When my aged maiden aunt came down from her bedroom after her two-hour rest period and excitedly announced at the tea table that he was crossing the pond to visit us and she wished that she could meet him I pricked up my ears.The pond in our back court had been drained when I was born, and anyone wishing to visit us would either come from Knowstone, Roachill, Or Holymoor cross and in through the farm gate. And of course she'd meet him if he was coming to visit us.
The mystery, unlike our pond, deepened when she said she'd heard it on the wireless. My jaw dropped, who did we know famous enough to be on the wireless. Spencer Vivian a sort of uncle or cousin removed – a magician and member of The Magic Circle, had I'd been told appeared on the wireless, but that was years ago.
She continued,"A great evangelist. Saved a lot of people." My mother and father nodded, and having been brought up to speak only when spoken to I just listened. Perhaps an evangelist was a sort of illusionist conjuror, but who had he saved and why? Perhaps it was one of his tricks. A month later at the breakfast table a part of the mystery was solved when she said:"Billy Graham the evangelist has arrived from America. I'd love to be in London, but I shall never get there at my time of life. Now if he'd come to Molton on market day I could catch the bus."
I still didn't know what our pond had to do with a man who was possibly a magician, but if he did ever visit us by crossing the pond at least he wouldn't to have to wear his wellies.