S1.1: The rules of the ‘short’
The Night Watcher and the pea: A JugginsVerse short tale
One evening, as Lottie, Masongill and pTravis are just beginning to tidy up their den and return to the Potting Shed to start, at least, the process of cooking supper and then, in a little while, to go to bed, or at least to think about that that prospect, with that strange mix of regret and relief of a winter’s night, a feeling that is, perhaps, a portent of the anticipation of death near the end of what may come to seem, or come to have seemed, a too long life – though never long enough! –, a life lived, perhaps with not quite enough purpose or redemption (?), they notice Fabian passing, on the way to his regular post as Night Watcher.
This used to be Masongill’s role and Fabian now uses, and very carefully looks after, the shelter Masongill constructed just under the summit of a nearby, low hillock.
The role of Night Watcher is to keep an eye on the Potting Shed from the outside and from the darkness. (From the inside of the Potting Shed, where a few lamps remain lit all night, it is impossible to see the outside very well.) On summer nights, Lottie sometimes accompanies him, just for the excitement of being outside at night. But not in winter.
As Fabian passes, the outline of a pea can be seen sitting on his shoulders and they can just make out a sound of quiet chuckling and gurgling.
“Ah, he has Giles with him again! He always carries him as though he is carrying the crown jewels or a Fabergé egg,” pTravis comments.
“It’s not fair! Whenever we have borrowed that pea, no one else ever gets to play with him! It’s just Fabian, Fabian, Fabian. ‘Hands off that pea!’” This, predictably, is Lottie.
“How did that come about?” asks pTravis.
“I know!” says Masongill.
“I know a bit about it” adds Lottie. “The best bit.”
“In which case” – Masongill, a little pompously – “I invoke the rules, traditions and customs of ‘the short’! Don’t fully turn down that oil-lamp yet.”
The occupants of the Potting Shed love stories and have a some traditions about story-telling. One is ‘the short’. It is a spontaneous story, usually told at night, whether a dark night of winter or a warm night of summer, and while it is told ‘as true’, it need not be wholly true. Improvements for better results are encouraged with discretion.
(And thus, gentle reader, ‘shorts’ do not add to the canon of the Potting Shed, unlike the actual adventures of JugginsVerse, all of which are true, of course. Also, ‘shorts’ are told, as they would be, in the past tense.)
“OK” pTravis agrees after a short pause. Quite often, pTravis plays the somewhat reluctant role of leader of the three of them, partly because, to his acute embarrassment, the elders of the Potting Shed tend to respect his judgement. If he decides after some thought that young Lottie is perfectly fine staying up to join in with stories, it is unlikely that Alcock, Lois-the-Hippo, her brother, or Hannah will tell any of them off. He is not a full grown-up, as it were, but it is as though he is expected to become one. As we have seen in previous stories, this sometimes causes some friction with Masongill who is no less adult than pTravis and hardly ‘flighty’. Still for now, these judgements tend to fall to pTravis. “Who starts?”
“I think that that’s me” – Masongill – “and Lottie can join in with whatever it is that she knows.”
***
This short tale will broadcast over the next 7 nights at 6pm.