Monday 30 May 2016

Enemy Lines



The coffee machine takes eons to make a cup of coffee, in the dark, morning light, with its start up sequence, and then the coffee making itself, then the shut down sequence, it takes forever. I shiver in anticipation, as much as the cold. I don't like spending too much time out in the open, no cover, distracted, you don't want to be seen, not being seen is the key to the operative. We don’t know why, we are never given the reasons for our missions. The coffee is of secondary concern. (ed note – tell that to the punters who are caffeine depleted) It is a sortie over enemy lines. It is a test, of your stealth-like qualities. It is an operative, a culmination of all you have learned. How invisible are you, after all these years of training? How low to the ground can you crawl? How much shit can you shimmy through and still come up triumphant? Be under no misapprehension, this is a test.

Now if I could just find the answer to this runny nose of mine, we'd be half way to winning the goddam war.

Tissue?

Ah, the 5 for $5 bag of boxes of tissues, beyond enemy lines, out in the wasteland, beyond where the bogi man can get you. The same Bogi Man who prowls the hallways at night waiting for you to stumble sleepy into the bathroom and piss absentmindedly, to be charged for crimes against the sleeping. Urine is to never be heard hitting water. As you are brutalised in your pyjamas in the dark, dragged unhanded, imaginary down the house stairs, to a waiting black bus to be taken away, sped off in the night with duck tape over your mouth.

“Ah! Oh!” Only to be woken fitfully as daylight shines in your window wondering if "that" really happened at all. I must stay asleep to remember. Must remember the key to creation. No, it is gone. Good morning.

The same Bogi Man who accompanies the bears materialising the moment you stand on a footpath crack. He can wear a clown suit just as easily. "You wanna balloon kid?" He is what is actually rushing up to your back in the dark at night. He is the serpent’s hiss. He is the creak in the floor. He is the hand pushing you in the back at a great height, and the voice that says, "Jump."

It is really distracting, you know, to have a nasal drip, drip, drip. You can't practise self defence with phlegm leaking from your hooter.

Corner? Clear. Corner? Clear. Corner? Clear.

Coffee machine. "Come on, hurry up. Come on, hurry up. Come on, hurry up."

Corner? Clear. Corner? Clear. Corner? Clear. Buddy? Sniff. Corner? Clear. Corner? Sniff. Clear.

The night time raids are the worst. Standing there, in the dark, one eye on the silhouette of the doorframe, one eye on the dark, where the toilet would be if there was any form of illumination, pissing on one of two white porcelain strips. Don’t piss in the water. Don’t piss in the water. Don’t piss in the water. I'm lucky I am not pissing on the floor. Don’t piss in the water. Don’t piss in the water. Don’t piss in the water.

We stagger our waking times? Or is that, we are staggering at our waking times? It makes no never mind, as long as each of the inmates is suitably medicated by Saturday night, booze or weed, it is deemed a good job done.

Vampire hours. I am living vampire hours, at present. When you get rid of 9 to 5, you get rid of any notion of day, or night. There is a permanent pot cloud over my window. The world is suddenly all 24 7, no differentiation is made. I found it a major personal achievement when I knew it was 6 o'clock in the day, 6.03 as my digital read out told me, to be precise, but I had no, actual, idea if it was am, or pm. You know, in the winter, with no day light savings, it is the same kind of light outside at 6am as it is at 6pm. It was a proud moment, I had reached nirvana.

Isn't it funny, that after all of the economic theories, a couple of industrial revolutions, all the captains of industry who told us they knew what they were doing, the two industries the tax from which are going to save the Western World are medicinal marijuana and gambling. [Did 9/11 ever really happen? A Chinese property developer bought the twin towers. He came up with the most cost effective way to bring them down. He sold it to his good friend George Bush over a cocaine party on the ranches vast dinning room table, as a model for national strategy, “Y’all finally be able to crush those beedin heart…"

“It’s bleeding.”

“What is?” George looks at his own hands.

