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be meeting Mitch at eleven.  Oh well.  Learning about Fiona’s
affairs could wait.
    …………………………………………….
    ‘Who was it?’ Fiona asked.
    Jake was just about to explain when something stopped
him.  She was playing around behind his back.  He would tell Fiona when the
need arose.
    ‘I don’t know.  A nut, I expect.  He said that he’s a
story for me.  I might follow it up.  Who knows, there might be something in
it?’
    ‘Okay, but don’t ruin your chance with Mitch, will you?  I
won’t be too happy if you do.  You know that, don’t you?’
    And there was a definite edge of malice in her voice. 
Sometimes, Fiona could be quite unnerving.
    ‘Okay, then.  I’m going to do some work in my office. 
I’ll be down shortly.’
    Taking the tin box containing his father’s letter and the
ancient page, Jake headed up the stairs to the box room that he grandiosely
called his office.  He was going to look through his books to see who he knew
that might give him the translation he required.  Surely there had to be
someone who could read Biblical Hebrew or maybe he could find the answer for
himself.
    ……………………………………………
    Once she was certain that Jake was out of the way Fiona
turned to the phone and called a number.  She felt such school girlish
anticipation as she did so and she was rewarded for her efforts when she heard
the familiar voice of Mitch Mitchell.
    ‘Hi, Fee.  I told you I could help.  But he is a wanker,
isn’t he?  I don’t know why you put up with him.’
    ‘Nor do I, though…?
    ‘What?’
    ‘You know…’
    ‘Oh, Fee.  Stop worrying.’
    ‘But, Mitch?’
    ‘You’re being silly.’
    ‘Am I?’
    But Mitch did not reply.  Fiona knew that it was an
argument she could never win.  Mitch was far too certain of himself.  That was
his one big failing.  There was one more thing, however.
    ‘You know those cuff-links…?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘He wanted to wear them for the Bar Mitzvah yesterday.’
    ‘Why didn’t you warn me?’
    ‘I’m sorry.  I didn’t think.’
    ‘Bloody hell, Fee.  You could’ve ruined everything.  What
happened?’
    ‘I managed to persuade him to wear another set.  I don’t
think he noticed they were gone.’
    ‘Thank Christ for that.  So Jake doesn’t suspect a thing?’
    ‘Not in the slightest.’
    ‘You’ve done well.  Alex will be pleased.’

Chapter 3
    Nothing seemed familiar.
    Jake could feel his breathing becoming so unbearably
heavy.  He was gasping, gasping, for what little air there was.  It was as if
he was being buried alive under the weight of the oppressive atmosphere.  There
was no escape from the dark and forbidding sky that seemed to be trying to
crush him under its increasing pressure.
    He looked about himself, endeavouring to make sense of his
surroundings but there was nothing that gave him a focus.  Above, the evil sky
and, beneath his feet, what?  It was spongy with the texture of coarse grass
but its colour was an alien, inanimate shade of grey and the stuff stretched to
the infinite reaches of the strange world in which he found himself.
    As much as he tried, Jake had no recollection of how he
had reached this place and he had even less of an idea how he could leave. 
There was, however, nothing to be gained in staying where he was and, as
uncertain as he felt, Jake knew that he had better move.
    Cautiously, at first, he began to walk.  Direction was
quite irrelevant in this vista of uniform greyness and he merely headed out
following the bearing he had been facing.  Maybe there was someone who could
tell him where he was.
    It was such a superhuman effort, pushing his way through
the dense air, but it was not impossible and Jake experienced a mild euphoria
as he realised that he was making some slow progress.  That was when the mist
began to form.
    At first there was just wispy tendrils of cloud but soon
they had formed into banks of an almost living