Midnight Sky-rest of Chapter 2/Chapter 3

It was as if everything around me had suddenly stopped in time.  I looked around at the people in the pub and to my surprise; they were all frozen in time!  There were people stopped in mid jump.  Spilt beer was hovering in space.  Smoke was hanging in a motionless cloud that didn’t move.  All this was going on, but I was able to walk through it. 
Then, if all this was strange enough, I was being transported at immense speed to a small one bedroom flat.  In this flat, I watched as a middle-aged man, possibly 42 - 45 years old was packing a suitcase.  I was standing in the middle of his flat watching all this, however, he seemed to be oblivious of me.  I looked over to a small shaving mirror that was on the man’s bedside table and to my horror; there was no reflection at all.  “What the hell is going on here?” I asked aloud.  The man kept filling up his suitcase with his possessions, either completely ignoring me or as I feared, he didn’t even know that I was there. 
I panicked at that point and ran for the door, but my hand went through the handle.  I felt trapped and ran at the door, hoping that I would just go through it the same way my hand had gone through the handle.  It wasn’t meant to happen though.  I hit the door hard, rebounding and landing on the floor in front of the door.
“You are here to help this man,” came the voice again. 
“Help him with what?”
“He is going to take his own life in a flight to Chicago, five days from now.”
“What, five days from now?  What are you talking about?”  The man in the flat made his way through me at that moment.  “Why bring me here now then?”
“So you know what you are looking for.  I have brought you into the future.  This is the night before his flight, he is packing his …”
“I can see what he is doing, I’m not an idiot!  Just tell me why I’m here, who are you and am I really going insane?”
“You have second sight now Ryan.  When you touched the stone you became possessed with its power.  This would have been explained to you whenever it was given to you.”
“Given to me? What are you talking about? What stone?  I think that I’m going to have to go with the insanity plea here.”  I was more confused then ever and I found it ever so disconcerting the way this man that I was to save was walking through me over and over again. 
“You must have been presented with the vision stone, held it to your forehead and received the instruction on how it operates.”
“I wasn’t given any kind of stone and I was definitely not given any instructions on how to operate anything.”
“You were not visited by a small elfish creature?”
“No, I was not visited by an small elf… wait a minute, did you say that this stone had to touch my forehead?”
“Yes, and then you will have second sight.  This would have been all explained to you at the…”
“No, it wasn’t, but recently, I was struck on the head or at least I had situation.”
“A situation?”
“Yea, something hit me on the bridge of the nose and then I blanked out.  Next thing I knew, I was in the hospital.”
“Ryan, the vision doesn’t work when it doesn’t touch a person’s forehead.”
Then I started to think about it and I realized “ I was visited by an elfish creature.”
“What happened? Did he tell you anything at all, did he give you any information at all?”
I was having a lot of trouble thinking.  Something just wasn’t right about all this, the voice was telling me that stone would have had to strike me on the forehead and it really only struck me on the nose.  I remembered that it was sharp.  It left a single cut on the bridge of my nose and it left several pinhole cuts on my fingers when I picked it up, but I don’t remember it really hurting me.  I looked down at my hand and there wasn’t any sign of the cuts anymore.  “This creature came to me at the hospital and rummaged through my stuff.  I guess it was looking for the vision stone, but at the time I wasn’t even thinking about why it was there.”
“Ok, but did it tell you anything at all?”
“No, it only poked me in the forehead with its finger.”
“With its finger? Are you sure that it didn’t touch you with the stone?”
“He touched me with his finger and then I blanked out.  I don’t remember anything after that and he didn’t get the stone either.”
“He’ll be back you know, he is guardian of this stone and it is his responsibility to protect it!”
“To be fair here, he really wasn’t doing a very good job of protecting it now was he?  How the hell did it fall on me in the first place?”
The voice grew silent and I took a look around the room.    I couldn’t wait for the voice to come back to me and I said, “How do I get out of this?”
“You don’t get out of this. ‘This’ as you have put it is your destiny.  You are stuck with it.”
“It doesn’t sound like it was supposed to me at all, this elf thingy dropped the stone and it ended up landing on me.  Why should I be forced to do this?”
“There must have been a reason that the elf dropped the stone and that it ended up touching you.”
“Touching me?  It smashed me on the nose and knocked me out!”
“Destiny has a strange way of operating, I have no control over what is going on in the universe.  Listen, you are going to have to learn the ways of the seer.  It is a very important job, if these people die before their time then events will not happen and the world will be in turmoil.”