“Bleeding hearts, it is bleeding heats.”

“Er, yes… um… lefty, human rights be moaners.” The Bin laden family threw in, they had some ideological reasons, Aeroplane fuel companies sponsored. And, of course, Wall Street. And the usual billionaires who think climate change legislation is not good for business]

I know what I’d be buying shares in.

Of course, guns and military equipment must be way up there too, why else do we keep having these blastard wars? But us mere mortals don't get to see the receipts for that stuff. That’s super rich territory, where billions are dealt. [And they get to listen to every word you say, one way or another]

And of course, the biggest search on the internet is for sex, by far.

The only thing I take for the shadows in the night, my military style coffee procurement in the mornings, or the ghouls that spring from footpath crack compromise, is mother's herb. The Green Goddess, as my trusty side kick, Susan To, names her. My BFF. She makes the world a beautiful place. She can't fix a dripping nose, so it would seem, but she is fabled to make a difference to the rest. The rain washing your cake away, whatever?

Susan To has gone overseas to fight world poverty, on one of her regular sojourns. She has left me unsupervised. I have denied myself nothing, can you tell?

All the sweet, green icing flowing down…er? What is my positive affirmation for today?

"Don't leave your cake out in the rain."

Tuesday 24 May 2016

The Eleventh Book of The Monkeys Are Marrying

The monkeys are marrying

The monkeys wedding (correct)

The first three of many more


2016







Stacey Likes It Maggotted

What is that, last call at the Pokies Saturday night? 8 hours jangling away in one large neon sign, no sign of a clock, no sign of daylight, all the time being fed on goon. Maybe not quite goon, but those large plastic cups had been transporting large quantities of chardonnay and spittle. The punters have been sitting sloth-like long enough for the fleas to have settled, occasional foot rubs are out of sight, romance on the $1 machines. And now they have their attention span, such as it is, returned back to them, focus. Not even with “last call” being called, no, they don’t moved. Stunned rabbits in the headlights, “tune into the video screen and “we” will control your thoughts while you are gone” 1984’esque.

It takes Cash (yeah, ironic) to hit the off-switch and the multi sensory neon lights blink out. Black. And now the punters are all starting to scratch and look further than a 30cm radius to have that itch scratched. They wipe the chip debris from their cardigans, and the beer froth of their tashes, and lament they hadn’t taken the time for that latest bodyscaping routine they had been promising themselves for months.

Stacey was hoping she was going to run into Brad. The two of them were maggotted, last Saturday night, and neither could drive. Brad said he could fuck her in his dualcab VW ute, you know, real classy. And while Stacey was bashful to begin with, or pretended to be, even as drunk as she was, Brad proved what a big rig he was really control of, even if he had to take the condom off it to prove it. His cum dribbled down her leg all the way home in the cab, he hadn’t offered to drive her. “You understand, up early for work tomorra.” She just had a used tissue to dab the liquid away, before it got on to Rajesh’s car’s upholstery. Stacey was hoping for a repeat performance with Brad, but this time back at her place, not the back seat of the Amarock. Brad performed the stud service back at Stacey’s around 1.30am. It is half an hour back to her place from the pub which closed at 1am.

“I’m containing the possibility of future contamination, by always drinking from the same source,” said Stacey.

“You want his babies,” said her best friend Belle.

“Babies, I do not want,” said Stacey. Which was, actually, good, as she then remembered to take her pill, which she surreptitiously got from her purse as she and Belle chatted, and washed down with beer.

Stacey was happy that she’d met someone with who she didn’t have to worry about condoms.

“I mean, since we’ve done it already, and all.”

Stacey lit her St Moritz.

“I know his ex-wife, Kylie,” said Stacey. “We played netball together. Good people.”
 






Jenny Wants To Be A Mum


Jenny, who had worked front of house since the Pokies opened, has been trying for a kid with her husband, Ray, for nearly all that time Jenny had worked coming to work. There have been the meet up time, “Now I’m the right temperature,” phone calls. “Quick, where are you? I’m ovulating,” phone calls. Ray has even been called out of meetings to “get plug into the little misses.” Ray has been on a “fuck schedule” for 12 months now. It has nearly killed him. And still no baby.

