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Chapter Five- Aliens
The 'phone rang while Zachary Neelum was on the toilet. He leaped off the seat and tumbled forward with his trousers round his ankles. He ran like a shackled convict, not bothering to pull them up. He fell again and crawled the rest of the way. He snatched up the receiver. "Hello!?"
"Good morning, Zach. I hope I haven't woken you too early."
"Trevor! What do you want!?"
"I was just wondering if you were planning on doing any work today. It's eleven thirty and you're not in your office."
"Get off the line, Trevor! I'm waiting for the Guard to call!"
"The Guard can call you on your mobile; now please make an effort and drag yourself across the Port; I've got some Home Office releases for you to countersign."
Zach went down to his garage, got into his new Jaguar and drove the single mile across the settlement to The Rotunda. He parked in the forecourt and made his way up to Trevor's office, keeping his eyes averted from the empty secretary's desk. Trevor was on the 'phone as he walked in. "Sorry, I'm late…" Zach began.
The Governor waved him silent. "Yes… Yes… Very well; let me know as soon as she's available. Thank you." He put down the receiver. "Damn!"
"I've spent the last hour trying to find a temp to cover Kayleigh. Ross says he won't be able to get anyone out here for a week. Blast and botheration!"
"I'm touched by your concern!" Zach spat sarcastically.
"Oh, come on, Zach! Life goes on. We still have an island to run, Kayleigh or no Kayleigh."
"Trevor! She's been missing for nearly two days! The last people to see her were those bird-watchers! They said she wandered off on her own! Don't you realize what that could mean!? She might have fallen and broken her leg or caught hypothermia or something!"
"Kayleigh's never stuck me as the reckless, mountaineering type."
"So what if a gang of thugs have got hold of her!?"
"Then how's your worrying going to help her?... Look, I've posted every off-duty Guardsman to the search. If she were still on Rockall, they'd find her."
"What do you mean 'if she were still on Rockall'?"
"Well… Have you ever considered that the reason she's missing is that she doesn't want to be found?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Perhaps she's gone away… to think."
Zach shook his head in bemusement. "Eh?"
"Well, I know that you and she have been having a little… liaison. It might have left her somewhat confused and uncertain about her feelings. She'd probably needs some space."
"A little liaison!? How did you find out?"
"How did you expect anyone not to find out? We've all decided to keep it from Dill for the time being."
Zach paused. "But… it doesn't fit."
"It fits perfectly. Now why don't you just put her out of your head and wait. In a while she'll turn up as happy as Larry and you can go off to bed and carry on where you left off."
"But the bird-watchers found the car where she'd left it. Why didn't she go back to it and drive home?"
"She probably walked down the coast to Hasselwood. It would only take a few hours. If she's clever enough to sneak across the border into the US Sector I'm sure she's clever enough to sneak back… It beats me how she managed to do it. I wish I knew."
Zach put his hands in his pocket and shifted on his feet. He cleared his throat. "Er… So where do you think she is now?"
"Staying with friends in Hasselwood; or perhaps she's gone back to the mainland. She could easily have stowed away on that Edinburgh Uni flight yesterday."
"Back to the mainland!?"
"Yes; to her parents' place." The Governor leaned back in his chair. "Zach, have you checked your emails lately?"
"No, I've been too busy worrying about Kayleigh."
He tilted his screen towards Zach. "Well, why don't you do it now?"
Zach typed in his password and called up his inbox. "My God! There's one from her! It came in last night!"
"Read it."
He opened the email. DEAR ZACH. MUM ILL. GOT 2 GO HOME 2 GLASGOW. WILL B BACK IN A FEW DAYS. KAYLEIGH X. Zach straightened up and smiled. "It's an I-fone message. She sent it from her mobile."
Trevor grinned. "There you are; told you so."
Relief turned to suspicious anger. "You knew!"
Trevor didn't reply.
"You knew and you never said a word! You let me go on worrying!"
"I received a similar message at around the same time, yes. I've ordered the Guard to call off the search."
"Why didn't you tell me!?"
"Because I didn't want you doing anything rash. I thought I'd wait until I could break the news to you in person."
Zach picked up the 'phone. "Well, I'm calling her."
Trevor cut off the line with the edge of his hand. "I wouldn't if I were you."
"Why not!? I want to talk to her!"
"Zach, that's why I wanted to tell you face-to-face; in case you tried something like this. Don't you see? She's got cold feet. Let her work it out in peace for a while. She'll come back to you; just be patient."
"What do you know about women, Trevor?" he asked sulkily.
"What, do you think I'm a monk or something?... Come on, let's get these releases signed. We've got the Rockall Summit coming up in just over a year."
Zach treated himself to a medicinal whisky from a bottle that he kept in the top drawer of his desk. He reclined in his chair and sighed deeply. The relief! Terrible images had been haunting his mind for the past forty-eight hours: Kayleigh's body lying at the foot of a cliff while the sea washed over her. Kayleigh being tied up by a gang of soldiers and screaming as they dragged her away. It made him realize that she meant a lot more to him than he'd previously thought. Maybe Trevor was right; she'd been a bit thrown by his suggestion that they went official with their relationship and decided to ease off the throttle for a while. But was Trevor right to advise him not to contact her? All he wanted to do was talk; that wouldn't do any harm, would it? He picked up the 'phone and dialled her number.
"The Tetralink 'phone you have called is not responding. It may be switched off. Please try again later."
"Damn!" He deliberated for a few minutes then called up Kayleigh's parents' number from her file. It rang loudly in his ear.
"Hello, is that Mrs Ford?"
"This is Zach Neelum here on Rockall. Could I speak to Kayleigh please?"
"Kayleigh? She doesn't live here any more. She's on Rockall with you, isn't she?"
Zach hesitated. "Did you just say she's on Rockall?"
"Aye; haven't you seen her?"
"No; she sent me an email saying she was with you."
Kayleigh's mother chuckled. "Don't worry; she does this thing from time to time. But if she shows up, I'll tell her you're looking for her."
"Thanks, Mrs Ford. Goodbye." Zach got up from his desk and jogged along the corridor to Trevor's office. "Trevor! Trevor! Kayleigh's not with her parents! She's…" As he ran up to Trevor's desk he noticed something strange about the Governor's expression: he was frowning furiously. His face was flushed and his brow knotted. "What's wrong, Trevor?"
He hissed through his nose. "How could you!?"
"How could I what?"
"Did you really think you'd get away with it!?"
"Are you feeling alright, Trevor?"
The Governor slowly got to his feet. "You're sacked, Mr Deputy-Governor!"
"I said you're sacked!"
Zach chuckled. "Very amusing, Trevor. Not a bad joke for a beginner."
"Do you hear me laughing?"
There was an icy silence. "But… what's all this about?"
"This!" Trevor held up a printout of the Emergency Access Order that he'd forged for Kayleigh.
Zach teetered backwards and nearly fell over.
"Oh, so you feel shocked, do you!?... Well, so do I! Shocked, betrayed and deceived!"
"How… how…?"
"How did I find out?... Though you went to great lengths to delete the file you created on my personal system, you forgot to also delete the backup file on the Rotunda mainframe! The one with your user name on it!... Now I know how Kayleigh breached border security!... GET OUT!"
"Come on, Trevor! There's no need for…"
"Yes there is!... Sergeant!"
A uniformed member of the Rockall Guard entered the room immediately as if he'd been standing by just outside. "Your Excellency?"
"Escort ex-Deputy-Governor Neelum to his home address."
Zach felt an abyss open up in front of him. "Trevor! Please don't do this! We've been through so much together! You'd never have got here if it hadn't been for me!"
"Just go, Zach."
Zach began to weep. "Please don't sack me, Trevor! I'm sorry! Give me one more chance! This job is all I've got!"
The Governor looked down on him with an expression that was totally drenched in contempt. "Huh! Did you think that if you hung on long enough you could be back in my shoes one day!? Well, now you can forget it! Rot in despair, Zach!... Sergeant! Get this snivelling wretch out of my sight!"
The Guardsman put a hand on Zach's shoulder. "Come along now, Mr Neelum. Let's not have any trouble."
Three days later, Zach received his P-Forty-five through Rockall's internal postal service. The envelope was addressed in Trevor's hand. There was no note; the document was the only thing inside.
He hadn't left First Landing once since the Rockall Guardsman had dropped him off. He'd spent the following days lolling about the place, eating, drinking and watching TV; his brain out of gear. Since his dismissal, Zach saw no reason why he should get up early, so he'd been lying in every morning, sometimes till well after midday. He'd had no visitors or 'phone calls, so when the doorbell woke him up just after nine AM two weeks later, he assumed it had been a dream and closed his eyes again. It sounded again. He propped himself up on his elbow. "Shit! Who's that?" he muttered. "Go away!" The doorbell rang yet again, as if the caller had heard these words. Zach cursed and rolled out of bed, snatched his bathrobe off the back of the door and plodded down the stairs. He opened the front door to a bright, cool morning and a shabbily-dressed young woman standing on his doorstep. "Yes?" he said. "What is it?"
She smiled. "Good morning to you too, Zach."
Her familiar voice sparked violently in his clotted brain and it took a moment or two to register who she was. "Kayleigh!"
"Well, it's nice to see you remember me."
"How long have you been back?"
"I haven't been away… Look, are you going to invite me in; 'cos if not I'll go and have a bath somewhere else."
"Er… yeah. Of course, Kayleigh. Come on in."
She headed straight to his kitchen and made herself a strong cup of coffee. Zach watched her as she gulped. He'd never seen her like this before. Her clothes were creased and covered in mud; her hands were grey with dirt and her hair was tousled and stained. "So… How have you been keeping?" asked Zach.
She dropped the empty coffee mug into the sink. "Ah! That was good! I needed it!"
"Kayleigh, where have you been for the last two weeks?"
