Paula's story
Olivia and her husband Daniel were intelligence operatives for the U.S. government, working in London to infiltrate the government of Boris Johnson.
U.S. intelligence agencies were certain that Johnson was working as a Russian asset. As a U.S. ally, the British prime minister was privy to certain intelligence briefings, and U.S. agencies believed that Johnson was passing on that information to Putin and his allies.
The ultimate goal was to expose him, and get him removed from office and charged with espionage. Olivia and Daniel had been working for months to make contacts within the Johnson administration, contacts with an axe to grind, contacts who understood the threat Putin posed to the free world, contacts who would jump at the chance to help the U.S. sink the Johnson government.
Olivia had dropped Daniel off at the Winter Garden at the Landmark Hotel for a lunch meeting with a possible recruit, someone she and Daniel thought could be instrumental in obtaining information for them. After lunch, Daniel had been planning to do some shopping, and handle some light surveillance for an upcoming mission, then take the tube back to their apartment in Crouch End.
The text message. It was in code, of course, and it meant Daniel was in danger.
Just getting to dessert. Don’t rush.
It meant that Daniel was still at the lunch table, but that somehow, things had gone horribly wrong.
Olivia considered all the possibilities. Could it be that the woman she and Daniel had considered a potential recruit was a Russian implant who had led Daniel to believe she would be amenable to doling out secure information about Johnson’s activities, but instead had turned the tables on him, threatening to expose him to her Russian colleagues, resulting almost surely in Daniel’s death, and Olivia’s as well? Or, perhaps, the Russian invasion of Ukraine that very morning had frightened the woman into silence, wary and mistrustful, and Daniel was foundering for a way to extricate himself from a potentially dangerous situation. There was a third possibility: Daniel had mistakenly, carelessly, sent a text that they both had carefully saved in their phones in case of emergency, a text that would set a rescue operation in motion within minutes. And somehow he didn’t realize it.
In any event, Olivia couldn’t take any chances. She had to swing into action. She had just punched into her secure phone the number of the agency’s cleaner, the person who could get them out of London and back to the States, secretly and safely, within an hour, when Daniel walked through the door, laden with bags from Waitrose, and laughing at something the doorman had said to him. Olivia, ashen-faced and furious, grabbed his phone out of his hand and scrolled through his sent texts until she found the one in code.
“What the hell?” she demanded.
“Oh, crap,” Daniel said, looking horrified. “I meant to send that to Eric, who was planning to meet me at the shops after lunch. Oh, geez, I’m so sorry, Olivia. All is well.” He grinned at her, and walked toward her with his arms open.
“No,” Olivia said grimly. “No, Daniel, all is certainly not well. You could have put us both in horrific danger. You could have ended our careers. You are an idiot, and you suck at this job. I’ve had enough.” She turned back to her cell phone, murmuring to the agency’s cleaner that instead of two tickets back to the States, she needed only one. And she was going to need a new partner in London. As soon as possible.
Geraldine's story
JUST STARTING DESSERT : DON’T RUSH
The yougnsters had been playing in the rocks near the forest, climbing and playing hide and seek.
How long had they been there, they couldn’t guess : maybe 2 or 3 hours or maybe much longer. They had no idea of time, they were just lost in their games.
All of a sudden, Rosaria felt a big spasm in her stomach ! What was that ? O dear, she felt so hungry ; her head started spinning. She called out to the others :
- He ! Ho ! Let’s stop the game now, it’s certainly time for lunch ! Who knows what time it is ?
- David ran towards her and said : - it can’t be yet, it seams we’ve only just started playing together, to me at least.
By this time the little group had formed around Rosaria, David, Juliet, Carl, Margot and Jeremy.
Well, we’d better be heading home said Jeremy : my watch shows 4p.m. and I think we were due home at one : it’s Daddy’s birthday lunch today.
- Oh my God ! no cried Margot, we’ve missed it. Let’s call Mum and see if she’s still waiting for us !
Juliet, the eldest had a mobile phone. So she dialled her Mum’s number and she heard it start ringing. It rang once, twice, three times, four times, 5, 6, 7… No answer ! Oh dear what’s the matter !
Then, a buzz and her phone went on ! Mumy !
- Hello Mum, it’s us. Sorry we are late for Dad’s birthday lunch !
- Well, what happened to you, came their Mum’s voice. I know how independant you all are, but I must admit I was beginning to worry a bit.
- Well, it’s such a lovely day and we got playing in the woods around Flavigny and just never got bored… So here we still are !
- Well, it’s OK children. We are just starting dessert : don’t rush !
- - Oh ! how unfair ! we missed the starter, the main course and now we are going to miss the dessert !
- Well, if you think it’s unfair, we could wait for you, give you lunch, and postpone the dessert for hightea ! What about that ?
- It sounds great and thanks so much. Could you tell us what the starter was ?
- Yes ! We started with avocado filled with shrimps and grapefruit with curry mayonnaise.
David and Rosaria screamed :
But we hate grapefruit ! You should know this by now . Why choose grapefruit ?
-Well, said Mum on the phone « it is your Dad’s birthday and he happens to love grapefruit. Do you really want me to deprive HIM from HIS favourate starter ?
The children asked Juliet now to see what the main course was :
- Mum, can you also tell us what the main course is ?
- Steack and kidney pudding, said Mum with a firm voice.
