent notebooks but never once took the satchel off.

The afternoon wore on. He heard the Bonewind travel through the back garden at one point, making a mess of the herbaceous border as it went. Frustration had made it quite childish and spiteful. He wondered what would happen to it when it failed – as he now felt quite sure it would – and returned to whence it came. He hoped it was something bad; he had been rather fond of his herbaceous border.

At a little while past four, Cabal decided he wanted a pot of tea. Just about to rise from his chair, he paused and considered. Did he really want some tea? No, he decided after some introspection, he didn’t. The desire was being triggered by something else, something internal. His subconscious was trying to tell him something but, being a subconscious, couldn’t just go ahead and tell him. Oh, no, it had to get all “signs and symbols” with him. Cabal usually didn’t get cross with the workings of his inner mind because, after all, it was on his side and had often helped him the past. He just wished it wouldn’t insist on being so bloody abstruse. Under the circumstances, however, he couldn’t help but feel a little irritated.

“It’s a matter of life and death, isn’t it?” he said to himself, very literally. “Nothing to do with tea. What is it?”

The desire for a nice, unnecessary cup of tea and a slice of Swiss roll grew in him. “I don’t want a cup of tea and I haven’t even got any Swiss roll in the larder.” Or did he? Cabal didn’t usually forget things but he had an odd paranoid feeling that perhaps there was, really, a Swiss roll. A nice one. On a plate in the larder. Why didn’t he go down and see?

“Look, I need a clearer idea of why my life depends on Swiss roll and tea. If I’d wanted tea, it would’ve been over an hour ago at three. It’s now,” he checked his pocket watch, “a quarter past four. Why drag tea into it at all? As portents go, it’s… it’s…” he paused, then pulled his watch back from his waistcoat pocket. It wasn’t fifteen minutes past four at all.

“It’s seventeen minutes past! Ach, Scheiße!” He was already running for the door. On the top landing, he snatched up a bust of Napoleon and threw it violently down the stairwell.

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