SMALL TALK 5

“I heard daddy say he was going to bring a take-away home for dinner tonight,” observed Tamzin.

“Take-away? What’s a take-away?” asked Arwen. “Isn’t take-away baby talk for subtraction?”

“Yep. And for minus,” chimed in Tamzin. “He must be worried about coming home minus something for dinner. Does he think he might absent-mindedly leave it on the bus, or summat?”

“Perhaps we should ask mummy to send him a reminder when he’s on his way. So he doesn’t go leaving whatever it is on the bus.”

“Good idea,” said Tamzin.

“And if daddy does manage to get home with the food for dinner, I just hope it won’t take too long to cook. Remember that steamed pudding last week? Took hours.”

“Yeh, we’ll be starving by the time a steamed pudding is ready.”

“With a bit of luck it might be something like fresh pasta. Takes just a few minutes,” suggested Arwen.

Tamzin giggled. “Imagine getting on a bus and finding fresh pasta on the seat beside you!”

“And it wouldn’t have paid any fare!” said Arwen.

“Well, it would be a kind of fare itself,” remarked Tamzin. “So it might get away with it.”

“I just hope Daddy gets away with it—and brings it home. That’s all.”

“Yeh.”

“He is getting forgetful though. Last Sunday he went into the shed to get something or other. Came back empty handed saying he couldn’t remember what he was looking for.”

“Mummy said it was his slippers and they weren’t in the shed anyway.”

“Strange place to expect to find slippers,” said Tamzin.

“Yeh,” said Arwen. “Probably thinking about clippers, you know, for the hedge and that.”

“If only we’d been around when they were growing up. Could have helped them deal with the challenges of daily living.”

“Yeh. More’s the pity.”

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