Baby Stupid Hat

Next morning, in Melbourne.

Karl Marx is in his hotel room.

He should be returning to Adelaide but hasn't found Terence.

Is he morally obliged to?

He sits on the edge of the bed, and stares at himself in the mirror.

Marx-in-the-mirror looks back at himself, sitting on the bed staring into the mirror.

Karl Marx: I am not his real grandpa.

Marx-in-the-mirror: He is but a child.

Karl Marx: No, he is merely a statue.

Marx-in-the-mirror: You still have a duty of care. I'm just saying.

Karl Marx: By what system of ethics does a man have a duty of care to a runaway statue?

Marx-in-the-mirror: A BABY statue. Who ran away to be with you. Shortly after, you bought him a hat. Also you taught him to recite the four types of alienation.

Karl Marx: Yes. I wonder if he still remembers them.

Marx-in-the-mirror: Tch! As if that's a relevant question!

It looks like Marx-in-the-mirror is winning.

There is a knock on the door.

It's Belle-et-Bonne, who has had a big night and is now feeling guilty.

Haven't you found him either? asks Belle.

No, says Marx.

We should ring the police, says Belle. I feel something awful has happened.

......

Belle is right. Something awful has happened.

Terence has run out of the Labour in Vain and hopped onto a tram to Saint Kilda.

And sometimes people on trams can be quite abusive, if we look different.

Three people on the tram, whom we shall not identify for stereotyping reasons (this being fiction), are shouting rude things at Terence.

1st Person: Go back to where you came from!

Terence: Wah!

2nd person: Peru was it? Say something in Peruvian!

Terence: Wah!

3rd person: Taking our jobs! Fuck you, baby-stupid-hat!

Terence: Wah!

Terence is very upset. He didn't even know the tram was going to Saint Kilda.

.......

Anyway, that was last night.

.....

In the morning Terence is on the esplanade at Saint Kilda.

Joggers are passing by.

Joggers are always a nice type of person.

One of them stops and takes her podphones out of her ears so she can listen to the answer to this question:

Nice jogger: Where did you get those amazing gecko shorts from?

Terence: Barcelona.

Nice jogger: So cool.

Now Terence feels a whole heap better about himself.,

It doesn't take much.

We should all try to remember this lesson.

........

Terence is still lost though.