A/N: Well, it seems there will be more than one more chapter...

.

the adventure of senses - listen!

.

Without any mercy Ardery had officially summoned them to Steven's 'interactive lecture' by sending them a clear memo via the team's electronic infoboard. There was no way for Tommy to decline it anyhow. Barbara instead had looked forward to the event in the late afternoon the next day. It took place in a rather dull suburb of London in a rather dull suburbian education centre.

It's all about SENSES! it said on the not so dull poster at the door to the building. TAKE PART in the adventure with Dr Steven Ellerby.

"Adventure!" Lynley snorted when he held the door open to Barbara.

"Just open your mind, Sir." she answered. "It surely will be interesting."

"Ah..." He still was not convinced. "And isn't he a bit too young for being a Doctor? He can't be older than 18 or 19."

"You haven't talked to him properly, have you?" Barbara shook her head in disbelief and opened the next door for him raising her eyebrows as he walked past. She shook her head again to emphasise her disapproval. "He's 26, Sir!"

The two detectives were a bit late so they did not go down the few low steps to the front rows of the small lecture theatre but stayed back up where the entrance was. Steven already stood at the desk in the front. Obviously he already had started.

"Ah, late guests! Welcome, take a seat."

Neither Barbara nor Tommy answered. Politely they just nodded at the people inquisitively turning their heads.

Steven already had picked someone to be his assistant for the adventure. The woman was placing small cardboard boxes in front of every second listener and also one in front of Barbara. A note on it said Please don't open yet.

Then Steven began.

"Good. Now that we are complete, we can start. Let me say a few words about me first. I am Dr Steven Ellerby. Not a doctor for this..." he made a vague gesture and smiled. "Actually I'm a historian. But I'm blind." He talked a bit how and when he had lost his eyesight and about the impact this had had to his life and what he had learned through his handicap. He even had drawn a profit from it. "You may find it funny that a blind man talks to you about senses. Me, who doesn't see, who suffers from the lack of an important sense, THE important sense, you might think - the sense of sight. But I've learned how my other senses have improved and I speak to you today about these other senses we all also have. Or are there any deaf people?"

There was silence. "I don't hear any answers so it obviously means no."

He grinned. Those who understood the joke also grinned or snickered.

"Well. What are these senses? We taste, we feel, we smell, we hear, we see - well, at least most of us." Now there even was light laughter. "And although our sense of sight usually is pretty good, humans don't have the best of eyes among all creatures under the sun. But it's normally the one we rely on the most. Signs, lights, gestures, tiny little expressions. It makes living together quite easier but there still is more and today, if you're willing to take part, we'll try to discover them. Let's start with a short film. I hope my assistant has marked the right file because I can't check it properly but I'd like to spare you another cute cat video." Again there was a bit of laughter. "Oh, by the way, the film plays in Kendal. Nice village in Cumbria. You have to pay a visit one day."

He nodded to where he supposed the woman, his assistant, would be ready to press the button on the laptop. A short film was shown via a projector. A car drove across a bridge, a man in a business suit walked along the footpath, a woman with a wheeled walker crossed the zebra crossing. That was all.

"Thank you, Amanda." Steven turned his face towards his audience again. "Well, what do you remember?"

Hesitantly a few people answered that they saw a car, a bridge, an old an a new building, a man in a suit, an old lady and a dandelion at the foot of the bridge railing.

"Well spotted, Ma'am. Anything else?" Steven asked.

At first there was silence. Then someone said "There was a car hooting in the background."

"Good. What else?"

They start to remember the footsteps of the man. "He obviously was in a hurry, hm? Not like the old Lady with her walker. Ugly screeching wheels..."

Some nodded.

"The car has a problem with its camshaft chain." a man muttered into his beard.

"Well, thank you, Sir." Steven answered encouraging. "I didn't know what it was exactly, but we all could hear that it didn't sound healthy, couldn't we? You're a mechanic, Sir?"

"I am." the man answered.

"And I guess you listen a lot to the sounds of engines. That's certainly a very specific hearing but what we all do, or what I hope we all do, is listen to music. Was there music in the film?" Nobody answered. "Amanda, please replay the film, I think we should watch it again. There surely is more to it." Amanda replayed the film. When it ended Steven continued. "Okay, you've seen it before, and you surely knew what was shown. You probably have tried to focus on more details this time. On other details than the visible ones. So who's closed their eyes this time? Amanda, how many hands?"

"Twelve, Steven."

"That's a bit more than half of you. You see? Most of you instinctively have tried to focus on your hearing sense by shutting out your sight. That's what I do most of the time. Not exactly voluntarily, but I do. And that's the interesting point: when one sense is missing, the others automatically improve. That's why you've surely recognised more this time. What could that be?"

