He Will Pay

Calm yourself, Simone! said The VeloDrone. Of course we will not publish it. You and I, we shall not even read it.

Oh yes we shall, said Simone, calming down at once. I most certainly wish to know what that man has written about me. Read it, Belle et Bonne.

Belle et Bonne began to read:

Sometimes I have a very clear memory of things that have happened. For example it was only yesterday I ran my bicycle into a woman who was rounding a bend in a country lane. The woman was riding a bicycle exactly like mine in all respects but both her feet were pedalling. She wore a black and white striped hat, rounded at the top, like a pixie......

You see, said Simone tartly.

I see, said The VeloDrone. Go on Belle et Bonne.

The woman tumbled off her bicycle. I was obliged to bring myself to a sudden halt in order to go to her aid, although I did not see how I could help when I had a stiff leg, and in the process I too landed in the road with my outer clothing all askew. A crowd gathered around us as if from nowhere.......

A lie, said Simone. There was no crowd.

All to the good, said the VeloDrone.

........I was composing a mitigating statement with the object of speaking aloud when the woman stood up and straightened her hat, saying some words the nature of which I have forgotten, but it was clear she had broken a tooth. Look, said someone in the crowd, she has broken a tooth and it is the fault of this man. The crowd took on a threatening visage. Do not worry about it, said the woman, in fact this man has done me a favour. The tooth in question was chipped already, and I had resigned myself to living with the deformity, being a woman of a certain age......

Belle et Bonne stopped reading and looked at Simone, who had turned an alarming shade of puce. Simone nodded at her to go on. She gabbled the final few words.

......but now I must visit the dentist !

Well, said Simone heavily, that at least is true. And it is Beckett who will pay.

Some Questions

I have some questions for you, said Pliny the Elder, about your last 2 blogs.

What are they? I asked.

Firstly, was the purpose of your journey to Barossa Under the Stars to observe an entertainment upon a stage, or was it to observe the moon rising between pine trees at its appointed time?

Why do you ask? I should have thought it was obvious. One has no need of tickets to see the rising of the moon.

Then why, pursued Pliny, did you spend more time describing the moon rising than the entertainment by the man in the red suit with the long face and presumably his hair in some sort of a quiff? Did he fail to engage your interest ? What instrument did he play? What style of music, in what mode? Did he speak ? Was he at all amusing?

Oh yes, He was very good, he played the guitar in a very seductive manner and sang songs both sad and arousing and made a number of jokes.

And yet you allowed yourself to be seduced by the moon?

Now you are making me feel bad. I suppose it was because we had free tickets. Or perhaps it was because of the screen. I was looking at the real man on the stage. He was miniscule, like a little red pixie. I switched my attention to the screen, where he looked a lot bigger. On this screen you could see that he looked the same as he always had on the television. This was no doubt an illusion because the screen was also quite far away. Once you start thinking like that, your attention is all too ready to be diverted by something real and dramatic, like a moon. Does that answer all your questions?

No, it does not. That was only my first question.