A Tour De Force Of Plotting

Arthur and Sweezus have arrived in Barcelona, locked up their bikes, headed straight for the beach and dropped their backpacks on the sand.

Thwuck. Thwuck.

Race you, says Sweezus.

Arthur starts running. Then he stops. Sweezus isn't coming. He's on his mobile.

Arthur goes back. Now what?

Yeah, says Sweezus. Yeah, yeah, where? Awesome! Okay.

He stares down the beach past sunshades, umbrellas and people. Yes, there they are!

Come on, Arthur, says Sweezus.

.....

Brill, says Sweezus. We found you.

Excuse me? says Vello.

It's us! says Sweezus.

Oh yes, says Vello. Turned up at last. And with comical haircuts.

Undercuts, says Sweezus. The top can be either slick, diagonal or messy, depending on how you comb it. It's probably kinda messy at the moment....

Yes it is, says Schopenhauer. Messy. Yours too, Arthur. Don't you have combs?

Course we do, says Sweezus. This is our stuff here. Can we leave it with you guys while we go for a swim?

Certainly, says David. On this beach one should watch one's belongings.

Sweezus and Arthur race down to the water and belly flop, with identical splashes.

Look! says Vello. That thing sticking out of Arthur's back pack. What is it?

Some sort of doll, says Schopenhauer, pulling out Arthur's Art Toy.

It's Astroboy, says Maria Goyri.

So it is, says Ramon Menendez Pidal. A very nice example.

What are the Pidals doing here? Wasn't it time for siesta?

Ah yes, but that was before Ramon found that his wife had encountered a group of philosophers who knew of his fame and his research. He has decided to forgo his siesta.

They have been sitting on the beach under an orange and yellow umbrella, while Ramon recounts the exploits of  El Cid.

It's a long story.

El Cid fights Moors. Changes sides. He fights Christians. He is captured. He escapes. He leads an army of both Moors and Christians. He is a hero. He dies. In death, he leads an army of  one thousand knights in a final victory over the Saracens......

I fail to see how that was possible, says David.

His body was embalmed, says Ramon, and dressed in a coat of mail, a sword placed in his hand. He was mounted on his favourite horse. At midnight, he was borne outside the gates of Valencia at the head of his army.

Impossible, says David. He would have fallen straight off.

Have you ever ridden a horse? says Maria Goyri, hotly.

So you see it had been going quite well, and now it was going quite badly.

What a godsend that Vello had just at that moment called Sweezus, and Sweezus had answered, and been within one hundred metres and needed someone to look after his backpack (and Arthur's) and that when he and Arthur had belly flopped into the water (with identical splashes) Arthur's Astroboy had been spotted and removed from the backpack after which it became evident that Maria Goyri and Ramon Menendez Pidal were experts not only in the Cantar de Mio Cid , but Japanese Manga as well, and this had served admirably to:

change the subject to something contemporary.