I'll Never Eat You

In the dawn light, Terence's potato looks like a small wrinkled head.

It is smiling.

At least Terence thinks so.

Gaius is still sleeping. Katherine has gone behind a sand dune.

Saint Roley is poking about in the shallows for molluscs.

Soon the Ranger will be returning, to check on their permit.

Terence smiles at his potato.

The potato smiles back.

Potato, says Terence, I'll never eat you.

The potato looks happy.

But Gaius might, says Terence. Would you like a disguise?

The potato looks even happier.

How to disguise a potato?

Use what's available. Sand.... shells.... filamentous green algae.... native vegetation?

Native vegetation. This reminds Terence of the red parrot-pea that he is not getting.

Yay! A brain wave!

He looks for something to use as a beak.

When the Ranger arrives, Katherine is back from the sand dune.

Saint Roley is still down at the water's edge, poking.

Gaius is awake.

Ah, Ranger, says Gaius. About that permit.

Never mind, says the Ranger. Perhaps I was being pedantic. You didn't have a campfire. Or a tent. Only apples. I'll let you off this time.

Very kind, says Gaius. Did you come back just to say that?

Of course not, says the Ranger. I came back to see whether you'd found Terence, and I see that you have. Hello, young man. What's that you've got there? Not a campfire-cooked potato?

NO! says Terence.

Sorry to have to tell you this, says the Ranger. But it's a cooked potato. So you did have a camp fire.

We didn't, says Katherine. The potato was brought in from elsewhere.

I suppose I should believe you, says the Ranger.

It's a red parrot-potato, says Terence. A real one. It's lost its beak. And its colour.

His little fantasy, laughs Gaius. But that reminds me, will you show him a red parrot-pea?

They are not flowering at present, says the Ranger. All he will see is stems, almost glabrous, and leaves, linear to filiform, crowded and tuberculate, with stiff spreading hairs. But if he would like to....

Stiff spreading hairs! He would like to! And he would like to bring his red parrot-potato, which needs them.

Great! Things are looking up for the potato.