CHILLIN' WITH GEORGE

"So George, did you and Sandy make it to the summit of Everest or not?"

George Leigh Mallory smiled and leaned forward to speak - I was just a breath away from knowing the truth. His mouth opened, but with the movement of his lips came, not the first syllable of the first word of a sentence that would solve a mystery, but a song: "We are the champions my friend ... And we'll keep on fighting 'till the end ..."

"Oh give me a break !" I screamed, "Queen ! Performing right now, right here, in the quiet of the dawn, in the middle of the North Wales hills. That's ludicrous !"

"No more ludicrous than my being here talking to you" shouted George as he emptied the last drops of liquid from a can of beer over the dying embers of the fire. "After all, I have been dead for nearly eighty five years. In fact by the time you were born I'd already been dead for 25 years you know."

"Valid point George, valid point" I said, "but this is my dream so I get to decide who and what I want in it. YOU I want, QUEEN I DO NOT !"

George stood, turned to face the cliffs of Lliwedd, and sighed. "Well old chap as much as I've enjoyed your company I think it's time for me to be off. I really cannot sit around here listening to that infernal racket. I have so many things to do, so many places to see." Then, smiling once more, he raised his hand in a gesture of farewell, and began to walk away down the slope.

"Wait George ! I shouted after him. "What about my question ?"

"Ah yes. Everest. Perhaps we'll talk again some day."

And with that George Mallory walked back into eternity. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. It was 7.30 am. The fact that the radio alarm was doing only what I'd asked it to do did not save it from the violent assault which followed. "BLOODY QUEEN ?" I screamed as the alarm bounced across the room. "George Leigh Mallory was just about to give me an Everest exclusive. And you wake me up up to the sound of bloody Queen !" The alarm of course did not defend itself. Quite apart from the fact that it was an inanimate object, it now lay mortally wounded in the corner, surrounded by the digital debris of it's own internal organs.