RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33580, 8 July 1974, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

GHOST SHIP

They must still be talking about her at the testing station. She, at any rate, is certain that they are. When she goes back, twice a year, for renewal, she feels as if her face is as bright as a brake light, even when she tries to shrink beneath the steering wheel and conduct negotiations in the manner of a ventriliquist. It all began the very first time she took her car in for a new warrant. She knew she had to get in a queue. This she did. She was given a ticket, she paid some money, a man came round tooting the horn and slamming the doors, and then got very busy with a punch, making a delightful row of holes in her ticket. What more natural, when he desisted, than to drive to the exit office, and pick up her new warrant? Which she did. It was a day or two later before the law caught up on her. A traffic inspector—as he was then—called to advise her that motorists were not encouraged to race through the testing station, over the brake testing equipment, con their way to the issue of warrants, and flee out the far side with a squeal of tyres. He put it rather more politely than that, but the message was clear. She had to return to go through the whole business again. Soon, perhaps, her guilt feelings will lesson. She knows now that there are several stops to be made. But still, she is sure she can hear them talking, on her arrival, about the Phantom Lady of Fendalton.