The Blackberry Incident

Kierkegaard arrives at the Mount Compass café.

Vello is sitting outside.

There you are, says Vello.

Here I am, says Kierkegaard,

Existential greetings out of the way, they enter the café.

Back again? asks the owner.

For sandwiches, says Vello. Do you do them?

The owner points to a list of sandwich fillings on a chalk board.

Cheese, says Vello. What kind of cheese is it?

Local cheese, says the owner.

Cheese then, says Vello. Can you make them up fast?

How many? asks the owner.

Three, one with tomato, says Kierkegaard.

Make that two with tomato, says Vello.

And one without, says Kierkegaard.

What kind of bread? asks the owner.

A few dots will suffice for this part of the order. These days there are many types of bread. Then there is butter. Do they want it? Salt and pepper?

( pepper, no salt, some detail is permitted)..............

At last they are on their way. Did I mention that there were no apples?

And that Kierkegaard has made a snap decision, to buy bananas? The bananas show spots of brown. Vello has managed to bargain them down to forty cents per banana. He is good at such things. Kierkegaard would have paid the full dollar.

Kierkegaard has also gulped down a coffee while waiting for the sandwiches.

He has been plagued by a question. Should he take a coffee back to Gaius?

Vello has said not to bother, it would go cold on the journey.

Kierkegaard has dithered. Then he has spotted Vello's hat.

And suggested to Vello that such a hat would keep a coffee (with a lid on) warm for at least twenty minutes.

His hat! Vello has never before kept coffee warm in his hat.

There was that time when he was not allowed on the bus with a punnet of blackberries, and had hidden them under his hat and the driver had said that his hat was too tall to wear on the bus and so Vello had punched the hat down in a fit of anger and blackberry juice had dribbled down his face and the driver had called an ambulance, which he had to talk his way out of .....

But the situation is not really similar.

And Gaius is his friend.

He agrees to the use of his hat.