She smiled at him, and it struck Zach that her face looked different too. There was a light in her eyes that hadn't been there before; a curl of the lips when she grinned. "Wait a mo', Zach. I'll have a bath first, if you don't mind. I'll be able to think straighter when I'm clean." She then proceeded to undress completely where she stood, tossing her clothes into a pile on the floor. "You couldn't run these through your machine while I have a wash, could you?"
"No problem."
"Great." She headed for the stairs, skipping and humming to herself as she walked.
A putrid odour rose from Kayleigh's clothes as he pushed them into his washing machine. They were the same ones that she'd worn when she'd left Rockall Port on the day that she'd disappeared more than a fortnight ago.
"Zach?" she called down the stairs.
"Can I use your toothbrush?"
"Sure." He looked upstairs with his arms akimbo and sighed. Then he went up quietly and knocked on the bathroom door.
"Come in, Zach."
Kayleigh was sitting in deep tub of water that was nearly black with grime. She was shaving her legs with Zach's razor and whistling. Her wet hair drooped over her shoulders.
He sat down on the toilet and rested his elbows on his knees. "Kayleigh, what's up? Where have you been? Your email said you'd gone to Glasgow."
"I lied; sorry."
"I know; I called your mum and dad. Why lie?"
"I had to. I couldn't tell you where I really was and if I'd simply gone missing you'd have had the police over here looking for me."
He paused. "So then, Kayleigh; please tell me where you've really been."
Kayleigh stood up and let the water sluice off her body. She stepped out of the bath and put on a dressing gown then she wrapped her hair in a towel and arranged it around her head like a huge turban. "Zach, I've found something out about Rockall that you wouldn't believe. I've made a discovery that you could never have imagined in your wildest dreams."
She hesitated. "If I tell you... then you must swear that you'll tell nobody else; absolutely nobody! Not a soul! Not until I decide when and how. I mean it! This is more important than you can comprehend!"
"Swear it to me, Zach!"
"OK, OK; I swear it; now spill the beans, Kayleigh; before I die of curiosity."
She breathed hard and looked down. "No, I can't tell you; you'd think I was nuts. I'll have to show you." She beckoned. "Follow me."
Kayleigh dressed and led Zach down to the garage. She insisted on driving herself. She did so quickly with both hands on the wheel. Her face was noncommittal, but every so often she'd grin to herself. They turned onto the Trans-Rockall Highway and headed north. Kayleigh used her access order again to penetrate the US Sector and they carried on towards Green Port.
The American base had been expanded into a futuristic-looking city since the Treaty, but Kayleigh didn't drive into it; she turned right at a McDonald's burger bar and headed towards Anderson Bay and the uninhabited highlands of the east. The road became a pair of wheel ruts branded into the moor like a scar. Much to Zach's distress, his Jaguar was soon spattered with mud. She parked and got out. "This way."
"But, Kayleigh; this is the eastern coast! There's nothing here!"
"Looks can be deceptive."
"As deceptive as a woman?"
She laughed. "Come on, let's go."
They hiked through the morning, setting a pace that soon made Zach out of breath. The eastern cliffs were more empty and desolate than anything he'd ever seen before on Rockall. It felt forbidden and intimidating. "Kayleigh!"
She stopped walking and looked at him. "What?"
"I'm getting a little weary of this! Are you going to tell me what's going on or are you content to just lead me like a donkey?"
"I'm content to just lead you like a donkey." She turned and carried on walking.
"I've a good mind to turn round and go home!" he called.
"That'd be a shame 'cos we're nearly there."
Zach hesitated then continued in her footsteps. "This had better be worth it, Kay!"
Half an hour later, Kayleigh stopped beside the edge of the precipice where a series of precarious-looking, grassy slopes led down to the shoreline. Without waiting for him, she jumped down onto the first slope and began crawling. Zach's head swam as he stood on the brink. "Wait a sec', Kay! I don't think I can do this!"
"It's perfectly safe, Zach!" she sang out and leaped down onto the next stage of the descent.
Zach screwed up his eyes and followed, gripping the grass as tightly as he could, moving one foot or hand at a time.
"Mind the last bit; some of it's a bit loose." Kayleigh was standing on the beach below, waiting for him.
Zach slid down the scree berm and picked himself up to stand beside her.
She laughed at him. "Your face looks like a beetroot! Come on; we've a little way to go yet."
The next part of the journey was even harder. Kayleigh and Zach followed the shoreline south along the foot of the cliff by clambering over green, slimy rocks and ledges, covered with limpets and seaweed. The surf thundered violently against the land just a few feet beneath them. The noise was deafening and the air misty with spray, making Zach's eyes sting. "Don't fall in here, whatever you do!" yelled Kayleigh.
"Thanks for reminding me! I was just about to!" His heart pounded against his ribs as he stared down at the churning, white spume of the sea.
"It gets easier here!" called Kayleigh an hour later. They mounted a narrow, but flat ledge; almost a pathway. It was smooth and dry and a rope had been attached to the cliff face at waist level, making a convenient handhold. Zach was so relieved that it was ten minutes until the obvious struck him like a thunderclap. Where does this rope come from and who put it here? It was an unusual rope too, made from plaited strips of leather. It was made fast to the escarpment by being lashed around recessed cleats that had been carved from the bare rock. "Kayleigh!" he shouted, but she was too far away to hear over the din of the surf. She was almost out of sight behind the obscuring curve of the cliff. A hundred yards further the ledge ended in a deep, narrow cove with overhanging cliffs and opened out onto a dry terrace of flat rock. To his astonishment there were people standing on it. Kayleigh was talking to a group of slender, long-haired figures, gesticulating broadly as if they were foreigners. As Zach got closer he noticed that the strangers were all wearing the most unusual clothes: tan leather trousers and jerkins. Despite the chilly conditions, they wore nothing on their feet but sandals or moccasins with no socks. One of them spotted Zach approaching and gaped at him in awe. He tapped the shoulder of one of his companions and the next moment they were all backing away from him. They huddled tightly against the cliff face, their arms up in a defensive posture. "What are you staring at me like that for!?" demanded Zach.
"It's alright." said Kayleigh to the strangers. "He's a friend." She turned to Zach and smiled. "Zach, this is Zhadek, Queylie, Peen, Yonax, Ibul, Tapuss and G'hog… And this is Zach…" She then spoke a few words of a foreign language that didn't sound like Gaelic.
"What was that?" muttered Zach.
"They're just a bit shy, that's all."
"They're not used to strangers. It took them a while to accept to me."
One of the women in the group began slowly edging towards Zach. One of the men protested and groped at her shoulder, but she shook his hand away. She closed the distance cautiously, her face wide and inquisitive.
Kayleigh encouraged her in that strange language.
The woman had long, wavy, golden hair and the blackest eyes Zach had ever seen. Her leathers were stitched neatly and evenly, but the thread used was very thick, almost like cord. Small seashells decorated her clothes in a complex pattern.
"This is Queylie. They've started calling me her sister 'cos her name sounds so much like mine." Kayleigh seemed exuberant and joyous.
Queylie reached out a callused hand and ran her fingers over Zach's red, Gore-tex jacket. She crouched down and examined his boots then straightened up and gently touched his cheek.
"Kay?" said Zach between stiff lips like a ventriloquist. "What's she doing?"
"You'll have to excuse her. She's never seen a shaven man before. All Erkdwala males grow beards." She pointed at one of the men. "That big feller's Zhadek. He's the first one I met. Gave you a bit of a shock, didn't I, Zhadek? I almost fell into your lap! Zhadek is married to Peen." She indicated another woman, taller and older than Queylie. Grey streaked her blonde hair and wrinkles lined her face. "She's a doctor."
Zach grinned wryly. "Of course she is."
"I was quite badly hurt when Zhadek brought me here; I'd fallen down the slope, you see. Anyway, Peen fixed me up. She put some sort of herb on my cuts and look! There's not a mark on me! Same with my sprained ankle. Peen wrapped it in a poultice and it was as right as rain in two days! No disrespect to Dr Forbes and Arlene, but if I'd gone to the hospital in the Port, I'd still be on crutches now…"
"Kayleigh." interrupted Zhadek and began jabbering away in the strange language.
She replied briefly and nodded. "Zach, we've got to go and meet Kerroj."
"He's their leader; a lovely old man. Come on."
The strangers directed them towards a deeper part of the bay where the rock cracked into the jagged, yawning mouths of caves. Zach's apprehension redoubled. "Kay! Where are they taking us!?"
"Into their home. It'll be OK; it's very pleasant in there actually."
A few yards inside, the cavern was blocked by a leather curtain. Zhadek held open an access flap to let them all pass inside. Zach's brain could scarcely take in what his senses bombarded it with. Beyond the curtain, the cavern widened into a huge chamber where a hundred or more people stood or sat, all dressed in a similar attire to Zhadek, Peen and Queylie. Naked children gambolled about and babies cried. The air was dense and warm; powerful scents flooded Zach's nostrils: wood smoke, charcoal, roasting meat, heather, grass and flowers. All the heat and light came from three open fires in the centre of the room. The occupants stared at him and gasped, fingers pointed and excited chatter orbited the cave.
Only one of them remained composed; a lean, elderly man who stood directly opposite the cave entrance. Even without his brushwood crown and elaborately-designed cloak of gull-feathers it was instantly apparent that he was in charge of this gang of odd-balls. He was by far the oldest person present and his dark eyes were hard and intelligent. He looked at Zach differently to the others; his gaze communicated regal wisdom, pride and understanding. His white hair and beard fell almost to his waist. Zach imagined that with a pointed hat he'd have made a great wizard. He spoke a few words in that bizarre language of theirs and held out his hand to Zach, making a strange gesture in the air that felt like a greeting. "Zach, this is Kerroj; he's the Erkdwala chief. These people respect him deeply. Zhadek is his son."
"I see; so what happens now?"
"I'm not sure. I think they're inviting us to share their dinner, but we're the first guests they've ever had and I didn't catch what they just said."