Then last Xmas party Jenny put it on Andrew, our young, single, athletic night manager, to have sex with her. She wanted to be a mother more than anything, and she wasn’t going to miss out just because Ray may, or may not, be shooting blanks. She seemed manic to Andrew, when she spoke those words.

Andrew even seemed sympathetic, asking all the right questions about how he might make his deposit. How does one go about it?

“I can’t do IVF again,” said Jenny. “Come on Andrew, be a sport, and give the old fashioned way a chance.”

Jenny had just been for her third return visit with Andrew. We can always tell. They think they are being so subtle, but the headshakes and the winks and their cars leaving the premises both heading in the same direction, the wrong direction for one of them. She got pregnant the first time with Andrew, from what she tells her sister Megan, so she is on a high anyway. But she keeps going back, as she tells her sister, she’d forgotten how much fun a 30 year old man was in the sack. “Andrew’s great. OMG!” Jenny could actually feel herself go weak at the knees at the thought. She exhales audibly. “My god, I’d forgotten just how… hard…” Jenny looks at Megan and laughs. “I recommend you get yourself…”

“I think you are enjoying this just a little too much, young lady.”

“Enjoying!” Jenny laughs out loud. “Oh my god, I just want him plugged into me 24/7.”

“Jenny!”

“Oh Jesus, it is true.” Jenny rubs herself around the neck. “What have I turned into?”

“What have you turned into?”

“What have I been missing out on?”

“You were only going down this path because of Ray’s malfunction.”

“Andrew can fuck on his tip toes with a rock hard nine inch cock, that makes me cum in tsunami-like waves of rapture.”

“What the hell do you think Ray is going to do if he finds out?”

“It is his malfunction.”

“Ray is understanding, but he is not that understanding.”

“No court would convict me,” said Jenny. “We have to get all female jurors. Would it be unethical for Andrew to sleep with all of them?”

“Jenny, wake up before it is too late.”
 







My Monaro Is Bigger

Max, Lachlan and Jake head down the main street after the pokies close. They are looking for booze, they are pretty sure the bottleo is open until late.

Max has been talking non-stop about his Monaro, Lachlan has been lamenting the absence of his Monaro, not that Lachlan has a Monaro, he’d just like one. Jake just wants to get his cock sucked.

“I got a sun roof, and all,” says Max. “But those reversing sensors half don’t give me the shits.”

“I’ve got plenty of tools back home that could disconnect those,” says Lachlan. “It’s not that they are being used, or nothing.”

“Do you reckon we’ll see Fee? You reckon Fee will still be out with your sister, Amy? Your sister Amy still out? Do you know? Lachie?”

“But she’s smooth, she’s real smooth. You can bet you she is smooth.”

“I reckon she’d be as smooth as,” says Lachlan.

“Can you text Amy, Lachie? Can you text Amy, just to see where she is at.”

“Jesus! Jake,” says Lachlan. “I’ll fucken suck you off in a minute.”

“I nearly didn’t come out tonight,” says Max. “You know, account of the drinking, and all.”

“I don’t blame you mate,” says Lachlan. “I reckon I could be the same…”

“You know what I fucken mean?”

“I know what you fucken mean.”

“I don’t want to waste any driving time.”

“I don’t blame you, mate.”

“I’ve got my dream machine,” says Max. “I don’t want to waste any driving time.”

“I wouldn’t want to waste any driving time either, mate.”

“You can drive any where, everywhere, every day you get to drive some where,” says Jake. “I just don’t see what the big deal is…”

“We might meet up with Fee.”

“She gives the best blow jobs, like ever,” says Max. “Did I tell you?”

“You guys have not lived,” says Jake. “You guys have not fucken lived. You guys are jealous…”

“Fuck off Jake.”

