Fishy Ways

Terence and Rusty are waiting outside the tropical pavilion.

Ah! There you are, says Gaius. Where are the others?

Gone inside, says Terence. Mathilde left you some lunch.

Very kind, says Gaius. I do feel peckish. What is it?

Salad, says Terence. And this is a squeeze pack.

Gaius inspects the salad for tomatoes.

Wonderful! There are none. The squeeze pack contains some sort of oily dressing.

My toes? says Rusty.

Yes, I have them, says Gaius. You should have seen what happened. Hideo dropped them into the water.

Where from? asks Rusty. His mouth or his bottom? 

Mouth, you'll be pleased to hear, says Gaius. But the otters then began tossing the toes in the air. Luckily I caught the toes in the sea slug's container.

Did they kill it? asks Terence.

No, says Gaius. But one of the toes split in two.

Which one? yelps Rusty.

Does it matter? asks Gaius. It was this one.

He shows Rusty the mended toe. Rusty tries to take it.

Both toes are stuck to my fingers at the moment, says Gaius. I blame myself. Very careless.

It's okay, says Terence. He'll get them off.

All I need is some WD40 or some nail polish remover, says Gaius. I wonder if Mathilde...?

I'll go in and ask her, says Terence. You guys wait here!

Terence runs into the the tropical pavilion.

Several mothers observe him run by.

An enfant, seul, courant. Is he perdu?

But non, the mothers are relieved to see the enfant stop in front of Mathilde.

Mathilde smiles and follows the enfant out of the tropical pavilion.

Ca va bien.

Gaius and Rusty are waiting. Gaius is eating the salad, with his good hand.

He has been unable to open the dressing.

I don't have any WD40 or nail polish remover, says Mathilde. But oil and vinegar may well do the trick. It's good you have not used the dressing.

She squeezes open the pack.

I'll just drizzle it over your fingers, says Mathilde.

Gaius holds his fingers over the remains of the salad.

No point wasting it, says Gaius.

Yuck! says Terence. You're going to eat salad mixed with toes and fish glue.

Are you sure? asks Mathilde.

Yes. I doubt it will work, says Gaius. This Roman fish glue is almost as strong as Roman bull glue.

We'll see, says Mathilde. 

She drizzles it on.

Rusty watches his gold toes slide away from Gaius's finger.

And fall into the salad. 

One whole one. One in two parts.

Gaius picks up a lettuce leaf. Sniffs it.

It smells fishy.