“Right, I hear you and I can appreciate what you’re trying to say but I am not the person for the job.  If this was a job interview you would have…”
“This is not a job interview!”  Yelled the voice.  “You as not applying for this job and you do not have the opportunity to say no to the job.  You are here for good and you must do the job properly!”
I stood there in this man’s apartment as he packed for a journey and pondered what was happening.  The man was almost finished packing his bag when I noticed that he was putting a hangman’s noose on top of his clothes.  I was starting to get a bigger picture of what was really going to happen.  This man was going somewhere to commit suicide and it was up to me to stop it.  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to the voice, “Are you trying to tell me that this man is going to hang himself somewhere and I am supposed to be there to stop him from doing it?”
“It could be even better if you convince him that he has a lot to live for and perhaps even get him to get some help…”
“I thought you said that he was taking a flight to Chicago?  Are you sure of that?”
“He will commit suicide on the flight to Chicago unless you intervene and stop him.  Nobody is aware of the trouble that this man is going through and nobody suspects that this is going to happen.”
“Let me guess, for the last little while, he was happier then he has ever been and they think that this business trip is just the thing that he needs?”
“Not really, he keeps to himself mostly and the business trip was a means for other people in the company to get rid of him for awhile.”
“I really can’t do this, I am not at a point in my life that will help me deal with all this.  No, let me rephrase that; how can I be helping people if I can’t even get my own life in order?  Come on, I’m still having trouble believing this isn’t just a fucked up dream that I’m going to wake up from and forget by the time I’m eating my breakfast.”
“It’s not as easy as all that Ryan, you’ve got to understand that this is not about you, this is about the people that we need to protect.  Now you’ll have to get an idea of this man so that you can approach him and help him.  When you get back to the present you’ll have 5 days in which to stop this man from committing suicide and you must remember that it is not just enough to stop him from getting on that flight, he must not try to do this at anytime.”
“Ok, let me have a look around here.”  I was still a little shaky about what was going on and to be perfectly honest, I had no idea what it was that I was looking for.  How was I going to be able to approach this man, a complete stranger no less, and convince him that his life is very much worth living?  I was starting to wonder if mine was even worth living. 
The man himself was really non descript, he had a short haircut that was almost completely grey.  He had a thin, gaunt looking face that was clean-shaven and his salt and pepper eyebrows were very bushy, almost like he should have trimmed them to keep them from going into his eyes.  His thin lips blended into the rest of the surrounding skin and gave the impression of just a thin slit for the man’s mouth.  His suit well tailored, however, must have been from a heavier time in the man’s life, because it hung off him like he was a teenager trying on his dad’s suit to go to the local disco.  His shoes were pristine and the new polish shown like they were patent leather.  He was ready to make his way to a business meeting in a foreign city.  Except for the fact that I had seen the noose, I would not have any suspicion that this man was going to do, what he was going to do. 
What really caught my eye though were the man’s hands.  This man was obviously not used to the white-collar life, his hands were like the large thick hands of a man that worked with them.  They were strong, calloused and rugged.  These hands had built things.  He looked more determined then sad or even depressed.  I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why he would want to kill himself.  I figured that this would be something that I’d have to learn over the next few days. 
I took a look around the room and I could not find anything out of the ordinary.  He kept a very Spartan room and it was obvious that this man lived on his own and wasn’t interested in any material possessions.  He was finding it very hard to actually find something for me to open up any conversation with this man.  If he had any interests, I wouldn’t know what they were because there was no evidence of anything in his flat.  He didn’t even have any books of CD’s or anything lying around that would give me a hint of what I could talk to him about.  That was when I was luckily enough to spot a pack of matches on his bedside table.  On the book was the name of a pub, ‘The Cock and Bull’.  I was hoping that this was the man’s local because it was the only thing that I had to go on.
“What am I going to do to stop this guy?  I only have the name of a pub to go on.  What if he doesn’t even go to the pub in the next 5 days, then what?”
“Ryan, you are going to have to stop this man from taking his own life.  The things that this man with invent are very important to human kind!”
“Right, I think you have already mentioned this to me.  What is going to invent?”
“We can’t discuss that but it is enough to say that it will change the course of human history.”
“Oh, of course, why should I know what it is that this man with invent that with change the course of human history.  Why should I know what it is that I’m trying to help happen?”