One of the women pointed to a pair of round, flat rocks topped with heather sprigs. "Thank you, Shalah." said Kayleigh. "Sit down, Zach."
The heather tickled the base of his back where his skin was exposed, but he soon made himself comfortable. Kerroj pointed at the fire and some of the men, using knives made of sharpened bone, began slicing steaks off some joints of meat that were roasting there. The smell was delicious and the note of the conversation rose. People smiled and licked their lips. Zach was feeling hungry after his long walk and climb, but as soon as he saw the manner in which they were about to eat, his appetite left him. The steaks were served on flat animal bones, probably shoulder blades, which acted as plates. There was no cutlery and the platters were passed around by dirty hands.
Kayleigh didn't appear to mind and began tucking in as soon as she was served, grinning as she chewed. Queylie handed Zach his meal and he looked down at it in disgust. The steak was rare and raggedly cut; a pile of redcurrants and some wild radishes, uncooked and covered in soil, completed the "dish." Queylie looked nonplussed at Zach's expression, inquiring in her incomprehensible tongue.
"I'm not very hungry." he told her.
She pointed into her open mouth and nodded.
"Yes, I'm aware that it's food; I just don't feel like eating it… And could you speak in English when you address me, please!?"
She sensed the irritation in his tone and backed away.
"Zach." said Kayleigh reproachfully. "Don't be so tetchy. Eat it; it's very nice… And she doesn't speak English. None of them do."
"What? Come on; of course they do." He picked up the steak and took a bite. "Must be full of germs; being cooked in the open. What meat is this?"
"What's that?"
"Roast Rockall Pony."
He gasped, barely resisting the urge to spit out his mouthful. "What did you say!?"
"It's a pony. Don't worry; it's fresh. The hunters caught it last night. These are the people who've been carrying out the mysterious pony-killings. They have to; it's part of their way of life."
Zach leapt to his feet. "What the hell's going on here!? Who do you think you people are!? You can't go hunting Rockall Ponies! They're a protected species!"
The strangers stared at him in silence. Kerroj smiled; partly embarrassed, partly amused.
"Sit down and shut up, Zach!" spat Kayleigh. "You're making a prat out of yourself!"
"I just think that if your Mr Kellogg's is going to bring his disciples here then he needs to be informed of the law of this island!"
Kayleigh hid her face in her hands and sighed.
After everyone had finished eating, water was passed round in a bladder then one of the women stood up and started talking intensely, mining as she spoke. Everyone else watched her. "Ooh's" and "Ah's" or riotous laughter broke out every now and again from the audience.
"They do this every mealtime." said Kayleigh. "I think she's telling a story. It's the only form of entertainment they have." She looked wistfully at the orator. "I wish I could understand it."
"I thought you'd learned to speak their language." said Zach.
"I've only picked up a few phrases; look." She took a notebook out of her jacket pocket and handed it to him. Zach flicked through it. She'd filled a few pages with vocabulary:
Gwecka = Pony
Assi = Sea
Ard = Man
Bley = Woman
Libbi = Baby
Pumpoo = Sky
Alcock = Boat
Shiosh = Fish
Hellia = Redcurrant
Keekma = Blackberry
Peynaploo = Pony leather
Chayn = Cave
Arkdwa = Rockall, or something bigger?
"I try to talk to them and sometimes they understand me." said Kayleigh.
"Isn't it a Gaelic dialect or something?"
"No; nothing like it."
"Why don't you speak to them in English?"
"I've told you; they can't speak English."
"But that's ridiculous!"
The man sitting on his left muttered something to him.
"I think he wants you to keep your voice down." said Kayleigh.
When the story-teller had finished, she sat down and everyone in the cavern began swaying and chanting. It was a sound beyond description; totally unlike anything Zach had heard in his life. "what's this?" he asked.
Kayleigh was enraptured. "I think it's some kind of prayer. They do this every evening. Isn't it beautiful!?"
"Sounds weird to me."
"You'll get used to it."
Zach paused. "Kayleigh, who are these guys?"
"They call themselves Erkdwala."
"What's that in English?"
"It isn't."
The gathering broke up and their hosts slowly filed out of the cave, chatting quietly. None of them paid Kayleigh or Zach any further attention.
"Where do they come from, Kayleigh?"
"Here. They're native Rockallians."
"I don't understand."
She turned to face him. "Don't you? Zach, Jesse Curtis wasn't the First Man on Rockall and neither were the Americans. The Erkdwala were; they live here!"
"Kayleigh, that's absurd! Rockall has always been uninhabited! These folks are hippies on some sort of retreat…"
"How do you know Rockall has always been uninhabited?" she challenged.
"Well… it just was! Everyone knows that! Before the Yanks arrived there was nothing here but rocks and grass…"
"How does everyone know if no one's ever been here before?"
"Because… we just do! Everyone does! Rockall was completely unexplored before May Twenty-oh-nine. That's an established fact!"
She groaned. "Zach, when you and Trevor and the Yanks set foot here, you were stepping onto a shore which already has a native population."
"Impossible! How could anyone live here without us knowing?"
"Because no one else has ever been here! What did you expect them to do; send you a fax? The Erkdwala have lived her for a long time, cut off from the rest of the world; maybe thousands of years. They look quite Stone Age to me."
"So why didn't they come down onto the beach at First Landing and say hello when we arrived."
"I expect they were shit-scared. They don't seem to have any knowledge of the outside world, so it must have been a bit of a shock. And surely you must realize that we look a bit weird to them. Our languages, our customs, our clothes, our technology… Yesterday a helicopter flew overhead and they bolted for cover screaming."
"So they know we're here?"
She chuckled bitterly. "They could hardly miss us, could they? They've kept themselves out of our way; that's why we've never discovered them until now… Except they had to carry on hunting to survive, hence the pony-slaughtering and rumours of the 'Rockall demons'. Remember your confusion over that campfire you and Trevor found on the second day? An Erkdwala hunting team lit it."
"Well, they appear to be friendly enough."
"They are now, but it took a few days for them to accept me. The notion of an 'outsider' or 'visitor' is unthinkable to them."
Like Kayleigh, Zach was soon absorbed into the Erkdwala tribe. He was given accommodation in a smaller, residential cave that led off from the big, communal one where they'd eaten. They retired early and by eight PM everyone was asleep. Zach lay in a claustrophobic alcove with a family of five who were snoring on a dried heather mattress. They made him a space on the floor on which to spread his parka. The fires were kept burning all night and the cave was warm. He lay awake, staring at the gleam of firelight on the rock ceiling, his mind trying hard to assimilate everything that had happened that day.
At eleven PM, the family's youngest child, a baby of about nine months, started to cry. The mother awoke and comforted the squawking infant, breathing lullabies and sweet nothings until the youngster dropped back off to sleep. For half an hour the mother chatted quietly with her husband; then they kissed a few times and, to Zach's extreme abashment, began to make love; right next to their three children, less than six feet from where he lay. They panted and groaned, quite oblivious to his presence; the stench of their bodies filled the air. Zach pulled his parka hood over his face and put his fingers in his ears.
He was woken by another Erkdwala woman. He rolled over, coughing in the foul air of the cave. "What do you want?" he asked.
She didn't reply and handed him a bone platter.
"Oh, thanks." Breakfast was a raw cod fillet with limpets and various other shellfish, garnished with redcurrants and seaweed. The whole tribe was awake and wandering out of the cave. Zach followed them, longing to breath the outside air. The orange arc of the sun was peeking above the horizon and the skin of the Erkdwala glowed in its rays. They were lying about on the rocks like seals, munching their food. Zach took a sniff at his and his stomach contorted with hunger. He forgot his worries about hygiene and ate.
After breakfast, the whole tribe stood and faced the sun, closing their eyes, stretching out their hands and chanting another prayer. "Good God!" muttered Zach. "I've got to get out of here." He found his mobile 'phone at the bottom of his jacket pocket and called Trevor's number. The signal was poor and he had to try a couple of times before he heard it ring.
Someone snatched the instrument out of his hand. He turned to see Kayleigh standing beside him. She jabbed the cancel button. "Don't even think about it!" she hissed; her face was a tight ball of fury.
"You promised!" she shouted. "You swore!"
The mobile rang and its Land of Hope and Glory ringtone penetrated the rumble of the surf, making the Erkdwala stare. "It's Trevor." said Zach. "He must have picked up my missed call."
Kayleigh flung the device as hard as she could; it struck the face of a green roller with a plop.
"That cost me a hundred and fifty quid!" shrilled Zach.
"I should never have brought you here! I should have known better than to trust you!"
"You should have known better!?" He stood up and faced her. "I should have known better than to let you drag me out to this shit-hole! I mean… what the fuck am I doing here!? I've had people trying to poison me! I'm black and friggin' blue from lying on bare stone! I've had to watch Fred and Wilma Flintstone bonking away right under my nose! I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm dirty… and I'm scared; OK!?"
Kayleigh relented. "Alright, Zach; I'm sorry, OK? You just mustn't tell Trevor about this place! Please! Not yet!"
"Well, I can't now, can I!? You've chucked my mobile in the sea!"
She held up her hands. "OK, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I'll buy you a new one." She took his hand. "Come on; let's go and watch the fishermen."
The Erkdwala had a dozen fishing boats, each about ten feet long. They were pony leather coracles with outriggers. The crews carried them from the cave down over the seaweed-covered boulders into the sea. They rode the breakers with the acumen of surfers, fearlessly attacking every crest, paddles digging deep. Within a few minutes, they were out of sight among the waves. "Maybe I've misjudged these folk." said Zach. "In many ways they're quite clever. I mean, they have no shops or supermarkets; they just pluck everything they need off the land or sea."
"But our stuff comes from the same place as theirs." said Kayleigh. "Tesco's strawberries don't grow in those plastic cartons, you know. The difference is that we've become divorced from the real source of our food. The Erkdwala live right inside it… Isn't it amazing how they're lifestyle is linked to their surroundings. There are no trees on Rockall, so the things we'd make out of wood they make out of pony-bones."
