Read Online Dr. Who - BBC New Series 28 by Beautiful Chaos # Gary Russell - Free Book Online

honeymoon. It was Donnie’s first, Portia’s second, but both were enjoying themselves enormously.
    Donnie’s son had been his best man. His grandson had been pageboy. Portia’s granddaughter had been the flower-girl. They’d had two ceremonies, a full-on Jewish one and a simpler Christian one to reflect both their chosen faiths. Portia had always stayed in the Jewish faith,
    whereas Donnie’s family had pretty much abandoned it within weeks of arriving at Ellis Island a century and a bit earlier.
    They had overcome the odds – a cancer scare for Donnie, some severe frowning by Portia’s more traditional relatives and the death of their 8-year-old cat, Mr Smokey, a week before the ceremonies. After knowing each other for fifteen years, courting for the last six, they were finally together for ever.
    And here they were, in Donnie’s jeep, having bombed along the 8, passing through Danbury, before turning off the freeway and into the Connecticut countryside for their honeymoon.
    They had taken a nice colonial house outside Olivertown, thirteen miles from Danbury. The house belonged to one of Portia’s clients (she was a dog-walker, traipsing three times a day around Central Park with a variety of canines). The Carpenters were on FM radio, telling the world how they’d like to teach the world to sing, and the happy couple were singing along.
    They’d got through Abba, Dr Hook and the Medicine Show, Jo Stafford, and were nodding their heads gently along to Helen Reddy singing about how good it was to be insane: ‘No one asks you to explain’ they sang in unison as they pulled up outside the house they’d rented.
    Portia looked at her new husband. ‘Well, Mr DiCotta, we’re here.’
    ‘We sure are, Mrs DiCotta.’ Donnie winked at her.
    ‘Gotten used to that yet?’
    ‘Never will, I reckon,’ she laughed. ‘But I like it just
    the same.’ She leaned across the car and kissed Donnie as he switched the ignition off.
    And the radio kept playing.
    As they separated, they both looked at the fascia of the stereo.
    ‘That’s not good, Donnie,’ Portia DiCotta said. ‘Must be a short somewhere.’
    He nodded. ‘Darn it, I’d better get it fixed up now, hon.
    Otherwise we’ll have a flat battery tomorrow which would not be good as I want to take you up to that restaurant in New Preston. The food’s gorgeous, the hospitality’s first class and the view is to die for. You can look right down over Lake Waramaug and it’s real romantic.’
    Portia nodded. ‘You sort the car, I’ll put some coffee on.’
    Donnie reached out to feel under the dash for a loose wire. There was a tiny spark of electricity and the radio fell silent.
    ‘Well done you.’ Portia smiled. ‘Now you can help me get the cases out the back.’
    Donnie DiCotta said nothing. He just kept his hand under the dashboard of the jeep, staring ahead.
    ‘Donnie?’
    Nothing.
    Portia reached out to touch his shoulder, and he swung his head round to face her. Portia saw his eyes – not the beautiful blue eyes that she’d fallen in love with. These had been replaced by two solid orbs of burning purple light, minuscule tongues of electricity sparking from his tear ducts.
     
    She couldn’t say a word because he grabbed her head and kissed her on the mouth. Full. Hard. But not at all passionate.
    After a second or two, they broke apart.
    And now Portia DiCotta’s eyes were blazing with the same eerie purple energy.
    Wordlessly, they got out of the jeep and walked to the porch, studying the night sky above them, until Donnie pointed up to the right, to a blazing star that, had he been an expert in such things, he’d have known hadn’t been seen by human eyes for many centuries.
    He and his new wife held hands and stared at the star.
    ‘Welcome back,’ they breathed together.
    The Doctor was looking down on London.
    ‘I can see why you like it up here, Wilf,’ he said to the old man fussing beside him, sorting out a second little canvas seat