“It is not your place to know these things Ryan.”
“Not my place?  What are you talking about not my place?  I was forced into this against my own free will and told to save this man.  What if he was inventing some way to kill people faster and more efficiently then the hydrogen bomb, do you not think that it is my place to decide if this is something that is better left un-invented?  Let’s face it, I’m being left in the dark here.”
“You do not have free will in this case Ryan, you just have to do what you are told.  It is your destiny.”
“There you go with the whole destiny thing again.  Look, I don’t really care about this whole destiny thing.  I’m not cut out to do this and frankly, I’m not going to do it.”
“You will do it, you have no choice Ryan and the fact that you don’t care about destiny, doesn’t make any difference.  This is bigger then you or I, Ryan.  Please don’t complicate your already difficult task!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  I forgot about the whole fact that situation was impossible to say the least and I felt more like a schoolboy being told that he had to go to school.  It felt like I was being told off by an angry parent because I wasn’t willing to do something instead of being told that I had to do something because the fate of mankind was hanging in the balance.
“Have you enough information in which to find this man, Ryan?”
“What?”
“Are you able to identify this man and get in contact with him in order to prevent him from killing himself?”
I thought about it and realized that the only information that I had about him was the matchbook and the name of the pub.  I knew what he looked like now but that was only part or it.  I would have to approach this man and try to befriend him in less then five days.  Not only that, I would have to convince him not t kill himself on a flight to Chicago.”
“Do you not think that it would have been better to inform me of this a little sooner?” I said to the voice.  “If I had had maybe a few months to do this, or even a year, then I think it would have been a little more doable!”
“You only recently received the second sight Ryan, besides, it doesn’t always happen that easily.  We have been monitoring this man for some time, but the man that used to have second sight.  The man that used to have your job has passed away and you have been slotted in to replace him.”
“Oh, now that makes me feel a lot better.”  At that moment I noticed that the man wasn’t even in the flat anymore.  “Look, there really isn’t all that much here to go on, did the other guy have anymore to go on?  Maybe he was talking to this man at some point in … You know, I don’t even know this guys name.  How am I going to do this in just 5 days?  The only thing that I know is that he may go to the Cock and Bull.  If he does go there, then I have nothing to go on.”
“His name is Richard Saunders.  That is one thing that we know about him.”
“You knew his name all this time and you didn’t say anything?  Were you going to say anything if I didn’t protest?”
“I had to make sure that you make a thorough check of the room.  Your predecessor found that he indeed did go to the Cock and Bull most night s after work, even had a tendency to have his dinner there most nights.  As you can see, this flat really isn’t the best for cooking in.”
I hadn’t even noticed that there wasn’t a cooker in the flat, just a small bar fridge a small food cupboard and a small sink.  I must have spent to much time in the bedroom and didn’t even look properly through the rest of the flat.
“Ok, so I go to the Cock and Bull tomorrow around tea time and try to start up a conversation with this man.  How hard should that be?”
“Very well Ryan,” and there was a sharp flash of light and I was travelling fast again, this time back to the bar. 
The voice must have brought me back to the exact time that I had left.  I was back outside, this time without my cigarette.    The whole experience had left me slightly airsick, if that was what it was called.  I leaned up against the wall of the pub and rummaged through my pocket my cigarette pack.  With hindsight it wasn’t the best idea, but I lit a cigarette and after a couple of puffs, felt very light headed.  Raymond was making his way out at that point and called over to me, “Ryan, are you ok?  I have to get up in the morning so I was thinking I might head back to the flat, you coming or do you want to stay?  No pressure, but I only have the one key and I really need to get some sleep.”
“It’s not a problem, I think I’d be better off getting some sleep as well anyway.  I think I might be still a little weak from my incident the other day.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it Ryan, you have to take care of yourself.  Might be a good idea to sign on as soon as possible.”
“Don’t start with that right now, you sound like my mother.”
“I’m not trying to be like that, but you have to get yourself back in there and you also have to pay your way.  Don’t worry about the rent but you have to get your own food and shit.”
“Don’t worry Raymond, I’m not going to be on the dole for to long.  I’m going to contact a few other advertising agencies and see what I can do.  I have a bit of a reputation and I think I can sort something out.”  Raymond gave me a nasty look as we made our way down the street and said, “I think your rep may be a little tarnished at the moment, mate,” and we both had a bit of a laugh at that.  Deep down it hit a bit of a sore point though and I was hoping to prove Raymond wrong.  Then again there was my new job that I was almost certain that wasn’t going to pay the bills.



