The Lost Highway

When Tom rendered the full details the sergeant turned to his men and everyone was silent.

Then the sergeant spoke, his voice had softened: "You say this guy's name was Rick - and the girl, you wife - what did he call her? Was it Sweetie Pie?"

"That's right, Sweetie Pie. Well, it's not exactly a name exactly is it, sergeant;? he may have called all the girls he fancied that. Bit of a pervert anyway and the sooner we get to him the better."

"No point, sir, we will search for your wife of course but we will never find Rick, He's long gone."

"But I saw him with my wife, God! Don't you understand what I'm saying?"

"I do, sir but you are not the first to have seen him. Story goes: and it has been confirmed, Rick was an old soldier based near here in the last war."

"Wrong, sergeant. He wasn't that old!"

"Hear me out, sir. Just hear me out: Before the war Rick worked in the mine. During the war he was heavily wounded and it seems he had a thing for going back into the past, visiting the mine after it closed. He even set up residence there. Made himself quite comfortable taking in scraps of furniture he found dumped. He had a good supply of fresh water from a natural stream which ran along a seam in the rock face and through into the disused mineshaft, keeping it from flooding. The locals knew about him. He was quite harmless and well liked locally. Used to visit the local pub called The George - now long gone, once or twice a week when they'd set him up with a free pint or two in return for some light bar duties. His diet mainly consisted of rabbit and any vegetables he could scrounge locally and whatever the land had to offer. He knew how to survive all right with his army training.

"Now, it did seem he had a feminine admirer who visited him once or twice. She was reported to have stayed with him in his humble abode. He called her Sweetie Pie but eventually she wanted a normal life, kids and all that sort of thing but he would did not relent apparently, so she left him.

"The guy was shattered. He was found drowned at the bottom of the mine shaft a week later. That was back in the fifties. You are not the first one to have seen his ghost. Can't understand why you never realised this area was a training area. You, must have seen the tank tracks?"

Tom was in a world of his own, thinking about this ghost and how everything seemed to fit together. He just nodded his head.

"Well, as you say, you are on honeymoon so I guess we can forgive you, sir."

The sergeant turned and pointed: "Look, is that your wife driving that car?"

Tom turned and immediately recognised Fran at the wheel.

"There you are, sir. She wasn't in the mine at all!"

An army vehicle followed the car and the driver said he'd found this crazy lady in the middle of the danger area it having run out of petrol with a flat battery. He replenished her tank from his spare petrol can and got her started with a jump lead and got her away from the mineshaft in the nick of time.

The sergeant yelled he had to go but told them the direction how to get back to the M4.

"What the hell happened to you, Fran? Thought I'd never see you again," Tom spluttered.

"And you," she returned: A fine gallant husband you are. Okay so I was crazy losing myself in the mine but you could have hung on. I guessed you had gone to get help and hung around in the car after I eventually found my way out of the shaft. That's when this dishy corporal came to my rescue. Steaming he was: He didn't pull any punches. Said he wanted me the hell out of there pronto as he filled my tank and made bloody sure of it."

"What about Rick. I mean are you okay? These guys are telling me he was some kind of spirit from the past"

"Rick, who's Rick you crazy man? He was just a figment of our imagination. Well we shared the fantasy didn't we? Just to pass away the boredom waiting for someone to come and help us. I knew though it was you all along. The disguise was good, the mask very life like - and the beard, crazy, crazy stuff. But it was all just too bizarre. It just had to be you. There were times I thought not. The intimacy we shared seemed to be different. They say lovers know each other in the dark but that's why I enjoy being with you, Tom. It is like going through the motions in a theatrical farce. Good stuff though - running in and out of that so called impregnable cage - on the outside you were Tom talking to this guy called Rick whom I felt sure at the time was there too, very clever stuff, Tom. Then you appeared close to me again and then you were Rick. How did you do that by the way?

"You have a weird imagination, darling Tom, very clever too. I knew what you were up to, having me in different ways, some of which would be a turn off in normal circumstances. You couldn't fool me, Tom. But no problem, I'm not complaining although the tanning perhaps was a little harsh. The Porno's pictures were a bit over the top too but. Like a good girl I didn't want to spoil the plot so I went along with it. Well I didn't want another tanning did I? That was so cruel, Tom but it was fun I guess. Albeit scary at first but as soon as I guessed it was okay.

But you didn't have to disappear like that. I could have been killed by a missile!"

"I was worried, honestly, Fran - when the mine went up. Thought I had really lost you. I like living dangerously, Fran but this time, perhaps we both did go a bit overboard," Tom confessed.

Indeed, he knew even his fantasies would not go that far. But there had been times in the past when his mind had run away with him. Oddly though, he distinctly remembered speaking to someone else, besides Fran, in that mine.

"So it's back to the drawing board then, Tom? Fran giggled, "well that was always fun and now we are married, watch this space!"

But Tom knew there was another presence in that place. He would never call Fran Sweetie Pie!