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maybe tomorrow I would remember which way to go maybe tomorrow things would come together again I would not be floating like this above the ground my mind floating above the ground like a spirit like a will-o’-the-wisp like something from the otherworld.
    And then I saw a movement. In this still white empty place there was a shift. From the corner of my eye perhaps a hundred yards or so down the lane I saw something come out of the hedge bank and cross the road. It was big and long and dark. It seemed to be a couple of yards in length it was low to the ground and it was black. It was some kind of animal. It seemed to come out of the thorns on the top of the stone wall that edged the lane and jump down onto the road. I turned towards it instinctively I swung around but it was faster than me and by the time I was looking in its direction all I caught was its long blackness disappearing into the hedge on the other side of the lane.
    Whatever it was it had seemed to walk on air. It made no sound. I stood there hot and floating above the ground and I tried to pull my mind around to get my mind to fix itself onto what it had seen and to considerit. I was tired I was dazed it was a strange day but this had been real I thought. Some big black animal had crossed the road ahead of me.
    I stood there for some time. I waited for minutes I don’t know how many but I heard no sound and I saw nothing more. Whatever it was did not come back there was no sound no movement anywhere. But where could it have gone? On the other side of the hedge bank into which it had seemed to disappear was a patch of open moorland. There was broom and heather and bilberry all over it and small thorn trees and scrub but I had not seen it cross the moor. Was it still in the hedge? Had it followed the wall on the other side of the hedge bank out of my sight? Was it somewhere in the scrub or the heather? Was it waiting for me? Was it dangerous?
    I started to move. There was nothing else to do I couldn’t stand there all day I had to move and I wanted to go home. My leg was so stiff now my side was so sore I had walked too far today I had pushed myself too hard. I loped forward slowly. I kept listening but I heard nothing and I saw no movement. If I had seen it what would I have done? If some monster some great black animal had come out of the hedge in front of me what would I have done? I could barely walk bynow. But nothing came. I kept moving forward slowly towards the place where it had crossed the road.
    I reached the point it had crossed at and I saw then that it had not been in my mind. There were marks on the road. They were faint but they were there. They were the prints of a big animal. They were so far apart. I squatted down with difficulty and I reached out and touched one. I brushed my hand across its dust and it was as real as the thing that had made it. Something had crossed here. Something had walked ahead of me and here were its marks.
    I was afraid now. It had been so big. But there was nothing here it had gone. I could feel there was nothing here. If anything had wanted to pounce on me I supposed it would have pounced by now and I was so tired. It felt like my last reserves of adrenaline my last reserves of strength had shot through me when I saw what I had seen and now they were ebbing away. It was all I could do to keep upright. But I knew the way home from here I knew that at least. There was nothing to do but start back. I turned and I began walking back up the lane.
    It took me hours to get back. It was probably late afternoon or early evening when I arrived. My legs were throbbing and my head was throbbing. I dranka couple of pints of water but I wasn’t hungry. In any case there wasn’t much food left. I had no interest in food I was exhausted I was broken and tired to my bones to my cells but I didn’t want to sleep. All I could think of was the animal.
    What had it been? It had been black I was sure of that and it had been big.