Chapter 3

I woke up the next morning just a little confused and anxious.  I couldn’t really determine right away if what happened to me the night before was for real or not.  I lay on the couch in Raymond’s flat listening to see if he had woken up yet for work.  What was the name of that guy, I thought to myself.  I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me.  The last time I was given responsibility I got fired from my job and that was only the other day.  It was difficult to drag myself up from the couch to even get myself a cup of coffee and now was meant to get up, not look for another job and try to convince some one I didn’t know not to not kill themselves.  Life was getting far to strange for me at the moment and I wasn’t fully convinced that I wasn’t going crazy!  It the midst of my debate, Raymond came into the living room and began to ask me, “Well, are you going to get down to the dole office today and sign on?”
         “It’s not really the first thing on my mind at the moment, but…”
         “But what?  I’m not trying to bust your ass here, but you can’t just hang around the flat and mope!”
         “I’m glad to see that you have my best interests at heart here Raymond.”
         “Don’t be like that, I don’t want you to turn into one of those guys that gets defeated and ends up on the street selling the Big Issue.  Man, you’ve got to keep busy or that’s what you’ll end up like.”
         “Thanks Dad, you got any more advise or are you just going to tell me how I’ve wasted my life and if I’d only taken your advise in the first place this situation would have never happened?”
         Raymond gave out a short laugh and pointed at me before saying, “Sorry mate, I do kind of sound like my Dad, don’t I.”
         “Yea.”
         “I just don’t want you to get all depressed and shit.  You’ve had a bad couple of days and I appreciate that it can be tough on you.”
         “You have no idea Man.”
         “I know I haven’t experienced it myself but…”
         “No, I mean you really don’t have a clue what it going through my head at the moment and I don’t think I’d even be able to explain it to you.”
         “You alright?”
         “I’ll be fine, just need to sort things out on my own.  Don’t worry about it, I’ll figure it out and I won’t just mope around the flat.  I’ll go down to the Dole office and I’ll talk to some people that I know about opening at other advertising agencies.”
         “Don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe you aren’t really cut out for advertising.”
         “What the… What are you talking about; I was great in the advertising game and you know it.  What do you think I should do, get into the computer industry like you?”
         “You don’t know the first thing about the computer industry,” Raymond said walking into the kitchen, I could hear that he was putting on the coffee machine and making himself some toast.  “When are you heading out to work?” I asked Raymond.
         “In about half an hour, forty five minutes.  Why?”
         “Just wondering, might take the bus into town with you.”
         “That’s the spirit.  You sure you’re feeling ok?”
         “You’re changing your tune pretty quickly there, Man.  Couple of minutes ago you wanted me out to the Dole office and out looking for a new job.  Now you’re all concerned as to whether I’m feeling ok or not.”
         “I am concerned and I also want to get your dole sorted out.  I don’t want you to over do it and end up back in the hospital.”
         “Don’t worry about it, you going to make me up a couple of rounds of toast as well?  How long till the coffee is done?”
         “Coffee is done and make you own fucking toast.”
         “Thanks mate, you’re all heart today.”
         “No problem.  You better hurry though because I’m leaving soon to get that bus and you haven’t even showered yet.”
         “Do you really think I need…”
         “Yea, you stink and to be honest with you, I have no intention on sitting next to you on the bus if you’re smelling like that.”
         “Like what?”
         “Just go and have a shower!”

The Dole office was as uneventful as I figured it would be and there weren’t any jobs worth the trouble on the board.  I make a few calls to contacts that I had in other agencies and my ‘crap’ story seems to have made the rounds to every one of them.  This wasn’t looking like I’d be able to get back into the advertising game any time soon.  Maybe Raymond was right about that.  I was laughed at by a few of the places that I called and for the other ones, once I gave my name, they less then kindly told me that they couldn’t help me.  I was grateful that my severance was going to help me get through a couple of months.  Well, in theory it was going to get me through the next few months.  Raymond wouldn’t be able to get mad over the fact that I didn’t have a job yet, but then again, the dole wouldn’t kick in for awhile either. 
There were several things up on the board at the dole office, but at the end of the day, what was I really good at other than advertising?  It was a tough call and the interview with the clerk, really didn’t help at all.  I just wasn’t ready to get back on the horse as they say. 
“How long have you been out of work Mr Peters?” the clerk asked me.
