What is the Dragon Trade mark?
The author, Malcolm Baker, (left) here with a Buddhist Monk from the Shaolin Martial Arts centre.
Reply from Archbishop of Canterbury to my first letter.
https://www.facebook.com/malcolm.james.lorenzo.baker
Myeply from Archbishop to first letter.
A Short Story. Page 1.
Copyright material, copyright Baker Publishing.
This is a work of fiction. Any characters portrayed in this story are imaginary (with the exception of God and Jesus, who are based on the real God and Jesus. Any names are purely fictitious and any similarity to persons actually living or dead is purely coincidental.
Dinsdale is a suburb of Hamilton, and I used this name because it is a convenient name, and not because it is the name of any person living or dead.
The two boys would say they found the grave partially open. Inside it was a body bag, zipped up and covered with earth. When the police arrived they would have to tell them that they found it like that, because that was the truth, but nobody would be likely to believe them. The police would believe that somebody had asked them to dig up the body and shift it to a new site, but the man who put it there, Alex Page, and on whose property it was, would rightly say that he had no knowledge of any body. It was unlikely that anybody would believe him either, because inside the body bag they would find the body of his wife, Beryl Page. Alex was going to say that he and his wife were on they way to town one day, and that she had suddenly died. It was unfortunate, but true, and Alex would remind the police that he had driven straight to the police station on that day, and had stopped his car outside. Why had he done this they would ask him? Because she had died suddenly, he would tell them, and what else was he to do? Why didn't you drive to the hospital they would ask him? Because she was already dead, he would say. And who is this in the grave, they were going to ask him, and how did she get there? Did he have any knowledge of her death? She has been dead since that day, he was going to tell them again, and he has no knowledge of her death at any other time. Then how does she come to have two dead bodies, they were going to ask him? I have no idea he was going to say, but they were not going to believe him.
Alex Page wasn't at home that night. In his place, Jesus was washing the dishes, but Jesus didn't look like himself, he didn't look like Alex either, in fact he looked like Alex's wife Beryl. Beryl and Alex had been married quite a few years, and in fact they had a daughter, and she had already left home and had gone to university, leaving them alone in their retirement.
bla bla bla.
That evening, although he was aware of it, the real Alex was going to come home to a complete surprise. When he got back, his wife would be dead, and she would have been raped. But Alex had no knowledge of this. Possibly, he could later say, he had suddenly found himself in a different house. And whose house was it they would ask him? I can't tell you. Was there anybody else there with you? Yes my wife. Your wife was with you is somebody else's house? Possibly. Are you sure that it was her, and not somebody else? No it was my wife. And you were in somebody else's house with her? How long has this been going on? How did you get there? Did you drive?
In fact something strange had been going on. People who notice things would have noticed that Alex, who was a regular attendee at the local church, sometimes drove a green car, and sometimes an identical red one. Why he had never noticed this himself, he wasn't sure, but he had never mentioned it, and nobody hade mentioned it to him. Was he blind or colour blind? Now, he drove a silver or white car, and lately it had never changed colour.
Were you at home the night your wife died, the police were goiing to ask him? Which night did she die, he would have to say? The man who killed her will know they would respond. That puts me in the clear then? Not if you did it. What nights were you not home with your wife, and for which you have an alibi, they were going to ask him. if he couldn't come up with any, he was going to be part of teh conspiracy. How could there be two bodies? His wife wasn't a pair of twins. He would have known about it if she was. And you never suspected a thing, they were going to say to him?
Jesus, or rather Beryl finished doing the dishes. She, or rather he, because make no mistake, this was a man, Jesus, in the body of a woman, Beryl, Mrs Page, and it wasn't the body of Mrs Dinsdale, because although it was her husband Mr Dinsdale in the body of Mr Page that night, as it usually was every time Mr Page found himself elsewhere, Mrs Dinsdale wasn't there tonight. Even if she had been it would have made no difference. Confused? He wasn't confused. Jesus had been here only a few minutes, but it would have made no difference to Mr Dinsdale, or rather Mr Page, whether his wife, the real Mrs Page or Mr Page or somebody else was in Mrs Pages body, because it was time for sex, and he was going to have sex whether or not Mrs Page agreed to it, just because it was that night of the week. Jesus was equally sure that it was not going to happen, because he knew that would make him party to a conspiracy to rape, because no concent was possible while he was in possession of Mrs Page's body, and whether or not she was at home. What would the conversation have been? Hello, Mrs Page, may I borrow your body tonight for sex? Well, I'm not sure, do you think God would agree to it? Well I think if God objected, He would do something about it, so no, I don't think He objects.
There could have been a phone call. Hello, Alex Page here, Hello, Alex Page here too, may I speak to my wife please? What?, Isn't she there with you? No. Or maybe, Hello, Beryl Page here, is my husband there? No he isn't are you there?
It took only a word.