The Remarkables (The Remarkable Owen Johnson, part 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

himself, in answer to the unspoken question: ‘how on Earth did I get up here?’
    “Adrenaline my eye ,” a woman’s voice replied from below.
    Looking back over the edge that he had climbed, Owen saw his neighbour Mrs Argyle looking back up at him, purple hat and grey mac both present and correct.
    “Oh, good morning Mrs Argyle ,” Owen responded with an air of normality that was not really suited to either his current altitude or predicament.
    “Quite ,” Mrs Argyle commented. “Taking in the breadth of one’s domain, are we?”
    “Pardon?”
    “Never mind.” Mrs Argyle scanned the park as if looking for someone. “Quite a climber you’ve become. I thought swimming was your pastime of choice?” This puzzled Owen as he was sure there was only one other person in the park besides himself, Rick and his gang that could have seen his ascent, and that was a man whose choice of headgear was unlike any he had seen Mrs Argyle adopt.
    “ Normally I do prefer the pool,” Owen agreed. “I’m only up here out of, err, necessity.”
    “Yes I saw . Nice company you keep, I must say. Well, shouldn’t you come down?” she continued. “It’s gone nine o’clock, or are you that confident about your mastery of English that you don’t require the full allotted time?”
    Owen looked at his watch. 9:02. He cursed to himself.
    “I heard that ,” Mrs Argyle scolded, but with a smile on her face. “Come on, climb down. I’ll catch you if you fall.” Owen stared at her in bewilderment. Her smile had been replaced by a serious look, and she was holding her arms out in preparation for him falling. “Come on!”
    “I really don’t think…” Owen started, an unlikely vision of her catching his plummeting body in both arms filling his mind’s eye.
    “ Tish tosh,” Mrs Argyle cut him off. “I saw you climb up, getting down should be a piece of cake.” She bent her knees confidently, a self-belief unfortunately not shared by Owen in either his own or her abilities at preventing at least a dozen of his bones from being broken.
    However he couldn’t stay up here all day, and the thought of being rescued by the fire brigade would no doubt result in public humiliation. Deciding that damage to his body was preferable to damage to his pride, he took a series of deep breaths and moved to climb down.
    Making sure that his bag was secure over his shoulders, he lay on his front and holding onto the edge of the roof, lowered himself down. Whereas before his feet had easily found purchase on the building's edge, now they uselessly scrambled about from side to side.
    “Concentrate on what you’re trying to do!” Mrs Argyle shouted encouragingly, not sounding in the least bit co ncerned by Owen’s predicament. He glanced down and saw that she was still adopting her catching position, looking like a wicket keeper at a Women’s Institute cricket match.
    “Reach out!” she suggested, grinning and nodding.
    Reach out? For what? Owen ceased flailing his legs about and decided that there was little chance of him finding anything to hold onto. Panicking, he decided that the roof of the building was much safer than the sides after all.
    His hands were tingling and emitting the same white glow as before, and in preparation to pull himself to the roof, he pushed on the sides with his feet. This time they had found purchase, so Owen looked down again to see what on.
    His right foot was pressed against the side of the building, but the left one, which felt like it had found the sturdiest foot hold, was suspended in mid-air, a white glow surrounding his shoe. Owen stared in disbelief at this rather unexpected but convenient alteration of the laws of physics as he understood them. He could now see that the glow was not coming from him, but was coming from whatever it was that he was stepping down onto. Furthermore, his mysterious foothold appeared distorted by his weight; shimmering in a way that reminded him of heat radiating off a