“It’s been about a week, but there was an incident shortly afterward and I ended up in hospital for a few days.”  That’s’ when I heard it.  I was as if there was someone sitting beside me, whispering in my ear.  “Ryan, you are wasting valuable time here.  You have to find Mr Saunders and stop him from killing himself.”
In a low voice I tried very hard to stop them, “Not now, I have to do this or I want be able to live.”
The clerk glance over to me as if he had seen this behaviour before and just ignored what most likely appeared to be some one talking to a voice in his head,  “So you weren’t available for work then?”
“That’s right.  I’m still having a bit of a problem with the whole thing, you see I had a seizure in front of the pub and they had to rush me to the hospital.”
“Ryan, this is very important.”
I tried to just ignore the voice this time and just said, “I was unconscious for quit some time.”
The clerk looked up from the form that he was filling in for me. “It’s ok Mr Peters, we don’t need to know anything further concerning that at the moment.  If there is any further problems of this nature though, please contact the office here and let us know.  We will need a doctor’s line from you if you should have any more times that you are unavailable for work due to illness.  Now, what type of work are you looking for?  Are you going to continue in the advertising field?”
“Good question.” The clerk didn’t seem to show any humour towards my answer but just watched me as he waited for my answer.  “I don’t really know, I messed up a large account and every advertising firm in the country is already aware of my mistake.  I don’t see myself having an opportunity to stay in this field.”
The whispers started to become more intense inside my head and I was finding hard to deal with the fact that the clerk could not hear any of it. 
“Ryan, “ it yelled.  “Are you not listening to me?  This is of global importance.  This is beyond you and everyone around you.  Do you not understand what I am tell you?”
“Of course I understand what you are telling me!  Can’t you see that I’m busy at the moment!”
“Are you ok Mr Peters?”  Asked the clerk.
“Yes, of course I am.  Just a little on edge.”
“Well, can we just finish this interview?”
“Yes, yes, of course we can.  Please, continue.  It won’t happen again.”
“Ok, are you on any medication Mr Peters?  Maybe because of your accident?”
“Hurry up Ryan, there is very little time.”
“It’s ok, I just have a bit of a ringing in my ears.”
“Ryan, you aren’t listening!”  This was no longer a whisper, it was like an intense shouting in my head.  I could tell that the clerk had noticed that I was cringing from this but he moved the interview right along,  “have you thought about any other areas of employment that you’d like to go into Mr Peters?”
Right then there was a flash and everything around me had become frozen.  I knew that I had seen this before and it did make me wonder why they didn’t just do this to Richard Saunders.  “Look, this is getting very annoying!  Why don’t you just pull Mr Saunders into you little frozen time world and convince him yourself.  Really, wouldn’t that cut out the middle man, wouldn’t it?”
“Ryan, you just can’t understand what you are, can you?  You are a chosen one and only you can accomplish this.”
“What, are you saying that this is me that froze time?”
“Yes and only you can see me and hear me.”
“I can see you?”
“Only if I want you to, but I cannot let anybody else see me.  Nobody else can hear me either.”
“But I thought that it was the stone that did that?”
“But the stone chooses a mortal and only one mortal per area.”
“You mean there are more people doing this little job?”
“Of course there is, the world is a very big place.  There are thousands of people just like you.”
I hadn’t considered this earlier, but it made sense and would have been really egotistical for me to think that I was the only one.  “Just big of an area are we talking about here?”
“Around 2 thousand square kilometres.”
“That really is a considerable area, isn’t it?”
“Not in comparison to the entire planet.  You need to put this into perspective Ryan.  Now we really don’t have time for this now.  Finish this interview and get to work.  The time is ticking.”  With another great flash, everything started up again.  I was starting to believe that I might really be going crazy because I wasn’t really concerned about the fact that I was hearing voices and I was able to freeze time. 
“Well Mr Peters, have you given it any thought at all?”
“Oh, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it.  Maybe something that will keep me outside a lot of the time.  I was thinking maybe gardening?  I’m not sure about the qualifications that I’d need to be a gardener, but I think I could do it.”
“Any thing else?  I’d recommend a number of different avenues to start with, especially in this job market.  Have you ever considered relocating?”
“What do you mean, move?”
