It's hot and humid. Too hot and humid for the PONs to be loaded in the back of the car and driven to the airport. They are left at The Rickety Old Farmhouse.
Back at home their delight on 1) being released from four hours of incarceration and 2) discovering that their flock has been miraculously reunited is immediate, enthusiastic and vocal.
Angus long ago learnt that there is no point in trying to do anything else until the greeting routine has run its course. This takes twenty full minutes of throwing Furry Fox, tickles, chats and yet more throws of Furry Fox. Pirouettes and soft shoe shuffles are interspersed with back flips. Only when the enthusiasm has 'moderated' can he carry his suitcase inside.
On the final morning in Scotland Angus is up at five. Ali, the cab driver, is coming to pick him up at six. Ali arrived from the mid-East 27 years ago and now has two teenage daughters who want to go to the university in the wee town. He works 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, shepherding students and golfers to the airport. He is intensely proud of his daughters in a way that suggests they are the first females in his family who ever had the chance of studying and having independent lives. He's saved enough to buy his council house. '' This town is our home now. We love it " he tells me. I wonder how many of life's small victories are hidden in those two small phrases.
Starbucks opens at 5:30. The staff greet me with a hearty good morning. While I wander off in search of a newspaper they warm up my Cinnamon bun in the microwave. On my way back I pass two ducks washing themselves in the water from the fountain . The young man who operates the Starbucks microwave tells me they do this every morning. The supermarket delivery drivers skirt the fountain on the wrong side of the road so as not to disturb them. Ducks and workers in perfect harmony. The happy beauty of the mundane.
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7 comments:
The Pons look excited to have you home 007.
The return of a key member of the flock is well worth a twenty minute celebration.
I love these small stories about good people living good lives, often in spite of the generalized nastiness so prevalent in our times. Good for Ali and his family. And for the market's truck drivers and the ducks.
Thank you.
Hari OM
Hoorah. 'sall I have to say to that! YAM xx
I always love hearing about the reuniting of Bob’s pack. Angus please be careful when doing your backflips! Now that is a cinnamon bun! ! !
All is well once again, at the ROF.
I hope all the problems with the wee house have been rectified.
Thank God for mundane days and happy dogs. It's always a good day when the flock is reunited.
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