A Pivotal Moment

I've lost my thread now, says Ageless.

Collect your thoughts. I'll read my book, says Kobo.

I'll show the others my jam, says Lavender.

She really means Baby Pierre. But he is not back yet. There is only his mother, a circle of shells, and a blue rock, half turned to the window.

Nothing to see there, says Kobo.

Right! Got it! says Ageless. Next day, we all caught the train into Sydney, to celebrate Rabbie Burns' birthday.

How nice, says Kobo, opening The Dream of the Celt, by Vargos Llosa.

On the train we played a game with the children, says Ageless. It was called Stop the Bus.

Did I play? asks Lavender.

You wouldn't know how to, says Ageless. How many things can you think of beginning with P in the category of Mathematics?

Pencil, says Lavender. Paper, Pi-chart, Polygon, Parabola....

You only need one, says Ageless.

You said how many, says Lavender.

In case we play it again, says Ageless, and the letter P is again randomly chosen.

Ageless, get on with the story, says Kobo.

Certainly, my dumpling, says Ageless. I am coming to a dark part.

Ooh, says Lavender. Is it scary?

Of course it is, says Ageless. We go to China Town for Yum Cha.

Here we are, sat at the table, Jean, Rabbie, me, Butterfly and Fish, and their mother. Fish gets up to look into the aquarium at the live seafood. He calls me over.

I look. I say nothing. My seafood fellows do not indicate that they see me. They undulate up and down. They purport not to know the future.

I know the future! squeaks Lavender.

You don't know mine, says Ageless.

Go on, says Kobo, closing The Dream of the Celt. What happened?

We sit down again, says Ageless. Jean pours a cup of green tea for Rabbie.

We are offered prawn dumplings, spring rolls, pork buns, fried calamari.

We sample them all. We drink copious amounts of green tea and the inevitable happens. We must visit the toilets.

Hee hee, giggles Lavender.

Not funny, says Ageless. In this establishment the toilets can be accessed from the restaurant or from a side street. In order to protect them from damage by ill-intentioned persons, a code must be entered on a panel fixed to the door of the toilets.

How do you know what the code is? asks Lavender.

It is displayed on the inner door of the restaurant that leads to the toilets, says Ageless. One code for the ladies. One for the gents.

Fish has committed both codes to memory.

When I emerge from the toilet, Fish is outside, tampering with the code to the ladies.

He claims to have altered the sequence, and locked his mother and sister inside.

I walk back to the table with Fish, past the aquarium, wondering what will happen, and should I do something about it.

And what did happen? asks Kobo.

Nothing, says Ageless. They were not locked in. But for me, it was a pivotal moment.

Pivotal, says Lavender. Is that one?

I suppose it's broadly mathematical, says Kobo. But I don't think that Ageless is playing.