“Yes Mr Peters, that would mean moving to another area.”  I had never really considered that as an option. Everything that I knew was here in the city.  Then again, I did say gardening.  Why would anyone need a gardener here in the city?  Damn, I wasn’t really ready for this.  I didn’t know what I wanted to do and my options seemed to be closing for me.  There was also the fact that I had this 2 thousand square kilometres ‘area’ that I had to save people in.  “Mr Peters, are you alright?  You seem to be a little troubled by the prospect of relocation.  Is that going to be a problem?”
“No, no, not a problem and yeah, I’m fine.  Look can we just finish completing these form so that I can get out of here?”  I was getting irritable with this and there wasn’t really any reason for me to be here.  Besides, This voice in my head wanted me on to this Mr Saunders as soon as possible.  I was also very much aware that I wouldn’t really be considered until my severance weeks were up and even then, it was only about £60 - £70 a week.  Would even be enough to help out with the food. 
“Ok Mr Peters, just sign here and the back of the booklet.  We will let you know in due course.  You will need to come in every two weeks to sign on, but you will also have to provide some evidence to show that you were actively looking for employment.”
“Sure,” I said as I passed the form back to the clerk and got up from my chair.  The clerk then handed me a few pamphlets and said “Mr Peters, here are a few pamphlets for you, one is concerning the penalties for fraud and the others of dealing with housing benefit and the like.  Good luck in your job search.”  The clerk walked me out to the front and I made it out the door.  I couldn’t help but think that the whole thing was a complete waste of time.   
“It was a waste of time Ryan.”
“What, you can read my thoughts as well?”
“Don’t worry Ryan, I won’t be able to tell anyone your thoughts.”
“That’s not the point, I would like some privacy.”
“Would it make you feel better if you knew that I can read anybodies thoughts?”
That didn’t make me feel better either.  All that meant was that the voice was always able to read my thoughts.  “Ok, what about Mr Saunders, how am I going to find out where he is?”  A couple of people walked past me at that point and I realized how crazy I must have looked.  I ducked down an alley and hide in a doorway.  It didn’t make me feel any better about talking to a voice that nobody else could hear, but at least I wasn’t in full view.
“You know that he goes to a pub named the Cock and Bull and you know his name.  What else do you know?”
“Well, nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Well, I figure that Mr Saunders will head over to the pub after work as most people do, especially single men of his age.  That really leaves me several hours until I’ll have the opportunity to even try to talk to him.”
“You’re probably right Ryan.”
“I am right, so why did you rush me through the interview in the Dole office?”
“Just messing with your head.”
I couldn’t believe it; this voice was just fucking with me!  “What do you mean?”
“Come on Ryan, it wasn’t that bad.  The clerk thought you were trying to make him believe that you were crazy so that you could go on disability.  This is your priority now anyway.”
I wasn’t really prepared to hear this, I thought if you actually had some kind of divine calling that it was serious and that the being that were guiding you didn’t joke around.  There was a lot that I wasn’t enjoying about this and now that I felt that I was the butt of some ones joke, it wasn’t making any of this any easier.  “Go to Hell, I’m not doing this anymore.  Not if I can’t even tell is you are serious about it or not.  It’s as if I’m putting my life on hold for your amusement.”
“Don’t be like that, I am serious.  The whole thing here is very serious.”
“Fuck it, I’m starting to wonder if you are even real.  This whole thing is just in my head.”
“Really?  So the stone hitting you on the nose, being in the hospital and the encounter with the elf was just in your head?  Come to think of it, you said that you still have the stone, where is it?”
This was driving me insane. Whether I really was or not was actually in doubt but if I weren’t; I soon would be.  “Look, I’m going to go and clear my head while I think about this.  I will also try to find out where this pub is.  I have until about half four this afternoon to get there.  I have a good feeling about him going there after work, providing of course that he didn’t just end up there once and picked up a match book. “
“I guess it would be possible.”
“You really aren’t much of a help, you know that?”
“I’m only a guide, I can’t interfere with these people.  You know that Ryan.  Only you can hear me.”
“Thanks, but you said that you can read his thoughts.”
“I could only be there in the future with you, he wasn’t thinking about the pub at that time.”
I figured that this was going nowhere, so I just walked back out to the main road and over to a coffee shop. 
I stayed in the coffee shop till just after lunchtime and when I pulled out some change to pay for my coffee, I found the book of matches.  The Cock and Bull, I’d have to find out where this pub was.  There was an address on the back that I was semi-familiar with.  Figuring that I had plenty of time to make it around to the pub, because the best time to find Richard Saunders would be after work.