Older Persons

The VeloDrone went over to the bar to buy another round of drinks. When he returned, Marie and Belle et Bonne were standing up and Le Bon David was on the floor with his head under the settee.

The VeloDrone: What's happening? Why is David down there?

Marie: An old lady asked us to stand up so she could look for her purse. She thought she might have lost it down the back of the couch.

Belle et Bonne: It wasn't there.

The VeloDrone: So what's David up to?

Marie: He thought it might have fallen underneath.

Le Bon David ( emerging from under the settee ): No, nothing there.

The VeloDrone: That old lady has made a fool of you!

Le Bon David: What! A fool of me! How?

The VeloDrone: I heard her talking to her friend over at the bar. They were rolling a die. The first one to throw a six had to persuade a random gentleman to stick his bottom in the air.

Le Bon David: I say! How mean!

The VeloDrone: Yes, but at least it proves my point that older persons are not averse to abandoning themselves to the vagaries of fortune once in a while. You see, girls?

Belle et Bonne: Well, I'm stunned.

Marie: If you believe him.

Le Bon David: This is all too much. Time to go. Where's the toilet?

The VeloDrone: There's only one. And there's a queue.

Le Bon David: What a place! I'm not coming here again. Where's our next show and what is it?

Marie: It's Adolf, at the Royalty Theatre.

The Pocket Watch

This is a story about an old silver pocket watch. It begins in the middle.

My sister gave me the pocket watch last Thursday. She said it had belonged to Joe, our dad. She said our mum gave it to her 28 years ago when dad died.

Aha! Why didn't mum give it to me?

That would be because straight after dad died, mum visited my sister who at that time lived in Scotland. She would have taken the pocket watch to give my sister as a keepsake. She would have said to me, although I don't remember, I'm going to take this pocket watch and give it to your sister, as a keepsake, I'm sure you don't mind. I would have said, no I don't mind, and then begun to wonder if I should mind, since she'd asked.

Unless she didn't ask.

So, the pocket watch remained in Scotland until it came back to Australia with my sister. And it rested in its little blue silk cotton-lined purse for all those years, moving from Adelaide to Port Douglas to Wardell, with her.

Until last Thursday, when she gave it to me, saying, this belonged to dad, I think it was his father's or his grandfather's. Then she opened up the back and showed me the name engraved inside: Samuel Craig. Not dad's name, but his brother's.

Was that dad's father's name, asked my sister. No, I said, his name was Joseph too. Well maybe it belonged to his father's brother, said my sister, or his grandfather. Mum will know.

But when I brought the pocket watch home to Adelaide, and showed it to our mum, she didn't know.

to be continued.......