“That’s it, I’m doing him, to shut him the fuck up.” Max grabs Jake in a headlock.

“If I had a Monaro at home, you can bet your arse I wouldn’t be standing here with you,” says Lachlan.

“Hey, wathca…”

“I’m going to suck your cock.” Max grabs forcibly at the front of Jake’s trousers.

“What the fuck!”

Max has Jake’s belt undone. Max pants with the desperation of determination.

“Max you homo…”

Max pulls at Jakes jeans, the button fly pops open. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

“Get the fuck off me,” wails Jake.

“Ah!” shouts Max.




Martin likes to smoke pot.

Martin likes to smoke pot. Martin likes to watch porn. Martin likes to smoke pot and watch porn. Martin likes to run. Martin is an athlete. Martin likes to run and smoke pot and watch porn. Martin takes his training as an athlete very seriously. Martin trains all the time. Martin likes to run, keep fit, smoke pot and watch porn.

Martin likes to win. Martin likes to look good. Martin is proud of the way he looks.

Both boys and girls like Martin. Both boys and girls make passes at Martin. Martin gets turned on when boys and girls make passes at him. Martin likes to flirt. Martin flirts way much more than he actually hooks up with anyone. Martin likes to flirt, run, look good, smoke pot and watch porn.

Martin likes the way his legs look. Martin likes the way he looks in undies in the full length mirror in his bedroom.

Boys on the athletics team hit on Martin. Those boy’s girlfriend’s hit on Martin. Occasionally, Martin likes to go home with a buddy and his girlfriend. Martin likes the feeling of having sex with a boy and a girl at the same time. That is what Martin likes. Otherwise, Martin likes to keep fit, run, look good, flirt, gaze at his owns legs, smoke pot and watch porn.

Martin likes to look of his own cock in his own hand. He marvels at what a great cock it looks as it slides through his fingers.

That is the paradox, to love yourself as a man, you must make love to your man’s body, and your favourite sex object must be a penis, generally your own. Martin likes to smoke pot and watch porn. Martin likes how smooth lube makes his cock hard. Martin wishes he could just pick up the joint from the ashtray without it getting covered in lube, while he is watching porn.





Step Mother

Sara-Jane had seen better days, I don’t think even she would disagree. Sara-Jane had four, grown kids, so she wasn’t completely incapable. Sara-Jane had a stepson, there is always a black sheep, as they say.

“Is it any wonder with the way that bitch treats him,” says Sara-Jane. “She uses him as a tool to get what she wants, poor little bugger.”

“Ah divorcing parents, surely not.”

“Not that he’s a little bugger any more.” Sara-Jane smiled. “Six foot two, what is that in metric?”

“How’s the bitch been?”

“Oh.” Sara-Jane squinted her eyes. “Don’t get me started.”

“I’m hoping that has finished you off on the subject, actually.”

“She couldn’t drop him off home last Saturday afternoon,” says Sara-Jane. “Because she had a date and her ladyship needs 3 hours to get ready for a date.”

“So, she is no spring chicken.”

“Oooooooooo no! Spring chicken? No,” says Sara-Jane. “A spring chicken she is not. Oh no!”

“I was thinking thirties.”

“Fancy doing that to your son, leave him to walk miles home because,” Sara-Jane drops her volume. “Because you are home washing the gash.” She laughed. “And no, not thirties. A good forty something…”

“So, what is the point of trading in then?”

“What, indeed?” says Sara-Jane. “She’s a fucken nightmare and I’m guessing she wouldn’t have been the one to be doing the trading.”

“How long has this been going on,” I say. “I remember I took them to the Monbulk police station once…”

“Did you?” says Sara-Jane. “How did we get you hooked in…”

“I don’t remember why…”

“I remember you doing it though.”

“The bitch didn’t have a car.”

“And all the other times we have had to run Mike around when Her Ladyship wasn’t up to it. Exhausted. Run off her feet. She forgot.”

“I remember all the times.” What I really remember is Sara-Jane bitching about it.