"Rushing water."

"A pneumatic hammer."

"A piano playing."

"Youngsters being rude to each other. And a glass bottle."

"An indignant duck."

"Good." Steven was excited. "And if we were there, we'd also feel the sun warming our skin, a light breeze cooling it, a drop of water from someone who's watering their flowers. Or at least we hope so and it wasn't the duck's indignation raining down on us." Again he earned amusement. "And we would smell the exhaust of the car, maybe smell the hint of the man's aftershave, smell the light touch of swamp from the river, taste the crunchy dust from the road works behind us between our teeth. We would sense so much more." He talked about scientific details for a while before he came to the interesting part of this lecture. "And now I'd like to get to the experimental part. Let's try something. Amanda? Please be so kind and distribute these."

"Oh, that'll be interesting." With an amused giggle Amanda got up and started to distribute blindfolds.

Lynley frowned at his Sergeant but Barbara only rolled her eyes signalising him to not be so unreceptive. At the front Steven continued his explanations.

"Amanda will give you all a blindfold. In front of every second seat is a little box. Please keep it closed still but start with saying hello to your neighbour with whom you're going to go through this adventure."

"Hello..." Barbara murmured with a smile.

Despite her lovely playful expression Lynley groaned annoyed and Barbara snickered.

"Sir!" she hissed at him reproachfully. "Don't be like that!"

"Ah, Barbara. It's you!" Steven suddenly addressed her with a cheery voice. "Nice to see you here. I almost thought you wouldn't come."

Barbara shot another quick glance at her boss who surely would have loved not to be addressed personally. "Hi Steven!"

"And Tommy, I guess?" Steven's assumption made Barbara snort a short laugh. She had to look away from her boss so he would not see her grin.

"Mhm." Tommy muttered. Steven had a knowing smile on his face.

After another surreptitious glance at her boss who was looking rather grim and fidgeted with the dark piece of cloth Barbara finally put on the blindfold like everybody else in the room. This surely would become interesting.

"Okay." Steven went on after Amanda had told him they all were blind now. "Since we're an uneven number of people Amanda has the advantage to play this with me. When you all have put on the blindfolds you and your neighbour are finally allowed to check what's in the box. Don't be afraid, there's nothing rude or hurting in it. Amanda, you have this box all for your own. Now, what do you feel?"

"Hmmm..." Together with the audience Amanda started to unpack. Lynley just sat there quietly grumbling while Barbara opened the box in front of them and grabbed inside. "Something round..." Amanda hesitantly said. "A rubber ball? Well, sort of. It's another box, isn't it?"

"Yes, but please keep it closed for now. What else?"

There also was a hard dice, a soft flat pack and another cardboard box. It all felt distinctively different. All were containers and all audibly had something in it. Amanda described how the boxes felt and the others in the room added one or the other detail.

"And the way you sense these shapes and surfaces you also could see with your fingers how people look. But first we'll listen to each other. Focus on your sense of hearing and tell us what you hear. Except for... Well, please be polite. We won't reveal anything offending, okay? What do you hear?"

After several moments of silence a woman suddenly laughed. "My husband is hungry."

Immediately it broke the ice completely and everybody was telling each other what they could hear from their seat neighbours. There was a constant murmur.

Tommy and Barbara stayed rather silent. Barbara did not need to listen to his breath. Although she had been busy with the box and its contents she had tried to hear if Lynley was taking part and since she had started to focus on his sounds with her eyes covered she sensed him with her entire body. Now she had to clear her throat before she told him that she could hear his feet tapping on the floor. This would be something harmless, she thought.

"It's rather strange, isn't it?" he finally asked.

"What? You tapping? Well it's-"

"No. What we're doing here." Tommy chuckled lightly. He seemed to have found his own joy in the strange experience. "I also can hear your stomach rumbling, Barbara. Are you hungry again?"

She inhaled.

"And I can hear you breathing." he quietly continued and Barbara only exhaled without saying anything. Fortunately he was not able to see her blushing. Their shoulders bumped. Both had leaned towards the other while they tried to listen and guess what they hear.

"You've just loosened your tie, haven't you?"

"Mhm. It's rather warm in here. Stop clattering your canine teeth." She sometimes did it when she was nervous. Tommy knew it all too well and it usually annoyed him. Not this time. "There's nothing to be nervous about here."

As if! Barbara thought. She stifled a laugh. "Sorry, Sir." she whispered. "And you should stop drumming your fingers on the table. Patience, Sir! This event won't last forever. Just be game."

"I'm not impatient." Again Tommy leaned closer to Barbara. "I have to admit that I'm somehow nervous when I can't see anything."

What should I say? she thought. "What should Steven say?" she answered.

.

...