Remembrance Of Lost Time

On Emirates flight 414 non-stop to Sydney, time passes slowly.

Gaius gets up to go to the toilet.

He meets Arthur, coming back.

Both Terence and Saint Roley can now identify a Far Eastern Curlew, says Gaius.

That's good, says Arthur.

Belle won't be coming with me to Brisbane, says Gaius. I'll need you.

Sure, says Arthur.

Nor will he be coming. But it's the wrong time to mention it now.

The lunch trolley is edging its way up the aisle.

I'm just off to the toilet, says Gaius. Make sure I get my roast turkey.

Okay, says Arthur.

Gaius continues to the toilet.

What would he do without Arthur?

Drat. There's quite a queue.

.......

When he gets back to his seat, Belle hands him a paper napkin.

They took it away, says Belle. I grabbed this. Terence pulled apart your lemon cranberry cake looking for a cranberry, and Saint Roley claimed the chicken sausage.

Have it, says Saint Roley. I don't like it.

Gaius debates whether to eat the chicken sausage, which has multiple peck holes.

Wisdom says not.

He unfolds the paper napkin. Three thick slices of roast turkey, their meaty scent tantalising his nostrils. Lunch fit for the gods.

He taps Arthur, directly in front of him.

Thank you, Arthur.

(It was Belle who saved the roast turkey slices, not Arthur. But hey!)

Belle doesn't mind. She will soon be in Sydney phoning Unni, who now lives in Redfern. She hasn't seen Unni for ages.

Belle tips her seat back and thinks about Unni.

Unni wasn't always cool. She lived under the thumb of her father the Reverend Ray Moon. He wouldn't even let her have a boyfriend. But Unni escaped from her father. Moon followed her to Adelaide, but by then she'd hooked up with Surfing-With-Whales.

She broke up with Surfing-With-Whales. She was a super fast cyclist. Rode with Sweezus and Arthur in the Tour Down Under. Then her dad lost his congregation and Unni went back to Blaxland to take over. It was too easy. The congregation knew she knew Sweezie. So what she said was gospel. She soon became bored, started a business. What was it...? Herbals? Bet she's not doing herbals in Redfern.

Belle falls asleep to the hum of the engines, and the chanting of Saint Roley who is committing to memory the proper name of the Far Eastern Curlew: Numenius madagascariensis.

 She wakes up. Only six hours to landing.