"I still can't get my head round it." said Zach. "People; native people, living here! Incredible!... It must be Rollosson."
"Yeah, he must have landed here and left more than the ponies; he established this colony."
She shook her head. "Nah, these folk don't look like Vikings. I think they go back much further."
"Kayleigh! Kayleigh!" A woman was running towards them. She let fly with a stream of rapid Erkdwala. Zach picked up the word "Libbi," which, he remembered from Kayleigh's vocabulary, meant "Baby."
"My God!" Kayleigh gasped. "Keesa's gone into labour!... Come on!" She jogged after the woman.
"Kayleigh! Where are you going!?"
"Keesa's baby's about to be born! I want to see it!"
"Are you crazy!?"
There was a lot of commotion in the central cave. The Erkdwala were packed in shoulder-to-shoulder. A young, naked woman was crouching near the hearth. She was puffing hard and her skin glistened with sweat. Her swollen belly bulged over the tops of her thighs. Peen was kneeling opposite, palpating Keesa's womb with an air of expertise. Her immediate family stood nearby with concerned looks while a young man, presumably her husband, crouched beside her holding her hand.
"I hope it's not twins." said Kayleigh as she and Zach edged closer for a better view.
"Don't you think we should get her to the hospital?" whispered Zach.
She looked back at him with a scornful frown. "Don't be a tosser your entire life, Zach! Take an hour off!"
"But she needs proper medical care!"
"She's got it: Peen!... Zach, we have to let these people live in their own culture ."
Keesa's body tensed and she screamed.
Zach felt a prick of nausea. He backed off and slipped outside. He walked out along the ledge until the noise of the ocean drowned out Keesa's agony. He stared up at the solid, impassive cliffs, feeling very exposed and vulnerable. The sky had clouded over and the wind was up, breaking the wave crests into feathers of vapour. "Zach!"
He looked back to see Kayleigh waving to him from the terrace.
"Zach! She's had it! It's a boy!"
The Erkdwala were emotionally saturated by the delivery of Keesa's son. The cavern reverberated to their sobs of joy. The little boy was passed from person to person, almost in the form of a ritual. They looked at him in adoration, tears of rapture staining their cheeks, even those of old Chief Kerroj. Eventually the screaming baby was wrapped in a leather swaddle and returned to the arms of his proud parents. his face was beetroot-red, his eyes clenched and his toothless mouth gaped wide as he vented his fury at being evicted from Keesa's warm, safe womb.
Zach watched for a few minutes then noticed that Kayleigh had gone. He looked back at the cave entrance in time to see her pass through the curtain. He followed.
She stood at the edge of the terrace, her arms wrapped round her body, gazing out to sea. He approached her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you OK?"
She nodded mournfully.
"It's great when a baby's born, isn't it? I've often wondered what it'd be like to have a kid."
"Yeah." she sighed. "It's always been the same for them, you know. Everyone's been born and raised in that cave the same way; even Old Kerroj's great-granddad's great-granddad. I bet it hasn't changed for thousands of years."
"I suppose not. Why does that make you sad?"
She swung round and looked at him. "I'm just wondering what things will be like for Keesa's baby when he's old enough to become a father himself."
"What do you mean?"
"Their world is about to meet ours, Zach. We can't stop it. The next generation of Erkdwala will have to contend with that; and I'm afraid for them."
The new addition to the tribe was named Karsk. The two proud parents, Keesa and Grayvin, were still sitting on the spot where he'd been born. His mother rested on a heather couch, tucking into her own roasted placenta while Karsk guzzled from her breast. Kayleigh went over to talk to Chief Kerroj then returned to where Zach was waiting, the firelight reflecting in her eyes. "Let's go home." she said; there was a mournful tone to her voice.
They made their way back along the roped ledge that they'd traversed the previous afternoon; it seemed like weeks ago to Zach. Kayleigh led the way, never speaking to him or even looking at him, alone with her thoughts. The sun was getting low by the time they arrived at the beach and crawled up the slopes to the plateau; and it was dark when they reached Zach's car. They collapsed into the seats, exhausted. "So, what happens now?" asked Zach as he started the engine and put the Jaguar into gear.
"What do you mean nothing? We have to tell people about this."
"No we don't; and we're not going to."
"But the world has a right to know!"
"The world has no such right! Our modern society is built upon the broken lives of people like the Erkdwala! Dill told me!"
"That was centuries ago! And Dill's a crank! Kayleigh, we can't keep this a secret! You said it yourself; their world will eventually meet ours."
"We can keep it a secret and we will! You will because you swore an oath to me that you would!" She rubbed her eyes and took on a calmer tone. "We will let the world know, eventually; but you've got to leave that to me. I'm going to let Dill in on it. I've got a feeling he suspects anyway; he knows the in-country better than anyone. We'll contact someone who can help; maybe the United Nations."
"Kayleigh, those people live in a filthy hole in the ground, even little kids! Nobody should have to endure that in this day and age! Why don't we just go back there now and lead them all to the Port, to civilization?"
She shook her head. "You don't get it, do you?... To them we're like aliens who've just landed from another planet. Until a couple of years ago they didn't even know we existed. For them there is no outside world! This island and the sea as far as the horizon is all they know! They call it 'Arkdwa', but that word translates as 'Rockall', 'World' or 'Universe'."
"That's all the more reason to widen their view of life; show them the rest of the world."
"Show them what? A skyscraper hundreds of feet tall? An aeroplane? A computer? An ocean liner big enough to carry the entire Erkdwala population ten times over? Cities of a million people? Continents of a billion?... The technology, scale and diversity of the planet Earth would overwhelm them! The culture-shock would mentally destroy them!... Zach, these people must be protected!"
There was a long silence as they drove south and eventually the lights of Rockall Port appeared in the windscreen. "So." said Zach when they arrived back at first Landing. "Do you want to come in for a coffee?"
"Not tonight." she said. "I've got to go and see Dill. We've got work to do."
He hesitated. "Kayleigh, I still think we ought to tell Trevor."
"NO!" she almost screamed at him. "Don't you dare!"
"If you breathe a word to Trevor, I'll kill you! I mean it!" Her eyes flashed and her teeth clenched like a vice. She got out of the car, slammed the door and stomped off towards her Bower-cast.
He wiped his brow. "Whew! You're life hung by a thread there, Zach old chum."
Zach couldn't sleep that night. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. He pictured the Erkdwala crawling around their bare rock cave in the dirt, eating slurry from bone dishes and going to the toilet in the sea. Then he thought about the ordinary British and American islanders going about their daily business just a few miles away. Two totally different worlds, living on top of each other, the latter completely unaware of the former's presence. "Good God! I'm sitting on dynamite here!" he muttered. "When this story breaks…" He could see it as clearly as if it had already happened: Fame, fortune, Rockall again the centre of world attention, this time for a different reason. Anthropologists,politicians, reporters from New Scientist descending on the island in droves. Unconsciously, he rolled over and reached for his bedside 'phone to call Trevor.
No! It was no good; he'd promised Kayleigh that he wouldn't talk about it. Damn! What did he have to do that for? Kayleigh! You stupid girl! Can't you see what we've got here!? Don't you see how much prestige we could gain from the Erkdwala? No! You're all drugged up on some idealistic crusade!
He turned his head and looked at the telephone. Why shouldn't I? My oath to Kayleigh is not valid if she's so obviously misguided. I'm merely correcting her in her foolishness. In fact I'm doing her a favour. He picked up the receiver then put it straight down again. What about the Erkdwala themselves? Kayleigh said they'd never survive contact with the rest of the world… But how does she know? She's no expert. She's only a bleeding secretary!
His hand hung above the 'phone quivering as his conscience and willpower battled away; but his willpower had a secret weapon: And of course, as well as the money and fame that would flood onto Rockall, I'd be sure to get reinstated as Deputy-Governor. The battle was won; he picked up the 'phone and dialled.
Trevor sat down hard in his armchair and gazed vacantly at the table. Zach walked over to the drinks cabinet in the Governor's private apartment and poured them both a large Scotch. In the courtyard below, the Rockall Guard night-watch stood at attention. He placed the whiskey tumblers on the table. "I've a feeling you could do with this."
Trevor reached out a hand, clenched like a hawk's talon and picked up the glass. He sipped deeply. "You promise this isn't a ruse?"
"Go and look for yourself if you don't believe me."
He paused. "Is that why you called yesterday morning?"
"Yeah, but when you tried to ring back Kayleigh threw my 'phone in the sea."
He chuckled. "I take it she doesn't approve of you bringing this information to me."
"She doesn't know." He took a gulp of the spirit, letting it flood over his tongue.
"Right, so how many of them are there?"
"Around three hundred."
"Three hundred!? Why has no one spotted them before?"
"The colony is well-concealed and they've been keeping out of our way since we landed here. Kayleigh only bumped into them by accident."
"Are they armed?"
"Only with the bone and flint spears they use for taking out ponies. They're unbelievably primitive! How these folk have survived for so long without modern technology is beyond me!"
"Well, they won't have to for much longer." Trevor emptied his glass and got up to pour another. "What do you suggest we do?"
"Get the press onto it of course; and then go out and rescue these poor people. They're going to need extensive rehabilitation. They'll have to be taught to speak English to begin with."
"My goodness! Real Stone Age savages, alive in today's world!... Only Kayleigh and Dill know, you say? Fine; keep it that way… You'll have to come along and show us where this place is."
"Whoa! Not so fast!"
"What's in it for me?"
"How do you mean?"
"If I'm going to lead you to the Erkdwala, it'll cost you."
Trevor frowned. "Don't bother trying to do deals with me! I don't need your help, you know! Now you've told me there's something there, it won't take me long to find it."
"You'll need a few days to search the entire eastern coast. In that time, Kayleigh and Dill will have assembled a legion of bleeding-heart civil-liberties solicitors to defend the Erkdwala's right to live like pigs… But if you count me in, I can take you to the cave right now."
