Iceni Columnist Keri Beevis

Socially Distanced Walk

I recently went for a socially distanced walk with Mama Beev.

Now there is a road not far from where I live that is no longer used by traffic and cuts through heavy woodland. I'm not brave enough to walk down there by myself (have you read my books?) but with my 73-year-old mother to protect me, I was fine.

Above: Keri Beevis

As we headed into the woods there was a chap a little further ahead, also walking in the same direction. He wasn't walking overly quickly and he had a big stick he was swinging in his hand and occasionally using to hit at the overgrown banks on the side of the road. He was also dressed rather formally for a walk down a wooded lane. back to his odd choice of clothing for a walk and how he had been all strange with his stick.

To be honest, he seemed rather odd and he was spooking me just a little. I slowed my pace so there was a little more distance between us and I was surprised Mama Beev didn't comment, either to say that he made her feel uncomfortable too or to question what he was doing with his big stick. Gulp!

'You definitely don't remember him?' I started describing him, certain she would go, oh yes, him. 'He was literally walking just a couple of metres ahead of us, mother!'

'No, I don't remember seeing anyone on the road. It was just us.'

So there I am convinced my potential stick man murderer was actually a flipping ghost and thinking, 'Yikes!' when I remember I had taken a photo of the road with the trees arching over it.

Although we had stopped at that point and he was a lot further ahead, he would still be in it...

If he was real.

Anyway, all was good. He didn't turn out to be a mass murderer, our paths eventually going in different directions. Mama Beev and I continued with our walk and about an hour later as we were cutting back across the park, I mentioned the creepy man and his stick.

'What man?' she asked.

'The one who was just in front of us as we walked through the woods,' I told her. 'But there wasn't anyone in front of us.'

Huh?

Okay, so I was officially freaking out by this point. What did she mean there had been no man? I thought Mama Beev always tells me I am the least observant member of our family.

Frantically I reached for my phone and quickly flicked through my photos. I found the wooded picture, couldn't see him in it, but then I zoomed in and phew! There he was in the distance.

Guess I now know where I get it from.

(PS. To Stick Man, if he happens to read this, and thinks 'Ooh, hang on. I was walking around a wooded lane in Norwich with a big stick recently', I apologise for thinking you were a weirdo and a ghost.)

My crime thriller, D For Dead is available to buy in paperback and Kindle now.

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