....I’ll just put this stuff down over there I think. Ah! Damned back!
You alright? Cup of tea?
Coffee please. Smelt it as I was coming through the back door with that lot, so I won’t be able to get the idea out of my head, or the smell, ‘till after a couple of cups! Where’s Gabriel, then?
There you are....Wanna talk to him then, or what?
Nah! You know me, addicted to coffee and gossip, I was just passing and thought I’d pop in for a fix!
He’s just taken a walk down to the market with Anatoly. To the village. We’re totally out of veggies and he’s gotta pick up some other odds and ends too for the weekend or we’ll all starve!.... There’s a packet of digestives over there....
Great, thanks.... and, how’s it going with Anatoly? Bit of a mouthful, Anatoly, isn’t it?
Can hardly call ‘im Ana now can we?
Bit of a temptation though!
Yeah, yeah, well it’s fine for us and he’s picking up English faster than either of us would have thought possible. Doesn’t smile too much yet, though.
And the bureaucracy? How’s all that panning out?
Time, takes time but it’s almost all done. Just waiting for DCER to register his DNA fingerprint and there is some hitch or another with his sister. Her details have gone missing somewhere between the offices of CEREEA and our local branch of ICAC. In fact no one has a clue where she’s got to, let alone her rehabilitation documentation. It’ll get sorted, eventually. Can’t do a thing from this end.
Always the way! How’re the kids taking to him? Ok?
Vivien, well Vivien’s got himself a brother to play with, both nuts for football! Just look at the state of the lawn!
Price you have to pay for boys I’m afraid!
Vivien’s got himself someone who doesn’t think he’s just a little pain in the neck to be got rid of as quickly as possible. Dawn, well she’s living in a world of her own. Well, ‘nother universe more like it! Like, she seems to know Anatoly is there but just looks through him like he’s not. Actually, Anatoly reacts just the same. Like living with two ghosts sometimes!
She’ll snap out of it!
Look at her out there on the swing plugged into....Help yourself to more coffee....never know what she’s listening to and when I do, can’t understand for the life of me what she sees, hears, in it and she’s so morose all the bloody time.
She’s a teenager! Teenager!.... Mmmm, thanks!....Remember that don’t you! Happened a long time ago but I don’t think you’re an Alzheimer’s case just yet, No? Looks like some kind of Madonna out there, a Madonna with that sun shining like that through her hair. She’s beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
Madonna? Devil in disguise, if you ask me. You’ve never had to go through one of her shouting jags. Snaps at the whole world, tongue like a snake and it’s the only time you can actually understand more than a quarter of what she says! Damned thing’s plugged straight into her brain. Ears don’t come into it, not even close.
Methinks you two have had a tiny weenie discrepancy this morning, no? She’s beautiful!
Discrepancy? Discrepancy Yes!....Have to make another pot, that’s getting a bit low....I really love her you know.
No me Jodas, I know that tonta, I got kids too, remember?
Language! Language!
Sorry! But not very!....‘nother digestive, please....Work?....thanks....
Yeah, great. It all seems to be coming together again. Lost it for a while but, dunno, I’m getting a whole lot more feedback and feel like I’m doing something worthwhile for once, got renewed faith in it all, I guess. The system ‘nd all.
Mmm, how come the new positive you, darling?!
Been working with a new exchange group and my section has three educators and I’m head! Got three subjects on hand at the moment.
Like always then, isn’t it?
Got the twenty five year old wife of some dissident Chinese philosopher, can’t remember his name, or hers half the time. Can’t get my head round their names, you know! Don’t stick up here! Bit of a problem actually!
Oh yes! More Alzheimer’s, or what?
Idiot!
Language!
Then there’s the young son, twelve, of a poet, never read any of his stuff. Not likely to either! Kid’s called Arun....
Bit of a coincidence that, No?
Too right! That’s what I thought! You know, Gabriel really wanted to name Vivien after Elvis Presley, you know what he’s like when he gets an idea in his head, and I just didn’t wanna have anything to do with something as tacky as that. Put my foot down on that one! Compromised, but insisted on changing the spelling! Never ever even knew what it meant till a couple of days ago....
Well, don't keep me waiting, tell me then, what does it mean then, lista?
Sunrise!
Pretty!
Quite common where the kid comes from. India. It’s Hindi, apparently. Then we’ve got the daughter of a scientist from somewhere in the Muslim Federation of States, called Sahar.
Where?
Don’t know exactly. Muslim Federation....
Oh.
Now Sahar, she’s smart, same age as Dawn, real smart and she really is a sight to see. Slim, not, sort of dumpy, podgy pale English.
Dawn ain’t podgy, not by a long chalk.
The exception that proves the rule! Anyhow, where was I? Mmm, Sahar’s got this beautiful silky chocolate coloured skin, long shiny black hair and eyes that any English kid ‘d kill for, any English adult, come to that, so deep, so black. Intelligent, somehow. Scary!
More coffee please! Much more coffee! This is great!
Anyway, we’ve all been working very hard with her....Here you go....and after the first week we even managed to persuade the other two, Arun and Xiaofan fin fun or whatever, to get heavily involved in the process. We’re getting some very good high quality product out of it all and I think we could well pick up a whole load of sales. We get a commission you know!
Sounds just like real job satisfaction to me.
Tis, and I’ve been bringing some of the stuff home to show, you know, educate the kids, well, really to try and get Dawn interested in something that’s not piped directly to the few remaining neurons she’s got upstairs.
Joder! She’s a teeeenager! Teeeeeenager!
Sorry, can’t help myself sometimes. Anyway....Take another biscuit, for heaven’s sake....Anyway she seems to be taking an interest.
There you go then!
Taking an interest, yes,I guess, if you manage to decipher the monosyllables, sorry, sorry, her conversation. She’s gotta learn some discipline, some ideology and faith for god’s sake, start thinking about the future, though I have to say she seems to be taking more of an interest in the new materials than my older stuff. Seems to be developing an inkling 'bout what it's all for, what it's all about. Whys and wherefores 'nd stuff....It ‘d be nice if she followed in mother’s footprints, you know, keep it all, the trade, you know, in the family, and the ICAC pay’s not bad.
Job security too, no? Vivien?
It all frightens him a bit and he has the occasional nightmare, but he’s got to learn. Start early so it sticks right in is what I say. That was our mistake with Dawn, started too late, for delicacy’s sake I guess.
Never too late, isn’t that what they say?
True, but nobody ever tells you about the consequences. Anyway, how’s my big brother? The Children?
Don’t want to talk about it and you just really don’t want to know!
Ain’t giving much away today, ain’t talking much are ya?
Ha ha ha! Visit me the next time and I’ll blab to your heart’s content! Your kitchen your blab, my kitchen my blab, rules of the game!.... Neat coffee. Sorry I, erm, demolished half the digestives!.... Anyway, gotta be off or I’ll be reported Missing in Action. Pass me that stuff....Ta....Know what your brother’s like....
I’ll pop round maybe Friday, Ok?
Oh, going to the Priests concert on Sunday?
Date?
Twenny ninth, No, no, thirtieth, I think.
Love to! Could take all the kids. I’ll talk to Gab and let you know Friday. Got enough tickets?
Yeah, got a whole pile from the mission yesterday. See ya!
Right....
