introducing larry reynolds

In a bid to raise funds for my new nation  I am in the processes of renting out parts of this site to the locals.

Please welcome our first ever guest author, Larry Reyonlds

Hello, I'm Larry and a few weeks ago I was taking my dog, Pebbles, out for her morning walk. We always go the same route, passing the post office, into the park for a good sniff and a look at the ducks on the pond and back round via the bus station, over the bridge that connects one side of town to the other and then back into the park before reaching home again.

It usually takes us an hour or so, depending on my hips, but Pebbles enjoys meeting the other dogs and sometimes I see my neighbours and have a little chat and catch up on the local gossip - the local newspaper isn’t up to much since they were took over by that big publisher.

Anyway, it was a Tuesday, I think, and as Pebble and I set off for our morning stroll I saw Mr Castle who lives next door but one in his front garden with a shovel in his hand.

His face was a mixture of puzzlement and determination.

“Morning Mr Castle.” I chirped only to be met with a low level grunt.

I shrugged and put his unusual reply to that of man with a mission to complete.

Mr Castle was usually a chipper type of gent. Always handy with a free smile and kidly wave to any and all who offered theirs first.

But today was very different.

Pebbles has been suffering with a urinary infection of late and so she didn’t let me hang around to find out more info before she tugged on her lead and dragged me to the park.

Later that afternoon I wanted to make a boiled egg. Soft boiled is my favourite as I find hard boiled eggs to be a bit tasteless and who doesn’t love a runny yolk?

I left Pebbles sleeping on her bed and as I wrapped my scarf around my neck I spotted Mr Castle still in his garden, digging furiously.

He had been very busy as he was down past his knees and showed no sign in giving up.

“Going well Mr Castle.” I smiled “You’ll be in China by tea-time!” I offered a little chortle but my own reply was another incoherent grumble.

I bought my eggs and treated myself to a bar of fruit and nut for pudding before heading back home.

I made a slight alteration to my route as I wanted to check on Mr Castle.

I’d not seen Mrs Castle for a couple of weeks. Of course, she often worked away. Something in sales I think or management… one of those types of jobs.

She could be away for days at a time on business but for for her not to be around for this amount of time was a bit out of the ordinary.

I’m not sure what Mr Castle did.

As I got back to my street I realised that Mr Castle was nowhere to be seen.

I peered over the small wall of their front garden to look into the hole that had been dug to see if Mr Castle was in there but he wasn’t.

The hole was maybe a metre in depth, not enough to hide in but still a substantial void for an afternoons work.

As the days passed and Pebbles needed more frequent, but shorter walks, I made a point to keep my eye out for Mr Castle and his ever deepening garden feature.

It was all the street could talk about as the days turned into weeks..

Mrs Khan said she had no idea what is was all about.

Mrs Goldberg hasn’t seen it but would ask Mr Green if he knew, but I said I had already seen him in the butchers and he said he couldn’t care less.

Mr Green is not “our” kind of people.

Mrs Cole didn’t know who Mr Castle was, which was no help at all and so I decided to investigate on my own.

Unfortunately Pepples condition became worse and she needed an operation to solve her urinary infection, which had become septic, and before I knew it, time had gotten away from me.

A week later, I was walking past Mr Castles house and noticed the hole was even deeper than ever. In act, it was almost impossible to see the bottom without trespassing on private property.

Nobody ever saw Mr or Mrs Castle agan and I never did find any satisfactory answer to strange case of the large hole but I did finish the last of the eggs I bought the week before by having a lovely soft boiled egg and soldiers.