To Be Or Not to Be...

'...Do not touch the stair rail with your bare hand.'Pamela quickly retracted her hand from the handrail. 'But why? Health and Safety and all that?''Your hand would freeze to the rail, Ma'am.''Oh, I see.'They both descended the spiral steps.'In my younger days, I once dated a Health and Safety rep. Max was quite good at it too. Took his role very seriously.'The aide now had to shout to be heard by Pamela.'Did you date him for long?''A few weeks, he was into some weird stuff.''What drugs and kinky S and M sex?''Certainly not. He wrote books, mostly science fiction. He wrote a series of books about alien visitors coming to earth to steal children to repopulate the planet... now, what was it called?' Pamela stopped dead on the stairs, her face turned to one of sheer horror, and panic began to set in. In her mind, she said the words... The Quimer Chronicles, her lips forming the words. 'Oh my God, I never realised until now.''Sorry Ma'am I can hardly hear you.''Maxwell Deighton's books. I called them trash and said they would never sell, as they were too far-fetched. I never read one, but he was writing Book Four when I finished with him...'