Trevor sighed and folded his arms. "What do you want?"
Zach took his P-Forty-five out of his pocket and tossed it onto the Governor's table.
Trevor picked it up and looked at it for a moment. "Welcome back, Deputy-Governor Neelum."
Zach grinned. "It's a pleasure to be working with you again, Trev'."
(Previous Chapter:
Chapter 4- Rendezvous http://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.com/2009/03/rockall-chapter-4.html
Next Chapter:
Chapter 6- The Spanner vs The Works http://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.com/2009/05/rockall-chapter-6-spanner-vs-works.html)


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


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Title: Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis like to have a bit of a bitch.
Author: MIRANDA SAWYER
Publication: The Observer (London) 17 September 1995; p. 10
It used just to be about each other. They still like to do that, but they have bigger targets, like their record company and Blur. On the eve of the release of their much-anticipated second album, the band talk to Life about drugs, success and Jaffa Cakes.
'Arrogant. Big-mouthed. Self-centred. Rude. Crude. Sexist. And sickeningly talented.' Speak of the devil. Noel Gallagher, soft-spoken, hard-headed uberfuhrer of Britain's foremost rock 'n' roll band, Oasis, is slyly itemising what some see as his group's better points when his little brother Liam comes bowling into the bar, all mouth and trousers and slump-shouldered swagger. Everyone looks up. Liam, like all great lead singers, has a discernible notice-me aura `` a baleful, chaotic, surly hurly-burliness that makes you stare at him; but not straight in the eye. He is very beautiful, despite his Play-Doh hairdo (short, but long before the ears). He shoots Noel an unreadable look and sits down at a separate table.
It's three o'clock in the morning. Four hours ago, in a tent on a wind-battered beach in Irvine, Strathclyde, Oasis were drawing a 6,000-strong gig to a triumphant close. Now, the bar of their hotel a few miles away is doing brisk, convivial business. As well as the band entourage Noel and his contingent living large around one small table there's a well-laced stag party whose groom-to-be has just finished eating a cigarette. 'For 1967,' he explains.
Noel is holding court. There are six music journalists here representatives from Smash Hits, NME and Melody Maker and there's nothing Mr Gallagher likes more than muso-chat. A genial, talkative 28-year-old, with terrible teeth, terrifying eyebrows and eyes that squidge into curved slits when he smiles, he is getting cheerfully worked up over Mojo magazine's '100 Greatest Albums Ever Made'.
'The Beach Boys at Number One? Th fucking Beach Boys! Fucking hippy California surf beach bollocks,' reasons Noel, a man whose musical allegiances become clearer when he tells you that he can't end a day without uttering the words 'The' and 'Beatles'.
A joshing, train-spottery discussion follows until suddenly, at the other end of the room, Liam lurches savagely to his feet. He growls something incomprehensible, hurls a half-full beer bottle at the ceiling, and stalks out. As an exit, it makes Cantona's Crystal Palace two-footer eem underplayed. He silences the room. But Noel doesn't even turn his head, doesn't skip a beat. 'And Stevie Wonder's only at Number 20,' he continues, as his fellow revellers goggle and gawp at the still-swinging foyer door.
When Oasis smashed their way into the nation's pop consciousness in April of last year with their cocksure debut single, Supersonic, much was made of Liam and Noel's brotherly unlove. The media portrayed them as constantly a-bicker; interviews would regularly end with the pair in hand-to-hand combat. Their differences? Noel thought Liam had some growing up to do; Liam viewed Noel as an overbearing know-all. The brothers' splutter and spleen kept the rest of the band '` rhythm guitarist Paul `Bonehead' Arthurs; bassist Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan; with Tony McCarroll on drums, now replaced by Alan White `` well back in the shadows, where they have stolidly remained.
After a platinum LP, Definitely Maybe, which sold three million worldwide, and seven Top 40 hits (including five Top 10s and one Number One, Some Might Say), the duo are keeping their fights private. The stereophonic media view of Oasis has gradually faded into one man yapping: Liam has been sidelined. Though the tabloids scream about who he supposedly spends his leisure hours with (Paula Yates; Helena Christensen), Liam doesn't get to talk about work these days. That's left to Noel. And the on-record squabblings are no longer in-house; instead, Oasis gripe about Blur.
Oasis versus Blur. Blur versus Oasis. You would have to have been living with your head in a bucket of custard for six months to have avoided such a Great Pop Tiff. Who do you support? Oasis: northern, no-nonsense rock blusterers with instant tunes and rent-a-lad demeanour? Or Blur: pouting southern art-ponces of crafted, crafty pop? The crucial colours-mast-nail interface occurred in the week beginning 7 August, with the simultaneous release of the singles Roll With It (Oasis) and Country House (Blur). After a week of breathless pan-media speculation, the 13 August chart revealed a fop-pop victory: Blur at Number One, Oasis Number Two. Country House sold 280,000 in its first week, rising to 400,000 in the second; Roll With It shifted 250,000 in its first week and about 350,000 overall.
Privately, Blur's people admit it was they who altered the release date of Country House to coincide with the Oasis single, though publicly they intimated exactly the opposite. But there was no way that the two bands' LPs would come out at the same time '` far too much money at stake. So Blur's fourth album, The Great Escape, is already in the shops and universally lauded. Will the Oasis offering (What's The Story) Morning Glory do as well when it arrives in just over a week's time? Definitely Maybe earned them a Brit (for Best Newcomers) and a Mercury Prize nomination.
Noel calls Morning Glory 'Definitely Maybe's big brother' '` as he would. If you press him further, he reveals that it sounds like `half of it is sat in a hammock smoking a massive spliff and the other half is walking round the streets of England with a petrol bomb in its hand'.
More precisely, it's another supremely assured, rapid-fire, tune-packed rock album for boys, recorded in 15 days (Roll With It was laid down in one take). So far, Oasis songs are of two types: the elbows-out, balls-out R&B anthem of Friday-night urban masculinity (Rock N Roll Star, Cigarettes And Alcohol; Hello and Roll With It on the new album), and the slower, sleepily wistful, not-quite-love-song (Slide Away and now Don't Look Back In Anger). This time around, though, Noel's Beatles obsession has made things a touch more psychedelic: strings and swirls, songs occasionally extending into twiddly fuzz-guitar workouts.
Once again, his big tunes nestle immediately in the sing-along section of your memory; and his words are as vague, as hit and miss, as ever ('roll with it', 'feel no shame'; erm, 'caught beneath the landslide in a champagne supernova in the sky'). Oasis lyrics revolve around an unspecified 'me' and 'you', though 'you' occasionally has a girl's name. They're slack, occasionally ridiculous, often rabble-rousing, and sometimes '` as in Don't Look Back In Anger `` they can be gorgeous.
This last is the stand-out track on the LP, not least because of the vocals. It's Noel, not Liam, who's flexing his tonsils. The songwriter likes to warble a bit at gigs during his acoustic set, but Don't Look Back comes with full band backing, and when Oasis play it live Liam walks off stage.
'Yeah, well, that's his fault,' claims Noel, post performance, pre hotel, in a chilly little Portakabin set up outside the gig marquee. Noel pulls on a Benson and Hedges, hacks like Steptoe the Elder, and continues.
'I'd written these two songs for the LP, right?' he drawls in his Mancunian whine. 'One was Don't Look Back In Anger, and one was called Wonderwall. I wanted to sing Wonderwall because the guitars are acoustic, but our kid insisted that he wanted to sing it. So I said, all right, but I'm gonna do Don't Look Back In Anger then, and I have to play that with the band, and it's going to be a single at Christmas, and you won't be singing on it… I think,' grins Noel, a little nastily, 'he thought I was bluffing.' Poor muddle-headed Liam. At a time when attention is being focused more and more on Noel, not only is the baby of the family missing out on interviews, he's also talked himself out of vocal glory. Don't you feel sorry for him? 'No, I do not,' sniffs his elder brother. 'He made his choice, simple as that. I'm 28, he's 23. I don't want to argue with him no more. I don't feel sorry for anyone. No. Why should I? It's not as though he's got a bad life, is it?' Liam's life would surely have been very different if it hadn't begun five years after Noel's, in a small house in Burnage, south Manchester. The two shared a room: the root of all their problems, according to Noel. He can get on perfectly well with his older brother Paul (an unemployed labourer, easily recognisable at Oasis gigs from his Gallagher hedgerow eyebrows and his habit of wearing a Manchester City FC top with the club sponsor, 'Brother', emblazoned across it), but, he says, he will never forgive Liam for invading his space ie, for being born and also ''cos he wasn't a bird. At least then I could have gone out with his mates'.
By the time Noel and Liam were in their teens, their room was jammed with musical equipment: stereo, guitars, amps, microphones, bits of four-track recording machines '` all Noel's. The posters of the Jam, the Smiths, the Beatles, the Who were his too. What did Liam have? Noel looks at me blankly.
'Nothing,' he says, eventually. 'Himself. And that was enough. Oh, and a Bananarama poster.' Mrs Margaret 'Peggy' Gallagher, now a 'hardcore gardener' according to her middle son, then worked in the local McVitie's factory, pulling all the defective biscuits off the conveyor belt. 'That's what you used to get fed,' remembers Noel, unfondly. 'Come home from school and you'd have two ham sandwiches, a tiny little bottle of milk and about 60 Penguins and 70 Jaffa Cakes. Made you dead popular at school, though: 'Here comes Gallagher The Biscuit.'' Mr Gallagher ('What's his name? Twat. No, Thomas') was, and still is, a Country & Western DJ who plays local Irish social clubs and weddings. Liam, reckons Noel, has his dad's temperament: 'a short fuse, a bad temper'. Noel resembles open, happy-go-lucky Peggy '` though he doesn't sound too easygoing when he tells you that he hasn't seen his dad for 10 years, 'and it's not a big deal, but I don't want to, either'.