“But it just seems to make no difference when they go to court, nothing,” says Sara-Jane. “Our court system is broken.”






Frank’s Arse

Frank had that smile and, of course, those ears. I always thought those ears made him look adorable, pity Frank’s feelings weren’t reciprocated. I was on the edge of Frank’s friend’s circle, as he was on the edge of mine. If you had the two circles, the blue circle and the yellow circle, they would only intersect and turn green occasionally.

And he had the way his jeans fitted across his arse.

If ever you were in any doubt of the power of the lustrous bottom, look no further than Frank running up stairs. The arse that boy had on him. Sweet! Made men drool. That arse could send you insane. Frank, as you can tell, had the perfect arse. And on some levels, on many levels, Frank knew it and he used it to get what he wanted. He was not backward in turning backward if he thought it would help his chances at life.

So many guys wanted Frank’s arse in the worst possible way.

Even straight men took one look at Frank’s rear and found themselves sometime later plunging Frank’s hole unmercifully.

It wasn’t that Frank didn’t have a nice cock, he did, from all accounts. (I did get that one dick pic on gaydar) Frank had a very handsome cock, thick and weighty. It was just that Frank sat on a gold mine. His arse bought kingdoms to their knees, his arse tamed wild beasts so that they lapped gently at his, hairy wog… um? Circle. Brown circle.

Consequently, Frank spent most of his twenties staring at his ankles, from one angle, or another. In mirrors, or directly at.

He had good balls too. Hairy and dark crimson. He’s hairy, all wog boys are. He has a nice cock and balls. Heavy. Weighty.

Of course, I had to live vicariously on stories of Frank. Blue circle, yellow circle. I couldn’t call Frank a friend.

I once did an aerobics class, in Fitzroy, that Frank did. I hear it was during his “kept boy” phase. He used to do step right in front of me, in tight red footy shorts. He was a clown, the star of the class, he has a certain rare light. But he used to pull his tracksuit on right after class and leave. He never entered the change rooms. Pity.





Lucy Likes Charlie

Lucy liked boys. More specifically, Lucy liked Charlie. Lucy has liked Charlie for a number of years. Lucy likes Charlie a lot. Lucy likes Charlie when he is relaxed and all goofy-sleepy in front of the teli. Lucy likes Charlie when he is speaking to her parents, seemingly, without a care. Lucy likes Charlie when they go down the beach at the weekends and Charlie does a strip running into the sea. Lucy likes Charlie when he is dressed in a black suit and he is holding her hand at her best friend’s funeral. Lucy likes Charlie because he is chilled and free. Lucy likes Charlie when he is face first in her snatch.

“Bigger stronger taller,” Lucy would say. “That is why I like Charlie.”

But Lucy likes all boys. Lucy is, what you’d call, a boy’s girl. You know the type who are spoken of disparagingly by the sisterhood, when the sisterhood doesn’t think they can hear. Lucy likes nothing better than to be drinking beer in the front bar with all the lads. Who are usually the boyfriends of the before mentioned group of girls, the girl’s girls, who hate her with every fibre of their beings. Lucy likes male attention. Lucy flirts to get male attention. This usually sends the girl’s girls into hypoplexiture, completely oblivious to the boy’s girl, Lucy.

Lucy has been faithful to Charlie since the day they met, she has never strayed. Some may say, that it wouldn’t always appear that way, but it is true. Lucy gets on well with the boys. And the boy’s like Lucy. Charlie’s mates know that Lucy is Charlie’s girl. However, the mates of the mates don’t always know that.

“If there is ever any trouble,” says Olivia. “You can bet Lucy will be some where amongst it.”

“Oblivious,” chorused Chloe and Olivia.

“She doesn’t mean to and all,” says Chloe.

“But somehow she does,” says Olivia. “On some level.”

“Guy friends of guy friends aren’t to know,” says Chloe.

“She’s a flirt.”

“She’s a flirt.”

“She doesn’t see it…”

“I don’t think she truly does.”

