He had gathered a really big crowd and was finishing his act with his longest sword, a sword that some members of the audience had confirmed was, in fact, extremely sharp! Just as he brought the hilt down to his lips a nasty little kid ran out of the crowd and threw pepper in his face! Well, you can imagine the crowd stood there boggle-eyed as the poor fellow finished his act with a performance none of them were expecting, and started to go berserk when some of the people at the front were spattered with blood! In the pandemonium the kid took off and it was some minutes before a policeman was on the scene.
Being told what had happened, he tried to settle the crowd down, while using his walkie-talky to call for an ambulance. Not that there was any hurry for that, and more importantly, he put out a call for any police car in the vicinity to chase the boy, who had taken off down the main highway. He told the crowd that they would soon run him down… By run him down, he didn’t mean actually run him down, of course. Unlike what had happened to the police officer’s brother the year before. That was a terrible case.
His brother had been orange picking in Greece; a sort of a pay-as-you-go type holiday. He was in this orange field. They call them fields over there, not orchards. Anyway, this field was on a hill and they were collecting the fruit in plastic crates and loading a trailer that was hooked to the back of a tractor. The brother had just got down from a tree when the trailer came unhooked and started to roll down the track between the rows of trees. He was pretty unlucky not to have heard it coming, as he stood looking out over the attractive view and the quaint little town below. Everybody was pretty upset and they didn’t pick any more oranges that day.
Anyhow, I digress. Pulling her jacket sleeve down, she managed to hide the tear in her blouse. Once inside, she was ushered through to what they called the blue visitors room. She had been there a couple of times before, or maybe three or even four, to be more accurate, but regardless of how many times it was, she’d wondered about the name it had been given. From the first time she’d entered it, she had the feeling that the room wasn’t exactly blue. In fact she thought it was more of a turquoise. Not only that, it was a turquoise that had less blue in it than green. This aside, she sat and waited a couple of minutes; more like five or six, in fact. 46!
She had never found the canvas backed chairs at all comfortable, she felt the material was rather coarse on her back. Canvas, was often made from cotton and linen, but sometimes either hemp or jute are used. She surmised that when these backs were made, the rough surface came about with the use of jute. Even so, she waited patiently, as she had a particular request to make. She was keen to do a bit of gardening while he was inside. She thought she’d plant a few lettuces to start with. She wasn’t sure what type of lettuce she wanted to plant, it would probably have been either Goldrush or Buttercrunch. She thought it would most likely be ‘Buttercrunch’. She was sure he wouldn’t mind, but she should ask because normally he spent more time out there than her.
He came through and sat. They chatted happily for around their usual thirty minute visit. It was around thirty minutes… then, before she left she asked the question that had been pressing on her mind since she’d arrived. When I say pressing, I don’t mean… no matter. His response took her by surprise. He said she should put the idea off for a week. At first she was disappointed, but when she questioned his decision he became very angry. This in itself may have contributed to his being sent to jail in the first place, although that would be pure speculation. Having learnt that it was best not to argue with him, she agreed to wait. She could see that he was earnest.
Now, it goes without saying that his name wasn’t necessarily Ernest, as this was never disclosed as part of the joke. Yet, being strictly logical about it, from all of the many hundreds of given names that he could have, there has to be the possibility, no matter how slight, that this was indeed his name. To move on, whatever his name was, he calmed down and explained what he had in mind. When she got home, she was to write a letter with the request in it and send it as soon as she could. He promised to reply with a positive response within the next few days. She was very happy with this and probably began discussing the merits of Goldrush and Buttercrunch, when the bell sounded for visitors to leave.