A Night On The Beach

       Number 6 was restless, well that’s because he didn’t drink his nightcap of hot chocolate to help him sleep. He couldn’t get into bed because of the cat which he didn’t wish to disturb, so he lay upon the recliner in order to sleep, sleep. sleep….that’s it… sleep softly until tomorrow. Lovely gentle sleep, and a lovely tomorrow. So he got up, tried the door, finding it locked he threw back the curtains of the French window, opened it and went out into the night. Well there’s no point in lying in bed when you’re awake. So he got up, went out, had a long walk on the beach it’s marvellous that time of day, invigorating the wind brisk and clear. The rain on your face, the wind on your cheek. The thing is can we take what Number 6 said at face value, did he in fact go out early that morning and take a long walk along the beach? Or did he make it up simply for the benefit of Number 14? If Number 6 had gone out early that morning as he said he had done, then the French window must have been left unlocked again, his only way to leave, as the door to the cottage would have been securely locked.
   So a night on the beach is more preferable to another night spent cooped up in his cell cottage. But if he hadn’t done so he would never have come across the dead body of Number 34. Yes I realize the body wasn’t wearing a numbered badge but this may have come off in the water. And Number 6 would not have found the small transistor radio in the dead man’s pocket, little good it did him. But at least he eventually heard a voice from the world beyond The Village. Mind you I’m surprised the radio actually worked after having been in the water!
   When Number 6 eventually returned to his cottage there was his recriminating personal maid flicking a feather duster about the place. She accused him of not having slept in his cottage the previous night, perhaps that’s also against the rules, like keeping a cat. In that case Number 2 herself is in flagrant breach of the rules! But at least Number 6 had had a special delivery, his costume for Carnival. But no, it’s his own suit of clothes weren’t they supposed to have been burnt? Perhaps these are an identical suit of clothes, just like that time in ‘It’s Your Funeral’ and the episode of an identical wristwatch, which Number 6 sees as being a sign that he’s still himself. “Lucky you” says his maid with a smile. Well he would still be himself wouldn’t he, seeing as ‘Dance of The Dead’ was originally to have been only the second episode! 

Be seeing you