Hexad: The Ward Read Online Free PDF Page A

he be taking it so calmly? "Morning," she ventured carefully. "You okay?"
    "Yeah, I think so. It's weird, this kind of feels familiar. I'm not nearly as freaked out as I—" Dale dropped backward and smacked his head on the tiles for the second time that morning.
    "Thought he was taking it a little too well."
    Amanda put the kettle on to boil and stared out of the kitchen window. The feeders in the apple tree were almost empty and that damn squirrel was nicking what was left. Her eyes moved to the patch of ground she'd stared at earlier.
    Click.
    The kettle flicked off. Amanda set about making coffee.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Not Quite a Stranger
    Present Day
     
    "Bloody hell, Amanda," said Dale, sipping his coffee, "this just sounds ridiculous."
    "I know, but what other explanation can there be? Look, when you, the other you, told me what The Caretaker had said, well, I didn't believe a word, not really, but there was something nagging at me, something telling me that maybe it was all true. And that wasn't you, not like this is. Anyway, what about that?" Amanda pointed at the Hexad in the middle of the table.
    "Fair point," said Dale, staring at it as intently as Amanda.
    Neither of them had touched it when Dale came around a few seconds after collapsing again. He seemed all right, it was just one of those days for being unconscious — they'd both made a good job of it so far.
    "All that stuff you told me, what the other Dale told you The Caretaker had said, how can that possibly be real?"
    "I honestly don't know. This has been a mad morning so far and I can't see it getting any better, but he didn't tell me everything. There was more to it, I think, stuff he never had the chance to say. I wish The Caretaker was here, then maybe we would make some proper sense out of it all."
    "Well, it's a good job I am then, isn't it?"
    Dale and Amanda turned at the voice of Tellan, who stood in the middle of the kitchen, frowning and slowly taking his hat off.
    "Um, hello?" said Amanda.
    "What's up?" said Dale. Amanda frowned at him for being so rude. "What?"
    "Show some respect," said Amanda.
    "How do you do?" said Dale, winking at Amanda and getting up to greet Tellan.
    "Hello, Dale, it's been a while. Well, actually it hasn't, and I suppose that's part of the problem. Sorry to disturb you again so soon, Amanda, but I do believe I have made a slight error."
    "Error?" asked Amanda.
    "Yes, my fault entirely, most unexpected. It seems that Dale here is more, how shall I put it? indestructible than I imagined, and he, um, gosh I really do hate time travel. He—"
    "Please, sit down, there's no need to rush this. In fact," said Amanda, pulling a chair out for Tellan, "I think we would both prefer it if you went as slowly as possible. Right, Dale?" Amanda looked at Dale, then burst out laughing.
    "What? What's so funny?"
    "You haven't got any clothes on."
    "Oh."
    "Don't get dressed on my account," said Tellan. "We were all born that way. Most of us, anyway," he said cryptically.
    Amanda got the feeling she really didn't want to ask what he meant by that. He was The Caretaker after all.
    "No, erm, excuse me for a minute." Dale left and went to dress.
    "I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon, and I also wasn't expecting the man you told so much to then disappear and be replaced by my Dale," said Amanda accusingly.
    "My dear, I do apologize. I came as soon as I realized the error." Tellan placed his hat down carefully on the table, an immaculate pork pie hat that matched his seventies suit with wide lapels perfectly. "It wasn't my fault though," he added hurriedly, "I came the instant I felt the change."
    "Felt the change? How?"
    "Oh, nothing for you to worry about. Ah, here comes Dale now."
    Dale wandered back into the room, dressed, hair still wild. "Okay, can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on? I just saw myself and then he, me, ugh, whatever, he disappeared. What's happening?"
    "Well," said Tellan, "it seems that after