S1.7: Night watching
“The next night, Fabian set off for the Night Watcher shelter, carrying Giles the pea on his shoulders. Obviously he hoped he wouldn’t have to use Giles to raise any alarm. No bulb spiders were predicted at this time of year, for example. But there was no point in having such a resource and not taking it, just in case. As he made his way, he could feel the gentle vibrating snore that seemed to characterise most of the pea’s day. Goodness this pea could sleep!”
“I’ll take over now.” says Lottie: “I know a detail you may not...
“Fabian did his usual stupid meditations. The sky was clear for once with lots of stars. Giles was sleeping and Fabian felt happy and he did something surprising. He jiggled Giles awake and thought at him, with vigour, as the Pod had instructed. He felt a kind of ‘transfiguration’…
“Steady on, Lottie!”
“No, I mean it. And he said, or he thought: ‘Thank you Pod for the loan of Giles. I will look after him with all my care and all my strength!’
“And the Pod replied, in that weird way it does: ‘I know you will, Fabian. I trust your heart and fortitude. That is why I lent your little community my pea. They mean well but they can be chumps. I lent them Giles only because you would take care of him, and thus of part of me.’
“And then, as I think we have all experienced, everything went strangely quiet and Fabian realised something that he had not known he had been worrying about, but he had been. He would still be alone, as he wished, even with the pea. Having a psychic pea to hand need not invade his precious solitude. A little while later he heard the pea sleeping again.”
“Hmm.” said Masongill. “That’s a good detail and I know that the ethos of the ‘short’ is that we shouldn’t let strict truth get in the way of a better story. But you couldn’t know this. Fabian doesn’t speak and, by your own account, when the Pod goes ‘offline’ you get your privacy back. That’s the whole point of your own addition to the story.”
“Well yes. But I know, because Giles himself wasn’t ‘offline’ immediately. And I sometimes talk to Tiffany Anne. And she can ‘read’ Giles.”
“But this means that Fabian doesn’t get what he wants: privacy. Should we tell him?”
“No. What is the big difference between Giles and the other peas? He’s noisy. He’s like a toddler. But when he isn’t giggling or chirruping or eating, he’s asleep. Only then is he ever quiet, and even then he usually still gently snores. So you can always tell the difference. Fabian’s privacy is quite safe.
“I only know what I know because Giles was still just about awake and because, unlike everyone else, I sort of know Tiffany Anne as a kind of friend and I asked her if the Pod was really still happy to lend us Giles. We have never got hold of any nectar, for instance, whatever that is. Giles still just eats the ‘strong and challenging’ marmalade Alcock insists on. Tiffany Anne thought this bit of the story was an innocent enough explanation to tell me. It didn't really break any confidences.”
“So I suppose that means we will never learn anything of significance about our mysterious racing snail. Not even via your strange little pea-friend.” – pTravis.
“No! No! I do know something that will blow your minds. And it’s good news! Though it is quite a different side of his character than the gentle Fabian who is so precious about Giles. Next time bulb spiders maraud, we’re going to be much better off.”
“But that is not a ‘short’ for tonight” says pTravis gently. “We’d better be getting back to the Potting Shed to make some supper and even think of bed.”
“‘Bean surprise’, anyone?”
“Or your ‘potato puzzler’?”
“We’ve not had your ‘kimchi consternation’ in a while. Though I don’t think I’d mind if I never have it again.”
“I still can’t get over your ‘ravioli revelation’! What was the grey gloop inside? It wasn’t much of a revelation as neither Lottie nor I could work out what it had once been! Not even the next day when it got out. I’m still in the dark about that ‘dark matter’, ho ho!”
And so they set off to walk home, gently, implicitly, bickering.
The end