Still, it was his dad's guitar that Noel Thomas David Gallagher first plucked at the age of eight. A tiddler as a child (both he and Liam are slight now, a pocket-sized 5ft 7in), little Noel couldn't see over the top of the instrument, so he played it flat, on his knee, like a slide guitar. Left-handed, he taught himself to strum right-handedly. Then 'someone showed me The House Of The Rising Sun and I never looked back.' He wrote his first song at 13. It was called Badge and it was about people wearing badges. 'The best line,' recalls the man now heralded as a living, in-one Lennon-and-McCartney, 'was: `And on your badge it says, Wear A Badge.' Heheh.' Soon after, two other incidents occurred which were to radically alter the course of his young life. He went to see his first gig '` the Damned at Manchester Apollo: `it blew me head off' `` and he lost his virginity. The latter sounds like quite an event.
'We were at the girl's house '` she was bunking off school. And as we were upstairs, having it, we heard this almighty commotion and there's this knocking on the front door,' Noel recalls. 'So we thought, sod that, and carried on. When we finished, we looked out of the window and there was an ambulance. It turns out the dustman had had a heart attack and dropped down dead on the front doorstep! He'd been knocking to try and get us to call a doctor…' In eerie synchronicity, there's a banging at the Portakabin door. It's Robbo, the tour manager, wanting Noel to sign autographs for the marrow-chilled fans waiting outside. Noel's good about things like that, possibly because Oasis is his first band. He writes his name quickly and easily on the proffered photographs.
Noel and Liam attract different types of appreciators. 'He gets all these sex-starved young girls with big breasts, right. I get the psychopaths.' One thinks she has written every Oasis song before Noel did, in her dreams. And after Supersonic, which includes the memorable couplet 'I know a girl named Elsa/She's into Alka Seltzer', it seems to Noel as though every Elsa in the land has claimed the right to his innermosts. 'I'd just like to clear that one up. Elsa was a dog, right. A rottweiler.' Noel finds lyric-writing tricky at best. Usually he just sings nonsense until he arrives at the first line and takes it from there. He steals phrases from all over. For instance, 'Stand up by the fireplace/Take that look from off your face', from Don't Look Back, is what his mum used to say to him as a kid, when she lined up the three boys for their annual Christmas photo to send to their granny in Ireland.
She must be very proud of you and Liam.
'She is. She's funny, though. When she sees you on the telly all she's arsed about is, do you think you could bloody smile? And, do you have to always go on about drugs?' It could be argued that it was drugs that brought the band together ('Mind you, if we hadn't been tripping all the time maybe we'd have had that music conversation 10 years earlier,' comments Noel, dryly). He, Bonehead, Guigsy and Tony all met in the local park at Urwood Road, where a gang of about 40 kids would play football and gobble down the abundant magic mushrooms. Parklife indeed.
They would come back after a night's clubbing, nick a fleet of milk-floats from the local dairy and take them for a drive across the golf course: 'We were out of it. We'd think we were Robin Hood. You know, 'Forsooth, you brigand, I shall take your truncheon for the people of Nottingham…' OK Sarge, I think we've got a live one here.' It wasn't long before Noel was on first-name terms with the local constabulary. He advanced from shoplifting to swiping car stereos to burglary. So he turned his light fingers to more legitimate ways of making a living: bakery, sign-painting, fish-tank-making. Then, at 20, he wangled his way into a roadying job for bowlheaded Mancunian then-contenders the Inspiral Carpets. Noel was a guitar technician for five years, touring the world, showing it the crack of his bottom, learning about the business.
What did you learn? 'I learnt that you don't make money unless you're as big as U2. I learnt that you'll get ripped off unless you're very careful. And I learnt that all record company people are twats, bar none.' In 1992, he returned to find his kid brother Liam had set up Oasis. Noel said he'd join, but only if they all did exactly as he said, ''cos if you do, we'll be on Top Of The Pops in a matter of months. And we were… 'All I ever wanted to do was make a record. Here's what you do: you pick up your guitar, you rip a few people's tunes off, you swap them round a bit, get your brother in the band, punch his head in every now and again and it sells. I'm a lucky bastard. I'm probably the single most lucky man in the world '` apart from our Liam.' The band hierarchy remains unaltered from its original despottery. When Creation Records supremo Alan McGhee offered Oasis a deal on the strength of one performance (in Glasgow's King Tut's on Noel's 26th birthday, 29 May 1993: the band had bullied, blagged and bundled their way on to the bill), it was Noel who got them a manager.
Noel writes all the songs, Noel owns all the equipment, Noel makes all the decisions as to how the record sounds, what the artwork looks like, who does what, when, how and in which pair of trousers. Though Noel says that if anyone left, Oasis would no longer exist, this is not Liam's band, nor is it any of the others'. Nothing gets done here without Noel's say-so.
Doesn't that irritate the other members? 'They throw their toys out their prams sometimes, yeah.' And wouldn't you? It must be unbelievably frustrating, especially when your boss is such a hard task master. Especially when he's just your mate '` or even worse, your elder brother. Especially when he's always right.
'The thing is, it's been two years now, and I'm still on a roll. And you have to keep busy when it's like that, because one day you're not going to be able to write anything,' Noel points out. 'But while it's happening, then these records are coming out whether anybody likes it or not.' In those two years, Noel has met and made friends with the posters on his wall '` Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, even Paul McCartney. He's not met and made enemies with the New Seekers (they sued him for nicking 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' in Shakermaker) and Neil Innes from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (over Whatever). He's split up with his long-term girlfriend Louise Jones, moving to London with just his guitar: 'People say I'll never find a girl like that again, but I'd rather be lonely and live like this.' Also in those two years, Oasis have toured Britain four times, plus Japan, the United States, Canada and Europe, been deported from Sweden and Holland and banned from two hotel chains '` giving hope, in the process, to a generation of unreconstructed, unironic lads who'd always had a suspicion that they were just the butt of Blur's joke. Two years ago, Noel Gallagher only wanted to release a record. Now he'd like to play Maine Road, and he's the star attraction on the Warchild charity record Help, released earlier this month to raise funds for Bosnian children.
The only bleak moments in their careers have been their failure to win the Mercury Music Prize this week and not beating Blur to the chart top slot. 'Look, they knew that if they put their single out the same day as us they'd go in at Number One. We're only concerned about being the best in our own eyes and we are and we always will be.' And can you remain friendly with them? 'The guitarist I've got a lot of time for. The drummer I've never met '` I hear he's a nice guy. The bass player and the singer '` I hope the pair of them catch Aids and die beacuse I fucking hate them two.' Oasis are at a strange and crucial point in their career. Morning Glory will establish their superstardom in this country and could well break the unbreakable America. But will the group shatter first? Noel's ruthless work ethic and unrelenting restlessness '` `I'm bored all the time. And boredom's my greatest fear' '` plus the band's runaway success and capacious capacity for recreational delights '` `I'm on a line of coke every 40 minutes,' confesses their leader easily '` must eventually take their toll. As Oasis become more and more famous, more and more people want a piece of them. As a band they are slightly less reliable than previously (most of their UK tour has been cancelled because Guigsy is suffering from nervous exhaustion); slightly more paranoid. Noel has already started to make rumblings about their record company: `A bunch of indie kids, man. They're too narrow-minded… they are not in the big league,' he huffs. 'It's not their job to be chaotic, that's my job.' Still, Gallagher is clearly happier than he's ever been: 'To be acknowledged as a songwriter has definitely made me more content,' he beams. 'I know I will leave my mark. Even if I never write another song I've written enough now.' And he remains ludicrously jovial about his future prospects: 'I've been a punter, a roadie, a pop star. Next? Junkie and ex-pop star, I'd say.' Even then it should be all right for Noel. He's even got a ready-made fairy mod-godfather in Paul Weller, with whom he duetted for the Help LP.
'He told me: `When you get to the point where you have lost it and you think you are never going to get it back, then I will be there for you. Because I've been there and I know what it's like and I came out of it and I'll make sure you do too.' I was really touched. 'Cos he's right, I will lose it.' So while Noel is floundering, what will happen to his band? How will volatile, thwarted Liam keep his jut-chinned head above water? Noel has not come this far for his feet to get chilly: 'Yeah, I stare at hotel walls and worry,' he grins, wolfishly, self-assuredly, unworriedly. 'I stare at them and wonder: `Where did it all go right?''.
(What's The Story) Morning Glory is released on 2 October


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Saudis' Difficult Way to Court Iraqi Kurdistan Leaders
Baghdad worried about Riyadh's moves in Kurdistan
Alwaght- Kurdistan region has always been of greet significance to the Iraqi leaders. The federal system, in place since fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, as well as the separatist tendencies of some Kurdish sides in the autonomous region, including Kurdistan Democratic Party, trigger Iraqi leaders and even public's obsession with the foreign movement in the region.
A set of issues, including the dispute over the region's budget and oil sales, have been straining the Erbil-Baghdad relations over the past few years. As a result, Erbil set up economic relations with foreign sides independently. Last week, the region's capital hosted a business-political delegation from Saudi Arabia. The office of the regional government's head Nechirvan Barzani issued a statement saying that the two sides discussed cooperation opportunities, investment, and business and trade ties in various areas like industry, agriculture, and tourism. The Iraqi media outlets have reported that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) during the meetings reached agreements with the Saudis to launch direct Erbil-Riyadh flights and open a Saudi bank in the Kurdish region.
Saudi Arabia is establishing its relations with Erbil in a very special time and should have goals behind that.
Baghdad worried about Riyadh's moves in Kurdistan
The Iraqi government obliterated the ISIS terrorist group across the country and restored stability to the nation. Now the authorities are obsessed with plans to reconstruct the ruined cities and the infrastructure and fix the deteriorated economic conditions. Suffering from a shortage of funding resources as a result of several years of war, Baghdad asked other countries for help to return to economic health. Saudi Arabia at the Kuwait conference in February, aimed to raise funds for Iraqi reconstruction, promised a $1.5 billion investment package to the Iraqi government. Despite that, the Iraqi home reaction to the recent movements of the Saudis in the Kurdish region indicates that Baghdad is concerned.
