Episode 1 - Chapter 14

“How old were your children?” Raven asked.

“Robert was seven and Jimmy four” Dad replied.

“Did the children see the box?”

Quite suddenly, Mum jumped up, horrified.

“James! We must ring James, make sure he's alright.”

“Relax Mary,” Raven touched her arm gently, “Your youngest son is safe.”

“How do you know?”

“As long as he's far from here, James is the safest of us all. This is everything you found?”

Dad replied it was.

“You're sure?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I have a nagging suspicion that something important is missing.”

Episode 1 - Chapter 13

“So this is about time travel?” Robert asked, “Like that Dr Who program?”

“Time is part of it, yes. Perceived time definitely, but that's only one element. Now it's vital that you all stop asking questions and start helping me find answers. When did you find the box?”

“Just after we bought the house in 1983,” replied Edward.

“How long after you bought it?”

“A couple of months, maybe three.”

“And it was you that found it?”

“Yes. Is that important?”

“Everything's important. If you found the box, you're the cardinal.”

Episode 1 - Chapter 12

“A map!” exclaimed Robert. He was close to loosing sanity. “How can that rubbish be a map?”

“Not a map actually, more a grid reference.” Raven looked directly at him. “Your wife is lost and every second she gets further away. That box is like a GPS signal on a metaphysical map of the human imagination. It's the only way we'll find her.”

“But who buried it?” I asked.

“Maybe she did, maybe it was you!”

“How could it be me, surely I'd remember?

“Do you remember what you did next week?”

Episode 1 - Chapter 11

“There's mail out on the hall table.”

“That's...” I began, but Dad interrupted.

“It's okay Robert,” he said. “There's something strange going on, and this chap seems to understand it. Let's do as he asks.”

“I agree with your father,” chimed Mum. “Sugar, Mr Raven?”

“Three please. Now let's start at the beginning, shall we? Tell me how you found it?”

“But it's just a box. A tin box full of tat that somebody buried, like a time-capsule.”

“My god boy, that's no box of tat. That box is a map!”

Episode 1 - Chapter 10

I was pouring tea as they trooped back in.

“Tea!” exclaimed Raven, clearly delighted. “Now let's get a butchers at the artefacts.”

“I'm sorry, but I still don't understand.” Edward's voice was trembling.

“It's Edward, isn't it?” Raven's voice softened. “May I call you Edward? Right now, time is quite literally of the essence. I'll try to explain as we go along, but I need to get a look at the arcana and I need you to tell me everything you know.”

“Hold on a minute” asked Robert, “how do you know dad's name?”

Episode 1 - Chapter 9

“I'm sorry, what?” Dad looked baffled.

“Your house is straddling a fault line between what's real and what isn't. That's why it doesn't seem so solid. Looking at it, you're seeing how it actually looks and how you imagine it looks, both at the same time.”

“How I imagine it looks?”

“Yes, your mental image of the house, and the mental images your family have, all over-laid in one place.”

“And this is caused by the temporal wotsits, the photographs?”

“Good lord no, they're a symptom certainly, but the cause is far more worrying.”

Episode 1 - Chapter 8

“Hold on,” I said, “You can't barge in talking gobbledegook about exploding photographs and demand cups of tea. If you're with the authorities show us some ID.”

“Do you know what's happening here?”

“Well no...”

“Come with me, please. Humour me, and I'll try to explain.”

He led us through the front door and turned to face the house. “Tell me what you see.”

The house looked blurred and I told him so.

“Exactly so. My name's Raven, and I'm a mechanic of sorts. The fabric of reality is smudged around your house!”

Episode 1 - Chapter 7

“That's preposterous,” I exclaimed, “Photographs don't explode!”

“Maybe they don't,” replied Raven, “But temporal anomalies go bang all the time. Do me a favour luv,” turning to mum, he handed her the newer snap, “Pop that in the kitchen.”

Mum hesitated. “Is it safe?”

“Not really, no. But they'll be less volatile kept apart.”

Mum did as he asked. “And put the kettle on while you're there.”

“Will boiling water make them safer?” I asked.

“No, but a cup of tea helps me think. Now, tell me about these trinkets.”

  

Episode 1 - Chapter 6

Robert looked fit to explode when this funny chap barged in. “I wouldn't bother with that right now,” he said, “You wont get through. Now where... ah!” He headed towards the table.

“He just pushed in” said Mary, entering the room.

“Who the hell are you?” Robert asked.

“Call me Raven, everybody does.”

“Well Mister Raven...”

“Not Mister, just Raven.”

“Whatever,” I said, “What the hell are you doing in my home?”

“I'm here to help.” He pointed at the jigsaw photographs. “We'd better get those separated before they explode.”

Episode 1 - Chapter 5

Robert was working himself into a frenzy, dialling and redialling Fiona, when the doorbell chimed.

Answering it, I found a funny looking little man in flat cap and overalls, like you'd see in an old fashioned hardware store. Halfway down the garden path, he was looking at the roof.

“Evenin' missus, I was just passing and couldn't help notice you've got trouble. Nasty piece of work.”

“What trouble?”

“That” he said, pointing. Looking up, the roof seemed funny, like the edges weren't solid.

“What is that?”

“Existential Smear, quite severe. Mind if I come in?”

Episode 1 - Chapter 4

“What's begun?” I asked, “What are you talking about?”

“I don't know, something weird!”

“Now Mary,” Dad said “I'm sure there'll be a rational explanation.”

“Robert, thirty years ago we found a photograph that was taken less than a month ago! How can anything about that possibly be rational?”

“Well I don't know but...” You could hear his struggle in his voice.

“But nothing! Robert, ring Fiona, ring her right now!”

Endless seconds of static as the phone dialled.

“BEEEP! The number you dialled is not in service, please dial again.”

Episode 1 - Chapter 3

 “I knew that box would be trouble. For weeks after, it haunted my dreams, nagged at me. I'd begged Edward to destroy it, but knew he hadn't.

By the time they came up from the cellar, I'd reassembled the photograph.. “Sorry Robert,” I said, handing it to him, “I don't know what came over me.”

“No Mom, it's okay” he replied, holding two identical jigsaws in his hands, one printed just last week, the other one almost 30 years old.

“Well then,” I said, catching Edward's eye. “Whatever this all means, it's begun now.”

Episode 1 - Chapter 2

 “My wife's reaction was more immediate. Screaming “No”, she snatched the photograph and tore it to shreds. I saw horror dawning in her eyes as she fled the room whimpering “No, no...”

Robert stared at the scattered pieces, incomprehension across his face.

“There's something you should see” I said, leading him to the cellar. That box had seemed important, so I'd kept it safe. As I unwrapped the scarf I related its history to Robert, handing him the jigsaw photograph. Questions bubbled around his lips before he spotted the lottery ticket.

“Dad, that's Fiona's handwriting!”

Episode 1 - Chapter 1

They found it years before, when their kids were still young, buried at the bottom of the garden: a rusted chocolate fingers tin. Inside, wrapped carefully in a silk scarf: a lock of hair, two peacock feathers tied in a simple knot, a photograph of a holidaying couple, torn apart then reassembled with sticky tape, an old British pound note, a dried rose and a lottery ticket, “PLEASE HELP ME, I AM LOST” scrawled roughly on the back.

Then years later, looking at honeymoon photos from their son, recognition flickered and a cold dread began to fill their stomachs.