Reversals

Time to leave Alice Springs. Everyone has their reasons.

They are all on the train.

Arthur has paid for a ticket with money he got from the gig. He leans back in his comfy red overnighter. But it isn't that comfy. What's that under his leg?

He sticks his hand in his pocket. Not the one with the milk that has turned into cheese, and the scraper. The other one. It's a hole. He pokes further down into the hole with his finger. He reaches a gap in the hem of his shorts where the stitching has ripped. There is something in there. It's the zircon. He winkles it out. It's asleep. He drops it into a waste bin, behind an empty seat.

Behind him sit Vello and David.

Vello is not talking to Arthur, because of the vowels. He is determined not to say one word to him until he explains. O after U. How frustrating that even with his great intellectual capacity he can't work out why for himself.

David is thinking about getting home and seeing his mother. Mrs Hume has been sending him anxious texts. Her car has been squeaking whenever she reverses. She has taken it to the garage a number of times and they still haven't fixed it. It is getting embarrassing now. David wonders what he can do. Perhaps it's the brakes, or the rotors. Or a mouse. David knows nothing about cars.

Ageless is in a bit of a pickle. He is one seat in front of Arthur, on the floor in a basket. It was the only way to get on. It is the basket of his arch enemy Mr Spin-ooza, who invited him into the basket. It is always irritating when your arch enemy does you a favour.

Ageless is thinking about Kobo. No doubt she will want to know what he thought about the Arabian Nights. What will she say when he has to admit that he lost it, and has come home with The Great Philosophers instead? Travelling in the picnic basket of one of them. Mr Spin-ooza. The biggest determinist of the lot.

And where is Gaius? He is sitting on his own a few seats behind the others, his middle sized claws balanced on each of his knees, making copious notes for a planned dissertation which will include annotated comments on everything that he has observed in the last week.

Was it really only a week? It seems longer.