In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 10)
I sat down opposite him, my paws resting in front of me on the table. I didn't know what to say. Harry had always been the strong one in our group. It was his support that had brought me through the trauma of my father's death and my mother's long and...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 9)
I groaned. By now we had reached the vicarage. We walked down the path while Charlie rummaged in the boot of his car. I unlocked the front door and heard muffled scraping and cursing as Charlie dragged a suitcase up the gravel path. As Charlie reached...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 23)
After the happy couple had left the church and through two lines of crossed truncheons, the families left. I wandered outside chatting to Anna - who, it turns out has never cried at a wedding (I can't say the same, I'm a soppy old hound at heart). By...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 22)
With a wave of a paw, she left the room taking one of the candles with her. Now that they were no longer being used as weapons for the subduing of silly clergy, it did not take long to have the bed made up. Once the remaining candles had been blown...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 21)
Road safely crossed, I struck out across the green. Part way across the green, I had to field an errant rugby ball that had escaped from the less than complete control of a group of children. Much to my own surprise, I managed to catch the ball...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 20)
Several minutes past punctuated only by the scratching of my pen across the paper and the odd interested noise from Kiniun as he came across a particularly fascinating piece of the report's deathless prose. As time passed the levels of our coffee cups...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 19)
The security guard, a leopard of about my age or maybe slightly older, twitched his tail and shrugged his shoulders. 'That's the way of the world, Uncle.' He said. 'Wait,' I said, 'How can you be Thomas' uncle?' 'Simple,' Replied Kiniun with a grin,...
A Meeting
As a rule, I don't often spend the night at my mother's farm. Animals find this strange, but the pressures of parish life tend to get in the way of decent family time. Anyway, this was a little while ago, but so strange, that I felt it needed to be...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 8)
Laura laughed and led us into the school. The school was housed in a rambling Victorian building. It seemed to me to be the epitome of an old country primary school: the loose parquet flooring that clicked and squeaked under our paws; the walls lined...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 7)
'Yeah,' I laughed, 'Look it's my day off today and you're supposed to be having a break from parish life, I thought we could go to look at the ruins of an old Abbey that is not too far away.' 'Okay,' Replied Harry, 'What's got you interested in...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 6)
They both nodded. In an unguarded moment, I realised that for the first time ever, I had actually used Dean Grayson's Christian name. I gathered myself and took Harry to my car. Minutes later we were heading back home. We drove home in silence, Harry...
In the Service of Mystery (Pt. 5)
Moments later, I was pulling away from the vicarage and driving north to meet the main road. The drive to Newton was uneventful, but there is always one point in the journey that lifted my soul. As you approach the city from the Amble Valley, you crest...