- Oh ! But we all hate steack and kidney pudding ! Why on earth did you cook such a heavy and uninteresting meal ?
- Well, don’t you remember it happens to be Dad’s and my very favourite dish. And I did cook it very well : it’s tasty, tender and the gravy is just perfect.
There was a big silence accross the phone. The children didn’t know what to answer, and Mum was probably very upset.
Then her voice came out louder as she said :
If you’re that hungry, children, all I can advise is that you go straight to Mc Donald’s , order all the shit you want to eat and…. Don’t rush… There will be no dessert left !
Jackie's storyI had the opportunity just recently of having a conversation with an older man I met by chance in Paris. As I first sat down I felt a little wary of him because of how he was dressed. I observed the shoes first – brown loafers so worn down at the heels that his ankles were at right angles. Trousers torn in parts and raincoat splashed with …well stained with something.
We were sitting next to each other at Les Deux Magots a famous café at St Germain les Pres. I was tucking into a lemon meringue pie (my favorite) that dessert that looks like snow topped mountains with lemon cream oozing out of the sides slowly edging itself across the plate … I was half way through when I felt my neighbors gaze on me. I acknowledged him quickly wiped from the side of my mouth the trickling lemon deliciousness – I shouldn’t be eating this I murmured patting my rather plump waistline – Don’t feel guilty he replied pulling out of his rather frayed pocket a chocolate bar half eaten. He introduced himself and I recognized his name as a being a well know philosopher. So when he began to speak, I listened carefully to what he had to say. Consider, he began, that life is like a meal. A life meal to nourish our time on earth. When you were a child he furthered to say, you were having your breakfast years your Breakfast years are the most important part of your life – after 9 months of preparation to come into the world – feeding the body – developing muscles and establishing good eating habits. It is usually a time when you can eat what you want, quantities of cereals, sugars and croissants and chocolate creams to your hearts content. Starting to build up the energy needed for growth. We are learning about life to the full in our breakfast years and we need to have the vitality to do so.
Then comes the lunch time of your life when you can still eat what you like but begin to think about not eating meat twice a day and having children of your own and getting married perhaps in a different order though and adding more healthy foods . You start a career perhaps or go to work for a big firm or start up a venture on your own. It is just that half time in your life and you can still look forward to eating fully goodies, wine and have fun. ……….. it is the intermediate time of your meal life.
Then as time goes on the years go by and its the teatime of your life when you can still indulge in a lemon meringue pie for instance even lick the plate if you like, go on, I dare you, he said, and also stuff yourself silly with scones and cream and spread sandwiches with lashings of butter as long as …..you skip dinner. You might though be starting to fill out a little in the waist area and changing your way of wearing your clothes. Not such tight jeans or wearing flowing skirts or trousers with elastic waistbands …. You might not eat so much in the evening which is the start of a slowing down and doing things differently time of life. Perhaps retiring from a job –becoming a grandparent, or loosing a parent or family member. Preparing your self for an easier more comfortable life.
And then dinner and your last meal ….. your body rythme changes, slows down, dinner is soups and simple meals – you might skip cheese and …..
I put up my hand - stop – hang on –
“dessert has just started ….don’t rush”
_______________________________
Sarah's story
Dessert 1 – A Greek Farce in the Shakesperean Mode, or The Tragedy of the Missed Lunch
(Revenge for an unappetizing theme)
(begins with a sonnet, ends in rhyming pentameter)
(06.02.2022)
Scene 1: A road in a forest. Bicyclès [pron: bis sik LEEZ] and Tricyclès [pron: tris sik LEEZ]
Tricyclès: How comes it that thou goes't so, Bicyclès?
Bicyclès: I go on two wheels, when thou goes't on three
Get thee a mount like mine, O Tricyclès,
So wert thou faster than a bumblebee.
Tricyclès: But where goes't thou so fast, my swifter friend?
Bicyclès: To Paula's house, a luncheon there to taste.
Tricyclès: Oh, let me pedal faster, to that end
I may too eat there—brother, let us haste!
Bicyclès: There shall we see also good Spectaclès*
Tricyclès: All goggled up like an old businessman!
Bicyclès: And that foul slimy traitor Reptilès*,
Who eateth all before the others can.
Tricyclès: Pull out thy cell-phone, let us warn them all
Not to begin 'fore breeding's protocol.1
Bicyclès: (pulls out his phone) What ho, fair Paula, hath the group begun
To eat thy tasty pasta, chick'n and crumb
(That secret seas'ning2 that thou dost so make
That every cook in France shall hereby quake
In shame)? We are so hungry, by my troth,
We're like to tumble in a porker's trough.
(holds out phone so that Paula's answer can be heard)
Paula (off): Just getting to dessert, my tardy friends
Don't rush, however, you can make amends
By praising my rich pudding to the skies
For Bicyclès, I warrant, never lies.
Tricyclès: Alack, alas, 'twould seem we've miss'd the main
The fowl is gone, the sauces and the grain.
Bicyclès: Nay, pudding's better than no meal at all.
Come, Tricyclès, let's pedal to the ball.
*pron: spekta KLEEZ, reptil LEEZ
1 breeding's protocol the rules of good manners
2 "Paula's secret seasoning" Paula O'Byrne's special mixture of bread crumbs, salt & pepper, and herbs
222 wds (dialogues only)
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