Elysium. Part One.

Elysium. Part One. Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Elysium. Part One. Read Online Free PDF
Author: Kelvin James Roper
Tags: Science-Fiction
black holes.
      The large oval bar sat on the entrance wall; its once varnished surface was warped and splintered, and a yellow tinge accompanied the bitter aroma of home-brewed ales that had seeped under its skin across the ages.
      At the end of the room, pushed haphazardly into the corner, was a torn and fractured pool table, the glass panel scuffed and cracked, and the balls - save the cue – had long ago been dispersed by time and drunken appropriation. The wood had become weathered and misshapen after long years in the salty air of the garden. Semilion had once decided to restore the table to its former grace, and had dragged it back into the bar with an air of determination, only to give up after a quarter hour of staring at it with hands on hips.
      Numerous pictures lined the walls, all of them paintings of ancient vessels, or the hotel itself during the Georgian and Elizabethan eras. Opposite the bar was a large painting that had remained since the hotel’s first days; a view of a local bay by moonlight, a small row-boat and a host of smugglers making their way to the tavern.
      An hour after the end of her vigil, Betty was lethargically removing tankards from window-sills and tables, and trying to ignore the impossibly stained bar.
      Tinder North and Dawn Corbin sat by the largest window, bathed in morning light, a pint before them and a long pipe resting in Tinder’s hand. He saw Betty entering the room in the corner of his eye, and brushed his short grey fringe with his fingers. ‘Morning Betty, how are you?’ He asked.
      Betty grunted, and began wiping the bar with a dirty cloth, and Tinder wondered whether she wasn’t actually making it dirtier. He took matches from his linen shirt pocket and lit his pipe, his lips smacking the tip as smoke began to glow in the sunlight. He patted the stool beside him, ‘Will you join us for a pint? You will, go on.’
      ‘I don’t have time,’ Betty answered, her back to them both, ‘Maybe if he didn’t make me sit up on that bleedin’ roof every time someone thinks they see something… Maybe then I’d have the energy to get this done and sit down and talk, but as it is he does, so I won’t. Thank you!’
      Tinder smiled at Dawn, who rolled her eyes.
      ‘So it were nothin’ then?’ Tinder said.
     She looked at him with a raised brow. His question, it seemed, deserved no more a response. She turned and was just about to leave when she glanced at Dawn and said: ‘Your old man better watch himself. Got eyes with ships stuck to ‘em, I reckon! Sees all sorts of fancy in the lightning, he does. We’ll be chasing after his dreams next!
     Tinder laughed and patted Dawn’s bulging stomach gently. ‘Don’t listen to her, dear.’
     She was ballooning with child, and had about her a persistently troubled air, for she had birthed two stillborn children in as many years – and was obsessively fretful of a third.
     The front door opened with a piercing squeak and the two of them waited to see who would enter the bar-room from the foyer. Boen Waeshenbach stepped in, looking meeker than normal.
      ‘I should be getting back,’ Dawn said, smiling at Boen and kissing Tinder on the cheek.
      ‘You take care of yourself, love,’ he said, turning to the bar.  ‘Morning, Boen.’
      ‘Morning, Tinder… Have you seen Eryn?’
      ‘Eryn? No, I don’t think as I have, my boy. You in for a drink?’
     ‘Yeah, just the one, mind… I came here to see Eryn really… I shouldn’t stay long.’
      ‘Work to be done, eh?’
      ‘You know it.’ Boen took hold of a stool and sat at the bar, expecting Betty to serve him, though she didn’t look up from her continuous scouring.
      ‘Get much weather last night your way?’
      ‘Like you wouldn’t believe, heard the rafters creaking like the roof was about to come off. It took the windows clean out in Arabella’s bedroom!’
      ‘Strange, it was quiet my way.’ Tinder said,
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