Autumn ends on Wednesday, Winter is scheduled to begin Thursday. They will ship in some fog and ennui and dump the luggage anywhere they please but I have my armour. I care nothing for bureaucracy and cannot be bothered to accurately count the livestock so I wrote down 78 because nobody was likely to check. When the officers arrive at the appointed time (they are always on time) to collect the forms and the annual subscription I shall not be home. I leave my wife to deal with them. We had had to dig deep to find the money and we went without something at the weekend but our souls are cleansed, thank you our lords ladies and guardians etc.
When I came home (I go out a lot) no sooner had I closed the door and my wife put the kettle on for a cup of tea but bugger me the seasonal rains arrived so the children set about erecting the flood defences as they have been trained to do. Then they returned to their study of philosophy and practical husbandry. We have become accustomed to their cries and endless complaining and our skins are as toughened glass i.e. both physically and mentally we have become hardened to the point of insensitivity having taken on board the teachings and following the examples of our lords ladies and guardians etc.
Our house is full to the overflow of love and compassion and the music of the spheres never mind the occasional misunderstandings and incessant childish disgruntlements of the children. My wife’s working on her inability to understand the emotional rollercoaster that comes with being a sensitive artist denied the opportunities a compassionate god or sympathetic fortune might have could have should have bestowed, and I’m a patient man. A northerly gale is currently attacking the house. The gods are urinating on it. I try to adore more or less everything in our world of a few things even though the climate around here is worsening owing to new legislation brought in by our lords ladies and guardians etc.
I will be starting in on a new work later today. A novel, perhaps, or a sculpture if I happen to stumble upon a suitable block of marble. Accident is how my wife and I met and unpredictable outcome is how it so happens we are still together. There are numerous theories available in countless academic tomes regarding the sustainability or otherwise of the various societal structures discernible throughout the known (and unknown) world. The children seem not to care for any of them. I value their lack of interest. Whenever an officer drops by to conduct an unannounced inspection there’s never anything untoward to be found because we are ridiculously well-behaved. Whichever way one looks at it we are believable and unbelievable at the same time, what with being malleable and having been formed in the shadow cast by our lords ladies and guardians etc.
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Conrad Titmuss
Picture Nick Victor
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