The Call of Destiny (The Return of Arthur Book 1) by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

good as labelled himself a failure. No one doubted that he
would make an excellent schoolmaster, but oh what a waste of such extraordinary
talents! It was a mystery to everyone who knew and admired him.

Six
     
     
2001
    On a blustery day in late summer two boys were
fishing near Ponterlally bridge. The eldest, a lad of eight, sat tense
    and straight-backed, his
posture indicating deep concentration, left hand grasping the fishing rod,
right hand firmly on the reel, never for a moment taking his eyes off the
little red float riding the surface of the water, alert for the small dipping
movement that would tell him a fish was nibbling at the bait. By his side,
sprawled on his back, legs extended, ankles crossed, fishing rod balanced in
the crook formed by his bare feet, lay his younger brother. His hair was white
blond, his eyes a startlingly vivid blue, the colour of cornflowers, and they
were looking not down at the river, but up at the sky. Keir found his brother’s
constant day-dreaming irritating. ‘Where are you, for goodness’ sake?’ he
asked, for the umpteenth time.
    His younger brother did not
answer. Where was he? How to explain that he was journeying to a place so far
away that it was beyond the reach even of his restless imaginings? At this
moment his mind was filled not with reels and floats and worms but with the
vastness of the universe, where millions of solar systems and galaxies roamed,
and black holes lay in wait to trap the unwary.
    ‘Arthur!’
    Some day, he dreamed, he too
might be up there exploring those infinite tracts of space and time – times
past and times future. It was possible, anything was possible if you believed,
wasn’t it? See there! And there again! Way, way up, in a sudden flare of time,
he glimpsed his future in a flurry of white clouds as the wind whirled them
across the sky.
    ‘ Arthur !’ The name
cracked like a whip in the morning air.
    Arthur’s blue eyes widened as
he sat up sharply. ‘Where on earth are you?’
    Arthur thought of trying to
explain that he had not been on earth at all but decided not to; Keir would
never understand. ‘I was thinking.’
    A scornful look darkened
Keir’s face. ‘Thinking! Is that what you call it! You said you wanted to come
fishing with me. Why aren’t you fishing?’
    ‘I am,’ said Arthur. ‘Sort of.’
    ‘No, you’re not. You’re
dreaming,’ said Keir sternly. Although there was only a year between them, Keir
was very much the elder brother. He took very seriously what he perceived to be
his fraternal duty, a significant part of which was assaulting his younger
brother either verbally or physically, or both. ‘You want a fight?’
    Arthur shook his head. He
could never see the point of fighting. Besides, he always got the worst of it.
    ‘You’re a wimp, you know
that?’ Arthur was silent.
    ‘You watch out,’ said Keir,
‘or I’ll thump you. You want me to thump you?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Say you’re sorry, then.’
‘What for?’
    Keir raised his fist
threateningly. ‘I’m sorry.’
    Arthur pulled a handful of
grass from the river bank. Throwing it into the water, he watched the green
threads separate and drift downstream in the current. Watching him, the
exasperated Keir wagged a stern finger. ‘How many times do I have to tell you?
Dreaming doesn’t catch fish. There was one tugging on your line just now and
you didn’t even notice.’ ‘Was there?’ Arthur lay back again, head resting on
clasped hands. He had noticed alright, and was secretly happy that the fish had
got away.
    Keir, who always worked
diligently at everything, had no patience with his kid brother. There was
something wrong with him, he never took anything seriously. If there was one
thing Keir had learned from his father – if a thing was worth doing, it was
worth doing well. Why was his brother so lazy? It was shameful. ‘We’ve been
here ages, and you haven’t caught a single fish.’
    Though Keir would never understand,
Arthur was here