“And look at her.”

“Gorgeous.”

“Is it any wonder.”

“Is it any wonder?”

“Just sometimes.”

“Normally as peaceful as…” Not a metaphor cometh.

“As peaceful as…” Not a metaphor cometh, neither.

“As peaceful as church.” There you go. They laugh.

“What you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors?”

“The parish is a hot bed…”

“A hot bed…”

“According to mum…

“My mum…”

Olivia and Chloe cackled.
 





Jeremy Went Into The Priesthood.

Jeremy went into the priesthood. Jeremy finished year twelve with an excellent score. He then entered the priesthood and studied at night. Jeremy was 18 when he went into the priesthood. Jeremy had an inkling that he might be gay, so the priesthood seemed as good a place as any to go and sort a few things out.

It was like being on camp, the whole time. I’m camping with other boys all the time. I’m living in a house full of men.

There were 4 new priests. There were 4 guys Jeremy’s age. They were his year group, if you like. They all seemed a little light-in-the-loafers to Jeremy. Which oddly, gave him a pulse, in his cock. Jeremy’s homophobia turned him on. Whenever Jeremy discussed gays or queers, he got oddly animated, squirmed around in his chair, got handsy with the other panellists, seemed to have big eyes at the very mention, in a too interested kind of way. After too much communion wine on a Sunday morning not having eaten any breakfast, Jeremy could be bordering on indiscrete at Sunday lunch.

Jeremy found that Thomas, one of the other interns, was, of course, interested in helping-out-a-mate down the commemorative garden, at, or around, midnight. Later, Jeremy and Thomas got brave and had sex in each other’s rooms, and nobody has cared or noticed.

And just for all you questioning types out there, Jeremy and Thomas pride themselves on being versatile, for the plebs amongst you, I’ll break it down (my bulldog is having a full wash right in the middle of my bed, as I write this, which is just a little distracting, let me tell you) they are equally at home playing the “girl’s part” when they are having sex, as playing the “boy’s part.” (Shiver all over, I hate it when I have to do that. I should just say, “I don’t know what you mean,” when I am asked that question, and then just stare back blankly.)

Jeremy and Thomas will both have theology degrees when they finish. They don’t think getting a parish is going to be a problem.






Surfie

Scott had grown up. Right before our eyes, it would seem. It was like yesterday, I swear, that he was a little blonde kid. Now, 22 and with all the bravado that comes with being beautiful and 22 years old. If you liked those slick-backed, dark matinee idol looks then nah, Scott wouldn’t be the guy for you. But if you like that Aussie beach bum, goes to Rome back packing and lands a modelling contract kind-of-look, then you might find him a bit of all right. Strapping, is often a word used to describe Scott.

“He’s a well built lad,” would so often come out of the mouths of letting-it-all-slide middle aged men.

Scott is the kind of guy that everyone notices. “Nothing, and I tell you nothing at all, on the romantic front in my teens,” Scott would often lament. Nobody noticed Scott, so the bigger clown he became. I think that is how he developed his cheekiness. But sometime after his  21st  birthday, when his looks grew to match his bravado, everyone started noticing Scott.

Scott noticed the people noticing. It was a bit overwhelming to start with, he said it was when he learned to appreciate his ugly duckling teen years. But then Scott got his rhythm. Insert bikes and peddling analogy here. He thought people were taking the piss, initially. It took him a while to trust that it was true. It took him a while to take it all seriously. But then the girls began to notice.

A good brain. A good pass into uni. And then more than halfway through an eight year architecture degree, then other punters began to notice how fine Scott had become.

He’d joined the gym at uni. Then he’d joined the water ski team. This had been his routine for his first few invisible years, to fill in his social life. So when he was coming back for 5th year all of the good living and exercise had begun to pay off, and the dates soon started coming, it spun his head for a time. His “hot nerd” crew had been keeping up the sporty life style, they had been exercising along side Scott, and they relaxed now being more than half way through their schooling. And they were popular too, mostly for their summer weight routine. “Healthy living, don’t knock it,” said Scott. They kept it up, they all went to the gym in a pack.

