Chapter Sixteen: More Repercussions.
It was now May, and yes the baby was due in September. Pamela Parsons kept us appraised of any new developments back at the BBC. She was truly a remarkable woman. She had enough work to do at the BBC, but she found the time to keep tabs on everything. Messages would come through via email, text, and Skype. Pamela had also worked out a system for the meetings. More and more people were being added. She decided that there should be a core group, which were the original members. Newcomers with certain backgrounds and expertise would be invited as and when necessary, assuming they could make the meetings. She thought as I did, that the last meeting with the religious gentlemen and lady was starting to get unwieldy. It was a very important meeting though.
More and more repercussions were resulting from each revelation and discovery. The BBC documentary was progressing very well. She kept us all updated on this. This would soon be broadcast. There was one central major dilemma. It would have to feature the Bull Public House. Plus the Hollywood movie was moving at a pace. Slippery Productions and Pamela Parsons tried to maintain some input into all of that. Pamela had got hold of the movie scripts and had sent a synopsis around to all the interested parties. I could see why she was worried. There was little we could do about this now. Yes, the character of Slippery was exaggerated. There was a 'sex angle' but this was played down because they still wanted a 'family-friendly' movie to maximize returns.
The 'upshot' was that there would soon be a tsunami of visitors to the Bull Public House. It was a 'public house', so this was to be expected. Pamela had had long conversations with Sid and Beryl about what to expect. There would be an increase in trade after the BBC documentary, this would largely be British, mostly domestic, although this did find its way on to YouTube. However, after the movie, this would be worldwide. Plus of course the press of all kinds. This in theory could be managed. Their redoubtable daughters were there to help and extra staff could be found. After the initial upsurges, there would be a decline, but people could well be coming in greater numbers from now on. With the Cellar Bar Restaurant now fully functioning this could be handled.
However, there is another major variable, Old Slippery. How would he react? There could well be attempts to 'wind him up' and get a reaction potentially from any of the new influx. How was he going to be managed?
It was a slightly warmer Friday afternoon in May, we had yet another Slippery Productions meeting at the Bull Public House. The core group was all there. They were joined by Vihaan Bhat, the Hindu Priest, Father O'Halligan, the Reverend Frampton, the young 'Wicca' lady, Bethany, plus Mohammed Abdullah, the Sufi Iman, and Ashai, the Buddhist priest. The Jewish Kabbalah specialist, Rabbi Abraham was also present.
Pamela Parsons took it on herself to try and chair the meeting.
There was a brief update on the BBC documentary, which was due to be broadcast in June. By all accounts, a movie would be ready in the autumn.
This meeting took a very theological tone, which was no surprise given the representatives present. Old Slippery was not present yet. The Lounge Bar was busy as was the downstairs restaurant. Everywhere was filled up. This was only partly due to the notoriety of the 'House Ghost'. The quality of the food, drink, and overall service had guaranteed a large group of loyal customers. Friday afternoon and evening were especially busy as office workers wanted a chance to relax and chat after a long and hard week working.
This meant there were only scant interactions between the two young detectives and their barmaid beloveds. However, they did their best catching up with the occasional
'brief encounter'.
Lina, cleaning 'Old Slippery's' chair was the cue for him to reappear. The Old Highway Man was as usual totally overdressed. He seemed to like a sense of occasion. Professor Hudson confirmed this. All the surviving documents refer to the highwayman loving to 'play to the gallery'. Sandra and Kevin started recording. They had already formed a solid friendship with Bethany, which was understandable given they shared similar interests.
"Yes, repercussions?". Professor Hudson started talking. "Yes, I would like to thank all the representatives from different religious faith attending this meeting. I am getting pressure from scientists at Oxford that are also eager to attend. They want to take readings of our 'resident ghost'. They want to have some understanding of what 'energy' is being 'transmitted' here. I would like to thank Pamela for all her hard work in organizing these meetings. I know she is a very busy woman, but she always finds time to organize these Slippery Jake Productions meetings."
There were nods of approval all around with these comments from the professor.
"I suppose I have taken it on myself to chair, or at least 'steer' today's meeting, having an academic background."
"I have spoken to Pamela, and we both feel that each meeting should have a focus unless events overtake us as they have done before."
There were a few laughs with this.
"This way we can best invite specialists and people with real knowledge in their fields to attend and contribute."
"Today's topic will therefore be religious. I come from an Anglican, Church of England background. Like most of my fellow countrywomen and men, I am not a firm believer."
With this, the Reverend Frampton smiled.
The professor continued.
"That is not to say that I am not lacking in curiosity. You have to ask a very fundamental question, 'Why anything?'. You may have heard of the 'Grand Unified Theory' and the 'atom-smashing device under the Alps, the Large Hadron Collider. Notions such as quantum tunneling. However, this still begs the question, why anything, us, matter, time, and space? Would it make more sense that the Universe was infinite and filled with nothing? Void! However, this is not the case."
