The Four Seasons Chapter Five ~ Autumn (The Fall) Plays Her Game
Monday, 18 January 2021
Part V
Hi there Ian! Here’s the man!!
We’ve got no worries now Zoe!!!
Is it tea and toast again today?
Richard’s usual cheeky smile
Memories of another very similar Kiwi smile and temperament
Yep it sure is Richard!
I'm starving!
Grace likes Todderstaffes;
Autumn plays the game
dislodging the branches
for a bit of fun
on unsuspecting pensioners
gathered in the garden,
basking in the Autumn Sun.
Clayton! Have you done
that food order yet?
No Zoe. Have YOU Rick done that
repair to the chair you broke
this morning?!
A rolling of the eyes,
a cheeky laugh
and a distant kitchen rant
that one just cannot get
the staff these days,
an attempt to hide her
fondness to these two young
renegades,
these lads about town!
And the threat with a little giggle. . .
It wouldn’t happen on my sister’s
Kibbutz!!
… a pause. . .
Oh, boys don't start again!
Why DO I employ you?
Honest, Ian! They try my patience,
They really do!
They faff around and cause
me all this grief!!
Girls! That’s their trouble.
Girls!!
Because we’re indispensable Zoe
that’s why, and gorgeous too,
isn’t that right Richard?
Yep it sure is Clayton my boy!
(and with a cheeky wink)
now you run along Clay and get
the cheese on toast
and mum’s the word okay then Ian?!
Zoe’s not looking, and it’s Andrew’s day off
so if you’re really good
I’ll give a slice off the bone,
no questions asked, wink-wink!
A beam, a smile, laughter
The peep of a piercing stud …
Autumn gusts a torrent of leaves
as Zoe clears the teacups
to remind us of her presence,
and Grace bows out behind the
gables …
Not a while now and soon
the Winds of Winter will
bring down the wall
and the gable!
And give all the coffee drinkers
and blue-rinse brigade
endless lines to talk about
for days to come!
Let no one mention
the day Sam flooded the Kitchen.
The talk of Park Street!
And one week later
Andrew’s disagreement
with the flaming frying pan!
The Arts Centre on the corner,
an Agency across the way
and sleepy olde-worlde Lytham
as if 1940 was back again!
Karen giggles and laughs again,
sipping her coffee seated in the corner
Oh no. They’re at it again!
It’s just like teaching all over again!
***
18 January 2021
All Rights Reserved
© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