They discovered drugs together, in their mid twenties, final years of study. They kicked it up a notch. And they all experimented with sex together, doof doof music, cafes, strips joints, Sunday night dinners. They cried and they laughed and they still passed every year of study despite all the partying. They were post fear. They were successful now, they just had to wait for time to catch up.

Scott still surfs down at Wye River, where his parent’s still have a house.






Impish Smile

Angus has grown up. He was always an angelic child, black hair, blue eyes, destined to grow up into an angelic adult, which he has. From his impish grin, to his sexy new short haircut, to his beguiling eyes. Stoner eyes full of joy, when caught off guard, his musical chuckle when he realised he had lost the thread, give away, look back to me. Truly handsome. Melt a little, you can’t help it. It’s his time. His easy way, his muscled guns, his handsome face, his pert arse, his full of grace. Angus has grown up.

I caught a glimpse of his jockey elastic, when he bent to pick something up, and felt like a dirty old man. I’m old enough to be his father, literally. But he’s old enough to be a man. I don’t give him any more than a smile, don’t worry, and my attention when he is in front of me. Why would you not want to? 

I bet you he has a perfect cock. Hard and beautiful. Hang towels off of it, that kind of stuff. But, I don't think about him like that.

He’s really nice, too. Smart. Pretty. Interested. Deep voice. Easy going. Nothing is too much trouble. Like he means it, like I believe that he means it. His style. His handsome face. And the grace, he has, as he walks away. And a motor bike too, can’t help but polish his allure. And that's how I think about him.

But my best friend’s son? Is that a bit pervy? Oh, I don’t know why I say that, I’m just saying he is a nice kid. And when I say kid, he is twenty two, so don’t start wrting letters just yet. I’m just his friend, I don’t go into some dirty pervy old uncle routine when he is around.

I cringe at the thought of a maggotted Shane leaning across and saying to Rachel lasciviously, somehow reminiscent of Les Paterson, “Josh tells me how hot your son is.” Slobber, slobber.

I turned to Rachel and said, “I believe I said handsome.” As I believe that is what I said. When I think of Angus I think of his charm and his smile, I don’t think about his, um, er, you know...

I still cringe at the memory of Shane slobbering.

And it doesn’t hurt that he is handsome.





Caramel Cookies

I rewarded myself with caramel cookies. A reward for what? you may well ask.

“A reward for what?”

Didn’t I just say that? I just said that. By his look I could tell he was serious.

“Ah, er, for a job well done.”

“What job?” He asked in such a matter of a fact kind of voice, that he gave the impression that he had no understanding of how the world works at all.

“What job? Um?” Does he not understand any thing? “For the day, for a day well done.” Of course.

“What did you do?”

He’s got another question. I’m guessing he’s got loads of them. “What do you mean? What did I do?”

“Yes, for the day well done, for which you earned a reward, that you treated yourself to caramel cookies. What did you do?”

Pedantic little mister, now isn’t he. What did I do? “I got through it, that is what I did, I got through it. Isn’t that worth reward enough?”

“But what did you do…”

“I got through it!” Perhaps, that was a bit snappy, but I had to put an end to his infernal questions.

“I see,” he said.

He was a little taken a back, I could tell. I did a little head nod, just for affect. I didn’t quite mean to, but there it was. Involuntary, kind of. He pursed his lips as though he had something more to add, but his lips shut tight on him.

He mouthed the word okay.

We held each other’s gaze by staring off into the distance, maybe it was the future we were trying to see.

Of course, caramel seems to be the flavour of the moment, sweet caramel, burnt caramel, salted caramel, glorious caramel. Who would have bet the odds of caramel making such a big come back? Who would have guessed?

It is just sugar, cooked cleverly. There is no such flavour as caramel. It is a wholly man made taste. Really just sugar, as I think I have already mentioned.