Round 33.

33.

 Fred’s brother-in-law lives in Tahiti; we don’t know his name.

He’s a surfer.

He’s also a hydrographer.

Make’s sense.

He loves the ocean and tries his best to protect it in any way he can.

He’s not a champion surfer, but he’s good.

Certainly a better surfer than Fred.

Fred is a guitarist, he plays in a Metal band; his favourite song is Rape Meby Nirvana.

Not an easy starting point for a conversation.

The lyrics don’t help.

Fred has just bought a new guitar; it’s his third.

He has three guitars but only two hands.

The guitar was partly made in Toulouse and partly in China.

They used to make the whole guitar in Toulouse, but times change.

Fred still says it’s a good guitar and it has the Cross of Occitan on the bridge.

Fred is from Toulouse; he was born here at the hospital near the airport.

The airport is owned by the Chinese too, most of it; the government decided to sell them a significant stake.

The President has decided not to stand for re-election, the people wouldn’t vote for him if he did so he thinks it is wiser not to be humiliated.

One of the night cleaners at the airport is an immigrant from Poland; his name is Reggie.

Reggie can’t vote in the next election; he is not on the electoral register and the authorities won’t put him on it unless he changes his nationality.

Reggie considers changing nationality as oxymoronic; he sees nationality as what you are, if you are and if you are then you are and can’t not be.

So he is unable to vote.

When he looks at the list of candidates he doesn’t see any one worth voting for anyway, so he doesn’t see it as a big problem.

Still, he would like to have the choice.

Reggie’s friend, Patrick, who lives in California and thus living with the reality of a President he is ashamed of, tells Reggie that you have to vote against someone if you don’t want to vote for someone.

They communicate through a public phone hanging on the wall in arrivals; night work makes the time difference between the two continents a minor problem for telecommunication.

“I keep telling you, I can’t vote”, Reggie tells Patrick for the second time.

“I’m getting a hip replacement on Tuesday,” replies Patrick.

The conversation doesn’t exactly flow, but there is an ocean between them.

Patrick is an architect, so he doesn’t need his old hip for work but he is also a dancer and his new hip will be a great help.

He dances tango.

His partner is his wife, Loorie.

Loorie was a professional dancer when she was younger and she survives on a diet of lettuce and celery; she is very skinny.

In the winter she wears a very thick army coat to keep warm, it compensates for the lack of flesh on her bones.

She also wears big woolly hats.

Normally the climate in California doesn’t demand thick army coats and woolly hats, but the new shameful president has changed everything; some people are accusing him of rounding up the sunshine and deporting it over the border to Mexico.

Loorie always wears boots with her army coat and woolly hat; she wants to be ready to kick the president if she meets him.

Patrick wears his dancing shoes most days; he wants to be ready to try out his new hip on the dance floor.

Neither Patrick nor Loorie really expect to meet the president in the near future, they have been saving for a trip to Argentina to take part in an international Tango event and are leaving next week.

They are staying at a friend’s house, as this will reduce the cost.

Their friend is a former architectural colleague of Patrick; they met at college in their late teens, when they were studying.

The friend designed a lot of low income housing in Buenos Aires and made a lot of money, some of which he has decided to spend on a round the world trip.

Whilst Patrick and Loorie are tangoing in Buenos Aires their friend will be on a boat in the South pacific, so his house will be empty and he is happy that Patrick and Loorie are staying as he has an elderly cat that likes company and hates the cat kennels.

The cat’s name is Fred.

This is somewhat of a co-incidence as Patrick’s friend intends to visit Tahiti and learn to surf.

He has arranged the lessons through an internet site.

The surf instructor on Tahiti is another Fred’s brother.

He - the brother not Fred - is a hydrographer.

He loves the ocean and tries his best to protect it in any way he can.

It’s a small world sometimes, but not everyone knows everyone.

(maybe you blinked - the editor)

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