41. Departures and Arrivals
In which even enthusiasm is enthusiastic…
“Carlisle and St David’s,” said @AngleofRepose. “Nobody has looked at them.”
“@ErrolTheDragon is outside,” said Gosie, “and Carlisle is minutes away.”
That was all that needed to be said. Angle turned to a clean page, wrote Carlisle at the top of one column and St David’s at the top of the other, and then the room went from sitting to moving without any standing up in between.
Errol put her head through the door and asked where.
“Carlisle,” said Angle.
“I know Carlisle,” said Errol. “There is a wall. I will need a picnic.”
The kitchen hatch opened before she had finished speaking, and Gourmet’s voice came through it asking how many, and every gerbil in the room answered at once.
“I’M GOING,” said Gantry. “I HAVE NEVER FLOWN.”
“You have never flown because you shout,” said Girdle. “Errol will hear you through the whole of Cumbria.”
“I WILL SHOUT QUIETLY.”
Gadget wanted to go because she had nothing else on, even though she was organising a birthday for the next day. Garnet asked whether there were seeds in Carlisle, revised the question to whether there were luxury seeds in Carlisle, and did not get an answer to either.
Gossamer had climbed onto the coat hooks for a better view of who was going, and three gerbils had climbed onto Gossamer.
@Chickadeeinme came in from the yard with her mohawk flattened on one side from sleeping on a train, took one look at the room, and said, “What have I missed?”
“Sweden,” said Girdle.
“1951,” said Gimbal.
“Paris,” said Magpie, from her peanuts.
“St David’s,” said Angle, and put a pencil line under it. “You’re going to St David’s. Pembrokeshire.”
Chickadee looked at the column with her name now at the top of it. “Fine,” she said, and went to the bar to see if Magpie had left any peanuts. She had not, but Grub placed a bowl in front of Chickadee before she had time to ask for it.
“The Cambrian Traveller’s Guide,” said Grisaille, from something written down, “describes St David’s as the largest city in Wales.”
“Thank you, Grisaille,” said @Hedgehogforshort.
The door opened again and in came @PastaAllaNorma, back from the Welsh borders with her camera strap across her chest and a road atlas folded open to a page it had not been designed to fold open at.
“Hereford,” she said. “No mark.”
“You’ve been gone for ages,” said Girdle.
“I know,” said Pasta. “There’s a window in the nave called Ascension. It’s a memorial to the SAS, who are based there, and it was installed in 2017. It’s nine metres high and contains 3,000 pieces of glass. It is a beautiful window, and I had to just look at it.”
She put her camera on the table and Glossy’s door opened immediately. “There’s a blue stone sculpture underneath it that you can put your hand on. I looked at every centimetre of leading I could reach and then I found a verger with a ladder and looked at the rest. Nothing. But, oh my goodness, the glass...”
Angle wrote Hereford, Ascension, 2017, no mark, and added the verger and the ladder.
“Where is everyone off to all of a sudden?” asked Pasta.
“St David’s,” said four gerbils at once. “And Carlisle.”
At the other end of the room, three plans were happening at the same time and none of them was finished.
“Can Errol drop Chickadee and the St David’s gerbils on the way?” asked Girdle.
“St David’s is not on the way to Carlisle,” said Geography. “It is on the way to Ireland.”
“Errol could go to Ireland.”
“Errol is not going to Ireland.”
“Chickadee flies,” said Ganges. “Chickadee could carry someone.”
“Chickadee is a bird,” said Chickadee, from the bar. “Not a bus.”
Gantry had got as far as the yard and was standing under Errol’s chin explaining, at volume, how quiet she would be.
By the time Gantry, Gadget, and Garnet had been lifted onto Errol’s back next to the picnic basket lashed there by Gordian who understood knots, the room had started to empty.
Chickadee was at the door with a camera from Glossy and a piece of paper from Angle, and she was not alone.
“I’m coming,” said Gwenllian, who had not spoken before that evening, and who was already wearing a coat.
“As am I,” said Glamorgan.
“It’s Welsh Wales,” said Gwenllian, as if this settled it, and the gerbils around her nodded as if it did.
“What is Welsh Wales?” asked Girdle.
“It’s the Welsh bit,” said Glamorgan.
“All of Wales is Welsh.”
“Not like St David’s,” said Gwenllian. “St David’s is Welsh Wales.”
Chickadee looked at the two of them, then at the piece of paper in her hand, and wrote two more names on it. “You carry your own food,” she said. “I’m not a bus.”
They went out into the yard, where Errol was lifting off with a noise like the roof coming away, yet could be heard Gantry shouting the instructions about the back of the camera so that she wouldn’t forget them.
The bar was practically empty when @RandomHypatia arrived carrying a camera and a notebook with figures in it.
“Gloucester,” she said.
“And?” asked Angle.
“The Lady Chapel,” Hypatia said as Glossy took her camera before she could put it down. “The side windows are all by Christopher Whall, from about 1900. There is a magnificent light of virgin martyrs, and I stood under it for a long time because the colours were mesmerising. Second tier, first on the left. St Agnes.”
Hypatia opened her notebook to a page that was mostly a sketch. “The Margrave’s mark is in the leading under her feet.”
https://myrtlelion.substack.com/p/41-departures-and-arrivals