A day after the Saudi delegation visited the Kurdish region, Iskandar Watwit, the former deputy head of the Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense Committee, expressed worries about the Saudi Arabian moves in Iraq, saying that the Saudis intend to sow division and also highlight the disputes between Erbil and Baghdad. Watwit won in May parliamentary election in a coalition largely against foreign meddling in the country.
The Iraqi concerns look justified as the statement by the Kurdish premier's office, citing the Saudi delegation, said that Riyadh will prioritize business with Erbil— and not Baghdad as the capital— as it develops trade relations with Iraq. The analysts suggest that any foreign trade with the Kurdish region should be authorized by Baghdad as the capital representing the whole of Iraq. So, snubbing Baghdad in interaction with Erbil will automatically raise pessimism about the Saudi ties with the KRG.
Saudis long record of meddling in Iraq
This is not the first time that Saudis activities in Iraq provoke concerns and doubts. Riyadh's actions in the country over the past few years triggered verbal clashes between the. Several years after fall of the former dictator Saddam Hussain, the Saudis kept their diplomatic relations with Iraq in the lowest level. It was 10 years after Saddam, in 2012, that Saudi Arabia opened its embassy in Baghdad.
Since the beginning, the Iraqi officials were critical of the Saudi ambassador's intervention in their home affairs. The situation went to a level that in 2016 various parliamentary factions called on the government to expel the Saudi ambassador to Baghdad Thamer al-Sabhan. Pressures continued to build on Saudi Arabia until 2017 when Riyadh changed the ambassador responding to the Iraqi government's demand.
According to the Kurdish media, the Saudi delegation was sent to Erbil by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman without coordination with Baghdad. The move proves that the Saudi intervention in Iraq affairs is a top-level power policy.
Riyadh-Tel Aviv harmony in Iraq
What calls attention about the Saudi moves in the Kurdish region is their harmony with the Israeli plans in northern Iraq. When the Erbil leaders were pushing for separation referendum in September 2017, the Israeli regime was the only supporter of Kurdistan split from Iraq. Saudi Arabia is currently going the same way. Its steps show that it is backing Iraqi split.
Tel Aviv wants Iraq, an ally to Iran and part of the Axis of Resistance, weak. This is part of the failed but still on agenda Greater Middle East scheme. Regarding that Saudis increasingly moving closer to Tel Aviv, it is not unlikely that Riyadh is carrying out the Israeli project of sowing dispute between Iraq's central government and the Kurdish region to see the country enfeebled.
Saudi-engineered sedition for post-ISIS Iraq
The increasing Saudi interactions with the Kurdish region come while Iraq is just recovering from a devastating war against ISIS which captured a large part of the country in 2014 but was obliterated in 2017. It seems that the kingdom seeks a new dispute in the war-hit nation through the escalation of tensions between Erbil and Baghdad.
But Saudi Arabia's hand is not open to arranging a new conflict. Aside from the home opposition, both from the political parties and even the Sunni public who are traditionally seen a base for Saudi Arabia influence in Iraq's politics, neighbors like Iran and Turkey will not allow Riyadh to do adventures on their borders. Nawzad Hadi Mawlood, Erbil governor, in February 2016 during the ceremony of opening the Saudi consulate in Erbil said that Saudi Arabia coming to the Kurdish region carries an important message. "This is of huge significance to the region", he was quoted as saying. The message was received at the time by Iran and Turkey who make no compromises on the security of Iraq and are expected to respond to destabilizing efforts vehemently. On the other side, Saudi Arabia does not seem to pick a fight against the two, as it is grappling with burdens like the Yemen war and a diplomatic crisis with Qatar. It will find it a must to pursue relations with Erbil through Baghdad gate, otherwise, it has to face regional pressures and heavy costs in foreign policy.


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Willimantic, Connecticut Passport Office Information
Residents of Willimantic in Windham County, Connecticut have a choice of 2 passport acceptance agents to visit in order to get their passport application sealed. The passport agents in Willimantic can provide you with passport forms or witness your signature and seal your passport documents (if you don't need your passport application sealed then you do not need to visit an acceptance agent). Besides the 2 locations there are 156 other locations in the state of Connecticut from which you can get a passport application sealed at. If you are not needing a passport in Willimantic for a least (3) weeks, you can visit any of the passport acceptance agents listed below the map on this web page. If you need it faster than (3) weeks we have provided the closest regional passport offices to Willimantic, Connecticut and Expedited Passport service options for Willimantic.
Regional Passport Offices Close to Willimantic:These are passport issuing facilities. You will need to make an appointment and present proof of upcoming travel but in most cases, you will be able to get passport renewal, new passports, child passports, or a lost passport replacement Same Day or Next Day.
Boston Passport Agency - 64.4 Miles, Connecticut Passport Agency - 71.7 Miles, New York Passport Agency - 100.3 Miles, National Passport Center - 103 Miles, Philadelphia Passport Agency - 170 Miles
Fast Rush Passport Expediting Service in Willimantic, Connecticut3rd Party Passport Expediting in Willimantic CT: Expedited Passports & Visas are the experts for expediting passports in Willimantic, if you're in a hurry, this is probably going to be your best option. Passport servces offered for Willimantic: Expedited Passport Renewal, Expedited New Passports, Fast Passport Name Changes, Expedited Child Passports, Expedited Lost/Stolen Passport Replacement
How to Get a Passport in Willimantic, ConnecticutGetting a passport in Willimantic CT depends on what type of passport application you are needing. The process in these guides assumes that you are applying at a local Willimantic Passport Office in which case it will take you 4 to 6 weeks to get a passport in Willimantic.
Please select the appropriate guide from the list below to get started:
Passport Offices in Willimantic, CT
There are 2 acceptance agents (local passport offices) located in Willimantic Connecticut:
- Willimantic Post Office
919 Main St
Willimantic, CT 06226
- Town of Windham Recreation Department
979 Main St
Willimantic, CT 06226
Other Passport Offices Near Willimantic, Connecticut:Listed below are additional passport offices that are located within 50 miles of Willimantic Connecticut:
South Windham Post Office - Windham - 0.7 Miles
North Windham Post Office - North Windham - 3.6 Miles
Lebanon Post Office - Lebanon - 4.2 Miles
Town of Columbia - Columbia - 4.3 Miles
Storrs Post Office - Coventry - 5.4 Miles
Hanover Post Office - Hanover - 7.4 Miles
Windham-Colchester Probate Court - Colchester - 9.6 Miles
Colchester Post Office - Colchester - 9.8 Miles
Tolland-Mansfield Probate Court - Tolland - 12.1 Miles
Otis Library - Norwich - 12.5 Miles
Passport Service for Cities Near WillimanticResidents of the following closeby cities looking to get a passport should consider using the passport office(s) located in Willimantic for document sealing and 3-week passport expediting. Be sure to check other nearby passport offices listed above, as there may be a closer passport office to your city.
Willimantic Connecticut, Windham Connecticut, Lebanon Connecticut, Coventry Connecticut, Chaplin Connecticut, Storrs Connecticut, Hebron Connecticut, Colchester Connecticut, Canterbury Connecticut, Ashford Connecticut, Bolton Connecticut, Marlborough Connecticut, Tolland Connecticut, Norwich Connecticut, Brooklyn Connecticut, Plainfield Connecticut, Salem Connecticut, Vernon Connecticut, Rockville Connecticut, Mohegan Connecticut


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All characters
President Fitzgerald "Fitz" Thomas Grant III is the 44th and current President of the United States of America. He is a Republican; his wife is Mellie Grant and he has three children with her; two sons and a daughter: Jerry, Karen, and Teddy. He is in love with Olivia Pope and had an affair with her during his presidential campaign and his first few months as President.


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When cells in the gullet grow abnormally, the condition is known as Barrett's esophagus. The esophagus is a muscular tube which runs from the mouth to the stomach. In order for the esophagus to work properly, it is lined with specific tissue. Now, the Barrett esophagus pathology explained.
However, in cases of Barrett's esophagus, tissue which is similar to the lining of the intestines replaces esophageal tissue.
Although Barrett's esophagus itself may not cause any symptoms, many of the people who have this condition also suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This can cause heartburn, nausea and chest pain. As a result, people often associated these symptoms with Barrett's esophagus.
In order to diagnose Barrett's esophagus, physicians will perform a gastrointestinal endoscopy. This involves placing a camera down the patient's throat in order to provide images of the esophagus. In most cases, a biopsy of the tissue is also taken.
Barrett esophagus pathology then requires that the biopsy is examined in a laboratory setting by a certified pathologist. Although the tissue present in cases of Barrett's esophagus is markedly different from standard esophageal tissue, Barrett esophagus pathology may be complicated.
As the condition may be present in just a small area of the esophagus, a number of small biopsies must be taken. If physicians only examine one area of the esophagus, the condition could easily be missed or misdiagnosed. Due to this, a pathologist who specializes in Barrett's esophagus is often required to examine the biopsied tissue in order to determine if the condition is present.
Although anyone can suffer from the condition, there are some notable characteristics associated with the majority of suffers. Risk factors may include being over the age of 50, being Caucasian, smoking, having a familial history of the condition or having relatively high levels of stomach fat.
If a patient experiences chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease or suffers from frequent episodes of gastroesophageal reflex disease, and presents with at least two of the risk factors, they should be screened for Barrett's esophagus.
In most cases, treatment for Barrett's esophagus is aimed at reducing the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease. If these symptoms, such as nausea and heartburn, can be reduced, the patient may not even be aware of the underlying condition.
However, there are also specific lifestyle changes which can help to reduce symptoms and manage the condition. Losing weight, if it is necessary, can be effective in reducing the frequency of heartburn. Similarly, smoking cessation and limiting alcohol intake can also help to prevent attacks of gastroesophageal reflux disease from occurring.
