Category: BEAUT

Scene 3 – The Cornucopia on the Lane

After alighting from his bus on the Strand, Colin found the pub he was looking for on Temple Lane, near the submerged Victoria Embankment. It was at the end of a pontoon skirting King’s College and around the back of the Courtauld Institute.

‘The Cornucopia on the Lane’ proclaimed itself ‘The World’s Narrowest Gastro-Pub.’ Tucked between a gentleman’s outfitters specialising in Crown Court clothing and the offices of an accountancy firm, the pub stood as a thin slice of Tudor England. With a core structure built around 1598, the Corny, as the locals called it, had distinctive leaded windows and half-timbering on its gable. Although they were recent additions—installed for the tourists who all-too-infrequently strayed that way—they looked the part to Colin.

The BUREAU of EXTRATERRESTRIAL AND UNEXPLAINED TECHNOLOGY One. The Interview Whitehall, Lundeinjon, UK – Geola 12th, 9 BAI.[1] It was a grand club once. Now it smelled, to Colin, of ancient soldiers dwelling on their historical conflicts; of cigar smoke infused into the panelled oak walls, the heavy Regency furniture and the men themselves; of gin spilt onto the maroon carpet with its pile trodden in places to an ice-rink shine; and of centuries of boiled cabbage and beef gravy, port and potatoes, semolina and suppressed sexuality. Portraits of men who ignored death only to find it had not, after…