Most of us were in rapt attention with all of this. The Detective Chief Inspector wasn't particularly. He was not a man given to abstractions unless they were to do with the case he had to solve. The good Chief Inspector had his nose in his laptop, along with sipping the Bull's fine real ale from time to time, pretending he was listening.
This had not escaped the attention of Old Slippery. It seems very little does. He was listening to this learned conversation but he was also directing a sardonic stare in the direction of the Detective Chief Inspector from time to time. A number of us had also noticed this.
Ashai, the Zen Buddhist priest then contributed.
"This is consistent with some Buddhist teachings where we have the notion of dependent origination."
This then opened up the conversation to different religious bodies reflecting on whether there was one God, or if there was just a state of existence, the Great Why? The Great Mystery of everything. This was a real puzzle and conundrum. This was totally inexplicable!
God could also be thought of as everything.
With this, the Detective Chief Inspector was really 'zoning out'. He was going home by taxi, so he started on his third pint.
Pamela Parson, with her usual brilliant skill, then imposed some kind of focus on the proceedings.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen let us all focus in particular on the Right Hon Jake Horatio Higginbottom, sitting over yonder. Those of us that have frequently attended these meetings have become more than aware that our resident 'ghost' has a very acute awareness. Sorry to mention this Detective Chief Inspector. But you are not particularly a specialist in theology?"
"No madam, to be a bit controversial, my 'spiritual needs' are more likely to be met from a bottle."
Some laughed at this others didn't.
Pamela continued:
"This ghost has developed a very good awareness of the here and now. He had died a long while ago, but he seems to have quickly come to terms with the 21st Century."
Turning to the Chief Detective Inspector
"To bring you back into the meeting, give our newcomers a summary of what happened when the 'Russian Mafia' appeared along with the expulsion of that 'low life reporter'.
The Detective Chief Inspector felt he was back in school again. He had been found out.
However, he did give a good summary of these events.
Mohammed Abdullah, the Sufi Iman along with Rabbi Abraham started reflecting on this.
Rabbi Abraham started:
"We can not escape the fact that this 'ghost' is here with us now. All the faiths of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, share the notion of a singular God. I think there is a phrase that sums all this up quite neatly in the Bible, "passes all understanding." This also dovetails neatly into the endeavours of your scientific colleagues' professor and their theories and experiments."
With this, Professor Hudson duly nodded.
"This ghost despite a heinous past seems to be very protective of this Public House and its inhabitants, from what the Detective Chief Inspector has told us. From what we see now and all the material kindly recorded by young Sandra and Kevin. Do we now have irrefutable evidence of an actual afterlife?"
Everybody had a very profound look on their faces. The Detective Chief Inspector, however, ordered another pint. With this, from his chair, Old Slippery again duly smirked. It was this 'down to earth' quality that Old Slippery still seemed to possess. He may have been fully aware of the learned conversations that were taking part amongst the different religious parties. However, it seemed that the House Ghost was more interested in the Detective Chief Inspector ordering another pint.
This was further reinforced when Magda started to clear away a table of plates, glasses, etc. This caused her to bend over. Of course, Old Slippery leaned over with a lascivious smirk all over his face, to watch these proceedings. He still had a monumental libido. They did not have short skirts in his day.
The religious gentlemen were taken about. Was this ghost really an emissary of God? Maybe they were looking for a purely 'spiritual' dimension. Old Slippery also had a very earthy dimension it seemed.
They pondered on the Ten Commandments. It was found in the Bible and Tanakh, and is referred to in the Qur'an. It was obvious that Old Slippery had fallen foul, seriously several times.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shall not covert.
Being the obvious examples. So Slippery Jake was to become an emissary of God however God was understood? This was despite the highwayman's heinous past?
It was at this point that the Reverend Frampton posed an important question.
"Do you think we can get into a regular direct conversation with the Right Hon Jake Horatio Higginbottom?"
Yes, it was also at this point that the Chief Detective Inspector woke up.
He looked across at Lina and ordered yet another pint. His third or fourth, fifth? He had a hard week, although successful. Several cases had been satisfactorily concluded. No doubt he would get some 'grief' from his wife when he eventually stumbled out of a taxi later. She was well used to this. However, alcohol was not the best solution for stress.
He looked across at the gathering and repeated his experiences of actually having Old Slippery' inside 'his head'. A few others have had this as a passing experience. He knew this was the case with Sid the landlord and his sister Dr. Amelia Smith as well along with Professor Hudson.
All four could converse directly with the Ghost telepathically as they were direct descendants of Old Slippery. With most other people it was more a matter of having their mind 'probed' by Old Slippery.
The Detective Chief Inspector then outlined his shared ancestry along with Sid and his sister, stretching back to Old Slippery'. The name Higginbottom changed to Higgins. This really fascinated those that heard this for the first time.
"He sees me, my sister, Professor Hudson and Sid the landlord as part of his family, that is why he 'visits our heads'. There could be a way of communicating with him. Maybe via us three, maybe more directly."
The meeting then came to an end. The Lounge Bar and the pub, in general, were starting to get very full. We all made our adieus and set off home.