Patients are also advised to eat small meals regularly, rather than leaving long periods of time in between food intake. In addition to this, acid reducing medications may be prescribed, if beneficial for the patient.
If symptoms still persist, surgeons may perform a fundoplication. This involves strengthening the valve at the bottom of the esophagus and can prevent the patient from experiencing painful acid reflex.
Although Barrett's esophagus itself is not a form of cancer, it can increase the risk developing cancer in the future. Esophageal adenocarcinoma is a relatively rare type of cancer but patients with Barrett's esophagus may be more likely to develop the disease. If dysplasia occurs, it means that the cells in the esophagus have been subject to change but cancer is not yet present.
If medical interventions are carried out at this time, the affected cells can be removed and the risk of cancer developing can also be minimized. It's essential, therefore, that patients with Barrett's esophagus are monitored regularly and that periodic surveillance endoscopies are carried out.
If potential cell changes are anticipated, surgeons can take action quickly and potentially prevent the patient from developing cancer. As esophageal cancer can be difficult to treat, early intervention when dysplasia occurs can be life-saving.
Although Barrett esophagus pathology can be complex, once a diagnosis has been made, treatment can be effective in managing the condition. Whilst patients may be concerned about the increased risk of cancer developing, if Barrett's esophagus is monitored regularly, potentially cancerous cells can be removed quickly and efficiently.


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Dr. John M. Sayles is a successful surgeon who graduated from Joliet West High School in 1981, earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University, and earned a medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
He is now the medical staff president and colorectal surgeon at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia.
After earning his medical degree, Sayles served in the Army for 12 years, completing two tours in Germany as a surgeon and head of a fast response team. His team was assigned to Kenya, where he assisted in operations after the bombing of the embassy.
Sayles was also stationed at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, which was located on the route that planes would take when they returned home to their carrier bases after a bombing run.
The physicians at Camp Bondsteel were stationed to give medical aid to pilots who may have been hurt on their way back to the carrier. No U.S. planes were shot down, so Sayles spent most of his time caring for the local Serbs who had stepped on land mines.
These experiences were reported in the Chicago Tribune and The Herald-News and featured in a Life magazine article.
After returning from Germany, Sayles served as chief resident at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. Sayles completed an additional residency at the Lahey Clinic in Boston and joined the ranks of colorectal surgeons.
Sayles recently spoke at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Sentara Leigh Hospital Cancer Center.
During his remarks, Dr. Sayles cited his mother, Martha, and several women from a Joliet Quilting Group, including Marie Blunk, a retired Joliet math teacher.
Sayles said in his speech, "Several years ago, my mom was looking for a project for her group and I suggested making a cancer-focused quilt using all of the different cancer ribbons. The quilting group researched, looked at all of their options, talked to other quilters throughout the country, and came up with a beautiful quilt.
"The quilt now hangs in our front office desk area for all the patients to see as they enter. To me, the quilt, and the team effort required to make it, truly represents the team effort that goes into cancer care."


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Return on investment (ROI) is not a difficult concept to understand in its most basic form. When you invest money into something, you want to get back what you invested and hopefully make money off of it too.
But for many calculating the ROI of a CRM implementation can be a frustrating exercise. In order to reduce this frustration, Workbooks has created an ROI calculator that lets you explore for yourself at a high level, some of the financial benefits you can expect from implementing CRM, providing you with a starting point to focus the minds and drive expectations.
Introducing the ROI Calculator
We originally created the ROI calculator as a spreadsheet model after customers reached out to us for help in obtaining final sign-off for their CRM initiative. After the spreadsheet became popular we decided to create an interactive online version, which has the benefit of being faster and more user-friendly. Yes it is high level and we would encourage you to still dig deeper into the details but it is a good tool to start putting some initial numbers behind the initiative.
The ROI calculator works by scoring yourself out of ten on three criteria, which is used to compute against your total sales to provide a projected financial benefit of a CRM implementation. The financial figure is broken down across new business, existing business and sales management whilst also showing the full workings behind the calculation.
Interested in running the numbers? Press the button below:
How to use the calculator:
Step 1. Score yourself out of 10 on generating new business
Being effective in generating new business is key to growth.
Negative indicators include not being able to track leads once passed to the sales team & a lack of transparency around Marketing ROI. Positive indicators include being able to rapidly build targeted Marketing campaigns and reviewing individual performance on lead follow up.
Step 2. Score yourself at cross-selling to your existing customers and retaining business
Whilst new business is essential, massive opportunities often sit with existing customers who already know and trust you.
Negative indicators include lacking a central database of all customer interaction, not knowing who to target with new products or which customers are unhappy. Positive indicators include easily targeting customers based on prior purchases, customer size, interest & industry etc.
Step 3. Rate your current sales management & deals execution out of 10
An effective sales team with limited leads often outperforms an unstructured or bogged down sales team with unlimited leads. Effective sales management can often dramatically increase close rates and speed up sales cycles.
Negative indicators include teams being burdened by admin tasks, missing sales forecasts and losing deals unexpectedly. Positive indicators include being able to easily create accurate sales forecasts, having a proven sales methodology, which everyone follows, and knowing why deals are lost or won.
Step 4. Enter your expected total sales
Finally, your expected total sales (including both new and existing expected sales) are used to compute your projected sales increase.
Step 5. Enter your details (your report will be emailed) and hit 'Get Results'
By now, you should have a good idea of how the calculator works, its benefits and how to score yourself on each point. Why not try it and see what financial benefits CRM could bring?


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Steve Alford and Stephanie White were the quintessential Indiana high school and college basketball stars. They were hardwood heroes who emerged from small towns and led their respective universities, Indiana and Purdue, to national championships.
For many Hoosiers, the storybook ending would have been for that success to carry on to the professional level, with Alford and White leading the NBA Pacers and WNBA Fever to championships and street parades.
Reality intruded.
Alford, as we have been reminded recently, was bypassed by the Pacers in the 1987 NBA draft in favor of a skinny guard from UCLA named Reggie Miller.
We all know the rest of that story.
Miller went on to become the greatest Pacer ever, and is destined for the Hall of Fame. Alford, who played only a short time in the NBA, went into coaching and is now at the University of Iowa.
Unlike Alford, White did end up with the local pro team, the Fever. But her career was dogged by injuries, and the dominance she displayed at Purdue never materialized at the next level. Recently, ironically on the day after Miller played his final regular-season game with the Pacers, White announced her retirement ... to go into coaching.
But just as Miller supplanted Alford as an Indiana legend, there is a player-as well as a person and a professional-who can become to the Fever what Miller was to the Pacers, and what White might have been to the professional legacy.
Her name is Tamika Catchings.
And hers is the face-no, make that the Mount Rushmore-of the Fever franchise.
If you have not taken the time to watch Catchings perform, you have denied yourself the opportunity to witness what all Hoosiers enjoy.
And that is someone who can really play.
Catchings is a 6-foot-1-inch forward with guard skills. She can dribble-drive, post up or hit the jump shot. She is a tenacious rebounder, an excellent passer and a shotblocking defender. In just three seasons, Catchings leads the franchise in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
Like Miller, she is an Olympic gold medalist. Like Miller, she overcame childhood obstacles (he, pronated hips that had him in leg braces; her, a hearing disability). Like Miller, she has made a determined effort to become involved in the community, especially with youth, through her Catch The Stars Foundation.
But unlike Reggie, Catchings hasn't delivered those defining moments on the court and in the heat of the postseason. Not yet. To be blunt, good works need to be augmented by great, attention-demanding performances, and that is what Catchings in particular and the Fever in general have yet to deliver.
In other words, Catchings' profile in the community has to be accompanied by the Fever's profile in the community, and it won't happen until the Fever command attention by their success on the floor.
No one is more aware of that than Catchings, whose status as a top-five WNBA player has been diminished by the Fever's inability to make a postseason statement.
"This is [the franchise's] sixth season, so we're over that five-season, get-your-feetwet thing," Catchings says. "Now it's time to move forward. We have a great opportunity being in Indiana, in a basketball town, and people have supported us. Now it's up to us, the coaches and the organization to put together a winning team."
Catchings and Fever Coach Brian Winters also know she can't shoulder the load alone, no matter her skill level.
"Tamika is our best player and our most experienced player," Winters says. "She has to be a leader. Having said that, she also needs help."
Nonetheless, Catchings remains the team's star, its signature player, the one most likely to draw fans and to carry it up the standings.
"Every franchise in pro sports needs someone to be the face of the franchise," Winters says. "Reggie Miller was that for the Pacers for years."
And Catchings is aware of Miller's profile, both on and off the floor. She says she would like to have a similar impact.
"He's done so much for the game, so much for the Pacers, so much for the community," she says. "He wanted to build something with this franchise and I think that's important. You see the loyalty he's gained with this team and this city. As long as my body's willing, I'd like to have [a career] like Reggie."
Including, we hope, some postseason moments like Reggie's.
Benner is a former sports columnist for The Indianapolis Star. His column appears weekly.To comment on this column, go to IBJ Forum at www.ibj.comor send e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.
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Friday Fashion (2)
Alice in Wonderland costume perfection
Dear Friday,
Halloween is right around the corner and unfortunately I won't be dressing up this year because I'll be leaving the country and all...
I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I love dressing up. LOVE IT! Last year I dressed as Katy Perry, the year before I did jazzercise proud, and before that there was Minnie Mouse.
This year if I was dressing up, I would be leaning towards anything resembling a Vogue photo shoot. Anything dramatic, romantic, or from a recognizable time period is always a winner in my book. So it should come as no surprise that I'm drawn to The Great Gatsby, Marie Antoinette, and of course Grace Kelly.
Here are some beautifully styled photo shoots and signature outfits that are really getting me in the costume mood.
What are you dressing as this year?
{all previous images via vogue.com}
{via Pinterest}