Then damn the stars! The Anomaly bursts as he launches his flaming sword though the air and watches helplessly as it rebounds and falls to the ground.

Just because we are written in the sky, The Sons Of Men sing in unison, does not mean that we too are not written.

These stars speak in riddles! Neutrino says.

The snake is old, The Sons Of Men sing in a voice of uncanny unison. Two thousand year. And his eyes are cold.

The X-Ray Kid steps silently forward and holds his hand up to the invisible force field.

One after the other Neutrino and The Anomaly press their hands to the other side.

Our ancestors spoke of a snake, Neutrino says. And of a Great Return. Tell me, stars, will there be a Return?

The Sons Of Men raise their arms toward the bodies stacked in glass coffins as high as the eye can see. The Sons Of Men raise their arms to the bodies of The Vanquished.

This is The Dead Zone, they say, in a voice like soft wet tears, The Place Of Endless Echoes.

Next time: The Betrayal Of The Gods!

*

I give Patricia a bell and I take her out to dinner. We barely know each other, I says to her, it was all about Tommy, wasn’t it? It was all about Tommy, she says. It’s not the same without him, she says to me. Aye, Tommy had the gift of the gab, I says to her. It was more than that, she says. Tommy was the love of my life, she says to me.

Did you know he bought a new pair of trousers? she says. Sure, Tommy was always buying the trousers, I says to her, he loved his new trousers, so he did. No, but he went into town that morning, she says to me. He wasn’t feeling good and you know all about his heart, his weak heart. Tommy’s heart was never weak, I says to her. I don’t care if he had a pacemaker. That was a rebel heart he had.

Aye, he was some man, she says to me. But the point is he got up that morning and he says, I’m away into town to get a new pair of decent trousers. That’s what he says. I says to him, what for, you’ve got plenty of trousers in that wardrobe of yours, and he says to me: I wouldn’t want to be buried in an old pair of slacks. That’s Como talking, I says to her. That’s Como right there.

I light a fag for her and I pass it over. We never made it to New York City, she says to me, taking a long draw, we never made it there, in the end, she says. That’s where I saw us, she says to me. That’s where I always imagined we’d end up. With Tommy on Broadway, she says, and she laughs. Then she brings up The Quiet Man. Do you mind The Quiet Man? she says to me. Of course I mind it, I says to her, how could I forget it, that was Tommy’s favourite movie of all time, along with Where Eagles Dare.