Saturday 23 March 2013

Doing a Sherlock.

I followed somebody else’s footprints in the snow when I walked along Mill Lane tonight. I compared the size and shape of the prints, and also the relative stride lengths, and decided it was a woman around 5ft 5 with size 5 or 6 (UK) feet. I noticed that her footprints were joined by a dog’s paw prints when she moved over to the verge, which suggests she reined the dog in when there was a vehicle passing. It probably also explains why she stopped and turned round several times.

And then I had a wholly un-Sherlock thought. It struck me that it would be interesting to pass through one of those time portals you get in sci-fi stories, find myself in the same spot some years in the future, and meet my own ghost walking the other way. What an illuminating conversation we could have.

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