A Bath Full of Ladybirds

Harriet Jane Kendall would travel over twenty miles to the next town to play tennis

The reason for this was that the local tennis facility has been infested and destroyed by the blue ladybirds

Harriet partnered the a vicars son named Gordon in doubles tournaments and occasionally partnered his identical twin Gordon

The only difference between the brothers was that one adored God and the other was an atheist

Quite often when they showered together after a game Harriet would discuss the fundamentals of her deep beliefs only to realise that she was speaking to the wrong brother and that the other one was reading his Bible nearby with a faint smile on his face

The railway station was about twenty minutes walk from the tennis centre and as she walked towards the station

Harriet could see how the green ladybirds had covered the town hall

Although a recognised pest the green ladybirds posed no threat and were largely ignored by the authorities

This unnerved Harriet as she sensed that all ladybirds were dangerous no matter their colour.

The carriages of the local trains were designed as if they were the interiors of non-conformist chapels with plain pews and little decoration on the walls

Often Harriet would sit in front of the vicar of her town and his timid wife and on each occasion she would observe that the vicar would hang a pair of black underpants around his neck (possibly his own she hoped) to obscure his clerical collar

The vicar whose name was Thompson always read Das Kapital on these journeys and would pray furiously to the author

The house where Harriet lived was roughly halfway between the two towns so when the weather was agreeable she would alight at the station furthest from her town and walk by the sea

If it was warm she would paddle and on the days when the tropical breezes arrived she would swim all the way home

Whatever the journey or the conditions of the sea Harriet would always bathe when she arrived home

She would rest in a bath full of red ladybirds and contemplate her day and the times not distant before the ladybirds arrived when she would bathe in the perfumed waters of the town and dust herself in exotic powders

The days when she partnered semi-professional tennis players in notable tournaments within the county which were often televised for the benefit of minority audiences

But since the invasion things had changed and the claustrophobic lives of the ladybirds had been accepted and considered normal

Occasionally Harriet would deliberately crush a ladybird between her fingers or underfoot a task that she found unpleasant but necessary

She would disguise her crime by abandoning the carcass so it would never be traced but felt under suspicion when doing so

But many were guilty of the crime even the identical twins often boasted of their revolutionary acts but unlike them Harriet had already been corrupted by the tiny creatures and knew that if her crimes were traced that her weakness would be exposed by her infestation

So like many tennis players in the small coastal town she adopted a mask of obedience which although false fooled the majority

In a metal box which was securely hidden in a shed at the concrete works Harriet held a supply of poisons which when the time arrived would cause great damage to the invaders but she would not win any war alone and resistance was still fragmented and pathetic

One of her tennis racquets had a hollow stem that also carried poisons which although harmless to tennis players were lethal to ladybirds

Each time she travelled with the war racquet in her tennis bag she knew that she was taking a risk but it was a risk worth taking even though she had been corrupted by the tiny creatures

Occasionally when the night was quiet she would look at the Delacroix print that she had attached to her bedroom wall

It was most probably the most well- known of all his paintings

Liberty Leading the People a simple title easily translated from its original without a loss of meaning and although the painting celebrated the July revolution of 1830 in France its message was the same nearly two hundred years later

Harriet would occasionally if she could not been seen loosen the cotton ties of her nightdress and expose her breasts

She would then lift up her poisoned racquet and look at her fellow revolutionaries and lead them forward

Harriet would not hold this pose for long as she soon felt the tightness of her internal corruptions

But for a while the freedom felt good and she knew that one day she would be involved in the revolution that would expel the ladybirds (of all colours) from her coastal town and beyond

It was day that she feared and looked forward to in equal measure

 

The Daughters of Karl Marx

Do you realise that two of the daughters of Karl Marx killed themselves

Tussy in 1898 and Laura in 1911

We were sitting on the grass at Beachy Head and were enjoying a picnic on another fine June day

I do not think that anybody will end themselves today

How sad that one should want to end themselves in such a fashion

To be smashed against the savage rocks below and transported to Hell by the savage savage sea

Do you know that Fredrich Engels had his ashes scattered from these very cliffs

I believed he visited this area frequently in his lifetime

In a way it was quite wonderful that his ashes drifted for a while in the Eastbourne winds and then settled forever in the timeless sea

Gerty toasted me with her glass of sparking lemonade

Such deep thoughts poor Gordon imprisoned by his thoughts of eternity and a day let us be merry and enjoy this passive day as winter is far away and that is it is the time to consider Karl Marx’s poor daughters and the last wishes of Fredrich Engels

Drink your lemonade I made it this morning especially for this day and enjoy the warmth of my company and the southerly breezes of this enchanted summer    

 

2018