Barbs Of Pain

Outrageous! says Kobo. No watermelon. How was it advertised?

Ageless is wary. Kobo may not be serious. No watermelon versus the gallows for Roger Casement. Really?

He treads carefully.

Over a loud speaker, says Ageless. IT'S A WATERMELON KIND OF DAY! COME UP TO THE SAUSAGE SIZZLE AND ASK FOR A SLICE OF COOL WATERMELON.

That is definitive, says Kobo. And yet ...?

When I hauled myself up there, says Ageless, past the sizzling sausages, frying eggs and enticing bacon sandwiches, there was not one slice of watermelon.

Did you ask? asks Kobo.

No, says Ageless. I had lost heart. It was a bad day all round for me. I was dejected. The sun beat down. I began to suspect I was moulting.

What bad timing that would have been, says Kobo. But by the look of you, I suspect you were wrong about moulting.

What does that mean? asks Ageless.

She is looking at him. At least she is paying attention. Suck on that, Roger Casement.

I know, says Lavender. It means you look like you're oozing out of your cracks.

Out of the mouths of babes, says Ageless. Correct, Lavender. I have not yet moulted, and my carapace is uncomfortably tight. It is only a matter of hours now......

Better hurry up with your story, says Kobo. A bad day all round....?

A bad day all round, says Ageless. We drove home. We polished off the chocolate cake from Jean's birthday. I felt bilious. I dragged myself down to the pool.

On the way I passed a dead bird.

The same one that Rabbie had stepped on, and placed on the compost heap.

It was back on the grass, in a different location.

Same blue feathers. Same flies.

I squeezed under the gate and dropped into the green slimy water. I lay in a corner.

To take my mind off my coming trials I attempted a poem in the style of Franz Kafka.

Did Kafka write poetry? asks Kobo. I thought he wrote novels and stories.

That was what made it a challenge, says Ageless. See what you think, my beloved:

Green water presses, heavy
with barbs of pain.
To exit this lower corner
I must exit myself (again).

Wow! says Lavender.

Not bad, says Kobo.

Not bad? says Ageless. I laboured for ten minutes to come up with it! I would have polished it further but just at that moment..... came the cataclysm!

Woo! says Lavender. What's a cataclysm?

The children's mother had made a quick trip to Bunnings to buy chlorine, because the pool was too green for the children to swim in.

She poured copious amounts of liquid chlorine into my corner.

I choked. I burned. I rose to the surface. I spluttered.

No doubt it was this event that arrested my moulting.

He glances at Kobo. Is it possible she looks sympathetic?