| A TWICE WEEKLY SERIAL OF BIG TOP FOLK BY
SIMON PARKE |
|
EPISODE 18
DRINKS AT DAVIDO'S
It is drinks at Davido's. People usually bring a bottle, though the Great Davido is reckoned to have the only trailer with a wine cellar.
"I got lucky!" says Davido. Ever eager to appear one of the crowd, he passes off the fine wines on offer as a stroke of happenstance. "An old uncle died!"
"Was that Uncle Oddbins?" asks Scuttle, in seventh heaven, surrounded by quite so much unguarded booze.
"So is this caring?" asks Georgio, discreetly in Davido's ear.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Is this caring?"
"Er, yep. That's what it is, Georgio. Doing something for others. That's caring."
"Cunning!"
"No, not cunning – just caring."
"Cunning caring!"
"Just pour some drinks, will you?"
"'Ere, wor abow me??" demands Young Lee, as he is passed by.
"You're too young for alcohol," says Georgio.
"I'm ai-een!"
"Then you should have learned to speak by now."
Georgio feels a fork being pressed into his thigh; a fork held by Davido.
"Just a little perhaps," said Georgio.
"Good to see you, Lee!" says Davido. "And you Ted! Got rid of the toe-rags, I see!"
Ted nods uncomfortably, feeling closer to the toe-rags than he does to his host. He returns to his Guinness, which he has learned to bring himself. It's a wine cellar, here; not a beer cellar. And then Daisy arrives, which brings a smile to Ted's face.
"Glad you decided against bringing Julie," says Davido.
"She's better company than you."
"No, it's nothing personal, I assure you; but she does tend to fall through the floor every time she comes."
Every body laughs, and then Scuttle is up on a table, doing a tap dance and singing a rude song, which stops only when Burt and Teresa arrive.
"Pray silence for the Gaffer and the Gafferess!" declares Scuttle, in bowing deference to their arrival. "Just like in Russia, eh? When once a year, the Czar would hold one of his remarkable Balls! Ooh er!"
Ringo stands in the corner all evening, unable to merge; but Jess makes it in the end, and darkness falls on much laughter at Davido's. How it is a good night, no one quite knows. But it is a good night; despite the whole "remarkable balls" thing.
More clowning around |
