Flex Mentallo

Congrats Jayman. Not an easy book to find. I've always thought Crandall did some of his best covers for this title. This one is outstanding for me.

Wow! It's even better than I imagined. I hear that alot It must be the spandex.

Mridula's family

So I've started a sales thread to cover the deposit, and she has moved in. Now it's more sales, to buy furniture, and cover the monthly rent.

Just after my return to England, Lucina finds what she is looking for.

The return journey includes an overnight stopover in a cold waiting room at Abu Dhabi Airport. I face another 16-hour stopover in Dublin for the final leg, a one hour flight to Manchester. By now I've had quite enough. So in Dublin I go through passport control, and beg my way onto an earlier flight, which saves me twelve hours. I get back to Manchester at 10.00 on a freezing Sunday night. There is rain, and gale force winds. Refuse blows about my ankles before rocketing off down the damp street. There are no trains to my station at that dead time, so I wait half an hour for the bus. I am surrounded by drunken people, who have been out for a night on the town. I get home. I sleep. I wake. I unpack. And life goes on....

Despite my protestations we go to the wrong airport. They refuse to listen to my misgivings, as bad as the taxi driver who brought me to them two weeks before. Only the fact that the old airport is utterly deserted eventually persuades them. But finally all is put right. I say goodbye, go through security, and look back. They are still standing, beyond the glass. They wave a final time, and I wave back. The security guard looks at me bemusedly. His expression reminds me of Minister Firdousi Begum.

Latif has helpfully found a friend willing to drive me to the airport. Latif, Poppy, Feka and Lucina all come along for the ride.

Eventually we sleep. Tomorrow, we will say our goodbyes.

It is Lucina, of all people, who cracks first. Then everyone is weeping.

Latif begins to speak sadly of Mridula. Her hopes, her dreams. My name is mentioned more than once. I know he is saying that she had waited five years for my return, but I have come too late, and of course he is right.

Zoa is eventually packed off to bed.

The little ones enjoy themselves.

Everyone puts a brave face on it. But this is the first occasion for any of us to step back into the room where Mridula had lived.

I have been on a mission this afternoon, to buy some snacks for a little farewell party in the new/old house.

By now the old room has been cleared.

Evening falls.

Latif asks me which room I would like. I choose a spot overlooking the quiet pool behind the house.

The new house is rapidly emerging, and we are standing on the roof, where a second story is being built.

Tomorrow I will depart on a nightmare 42-hour return journey to England (a miserable prospect, but the only affordable flight I had been able to get as part of the package that got me here in time.)