Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 105: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION would you?” She laughed again, and slipped down the bank to sit beside me. I gave way a little, very conscious of my own scruffiness when placed beside her immaculate attire; a faint, elusive scent tingled my nostrils. I said: “Do you always make ad I mean, are you usually so familiar with strangers ?’? And felt a fool as I said it. “Familiar?” She pro- nounced the word as though she had never heard it before. ““Famil Oh, you mean like this!’ She leaned over and kissed me full on the mouth, then sat back again. “That is what familiar means, isn’t it?” I swallowed hard. I knew what I should do now, so instead I flipped open the pocket of my empty fish basket and pulled out a gleaming metal flask. “Would you like a little drink to while the time away, Miss del Marno?’’ I asked, unscrewing the top and using it as a cup. “The best Grand Old McNish; you can kill the midges by just breathing on them after you’ve drunk some of this.” “Is it a spirit? How bar- barous—let me taste. And I am named Mrs. del Marno, as 104 you would put it, but mostly it is Barba.” *“You—er—you have a hus- band, then ?”’ “Yes, but a far way away; it is no bother here-now.” “No, I suppose not,” I said, handing her the flask- top. The situation seemed . more divorced from everyday life than ever. I wondered whether I should try to pull it back or not. Twenty minutes and two drinks later I was still wonder- ing, although the question had become largely academic. We had achieved the false intimacy that afflicts strangers on the dining cars of long distance trains, or the holiday beaches of another country. But, unimpeded by conven- tional surroundings, we had gone somewhat further... Usually, I avoided such casual engagements; fortified by the McNish on an empty stomach, I only wished now that I had had more experience of them. But the small voice of curiosity was not quite stilled. Where had Barba acquired her peculiar way of speaking? What was she doing here, on this isolated stretch of the Thames, flirting intensively with a complete stranger? comicbooks.conn