Moving pictures

Between two of them was an arched doorway, three times as high as Victor. It was sealed with a pair of pale grey doors, either of stone or of wood that had become as hard as stone over the years. One of them was slightly open, but had been prevented from opening further by the drifts of sand in front of it. Frantically scrabbled furrows had been dug deep into the sand. Ginger had been trying to shift it with her bare hands.

'Stupid thing to do in this heat,' said Victor, vaguely. He looked from the door to the sea, and then down at Gaspode.

Laddie scrambled up the sand and barked excitedly at the crack between the doors.

'What's he doing that for?' said Victor, suddenly feeling spooked. 'All his hair is standing up. You don't think he's got one of those mysterious animal premonitions of evil, do you?'

'I think he's a pillock,' said Gaspode. 'Laddie shut up!'

There was a yelp. Laddie recoiled from the door, lost his balance on the shifting sand, and rolled down the slope. He leapt to his feet and started barking again; not ordinary stupid-dog barking this time, but the genuine treed-cat variety.

Victor leaned forward and touched the door.

It felt very cold, despite the perpetual heat of Holy Wood, and there was just the faint suspicion of vibration.

He ran his fingers over the surface. There was a roughness there, as though there had been a carving that had been worn into obscurity over the years.

'A door like that,' said Gaspode, behind him, 'a door like that, if you want my opinion, a door like that, a door like that,' he took a deep breath, 'bodes.'

'Hmm? What? Bodes what?'

'It don't have to bode anything,' said Gaspode. 'Just basic bodingness is bad enough, take it from me.'

'It must have been important. Looks a bit temple-ish,' said Victor. 'Why'd she want to open it?'

'Bits of cliff sliding down an' mysterious doors appearin',' said Gaspode, shaking his head. 'That's a lot of boding. Let's go somewhere far away and really think about it, eh?'

Ginger gave a groan. Victor crouched down.

'What'd she say?'

'Dunno,' said Gaspode.

'It sounded like 'I want to be a lawn', I thought?'

'Daft. Touch of the sun there, I reckon,' said Gaspode knowledgeably.

'Maybe you're right. Her head certainly feels very hot.' He picked her up, staggering a little under the weight.

'Come on,' he managed. 'Let's get down into the town. It'll be getting dark soon.' He looked around at the stunted trees. The door lay in a sort of hollow, which presumably caught enough dew to make the growth there slightly less desiccated than elsewhere.

'You know, this place looks familiar,' he said. 'We did our first click here. It's where I first met her.'

'Very romantic,' said Gaspode distantly, hurrying away with Laddie bounding happily around him. 'If something 'orrible comes out of that door, you can fink of it as Our Monster.'

'Hey! Wait!'

'Hurry up, then.'

'What would she want to be a lawn for, do you think?'

'Beats me . . . '