When Your Beloved Is In Someone's Pot

It's twenty three kilometres from Esperance Airport to Esperance, down the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway. Who knew?

Most of the travellers are renting cars.

If Arthur were here.......begins Gaius.

Enough of comparisons. Sweezus decides to do the type of thing Arthur would do.

.......

Baby Pierre and Brianna wait under the whale tail for Ageless.

The subtle colours of evening non-sunset have morphed into star-studded blackness.

A car pulls up nearby, and for a moment Baby Pierre is hopeful.

But it's only Gaius and Sweezus, getting out and saying goodbye.

Hey! says Baby Pierre. Over here guys!

Remarkable! says Gaius. You've made it to Esperance before us. Is Ageless nearby?

No, says Brianna, He's been kidnapped and eaten.

Woah! says Sweezus. How come?

The bus driver, says Baby Pierre. But he won't have been eaten.

When your world is left in tatters, sings Brianna.

Who is this pretty little shell with the tinkling voice? asks Gaius.

Brianna is pleased. She knows that she tinkles, but it's nice to be noticed.

Me, says Brianna. I'm going to Perth to be polished but I'm making a detour. I want to meet Kobo. Where is she?

Good question, where is she? says Gaius.

I'm here, says Kobo. Who wants to meet me?

Me, says Brianna. But only if it's you.

And I only want to meet you if it's you, says Kobo. I'll come out if it is.

Of course it is, says Brianna.

Then I'm coming, says Kobo.

She emerges from Gaius 's back pack all fresh and creamy. What a waste though. Ageless is in someone's pot.

Or is he?

Who is this making his scratchy way towards the whale tail on the Esperance foreshore?

My daddy, The Claw! cries Baby Pierre.

My son, cries Ageless. I have been captured by terrorists and escaped! Oh joy, and here is my beloved!

Kobo could not have asked for a more dramatic reunion. It reminds her somehow of Bel Canto. And she is Roxane. And he is....her accompanist, who dies.

Brianna is now certain that Kobo is Kobo, the famous reader.

She feels an instant rapport.

It occurs to Brianna that she could well be Kobo's daughter.

Meanwhile Ageless is telling his story.

(I won't repeat it, because it's all lies).