Petra and Paul were driving across the Camargue in a rented car
It was the first day of their French holiday
I tell you that there are only sixteen flamingos in the whole of the Camargue
There are far more than that have you never seen them in films and the like
It is all an illusion
A trick of the light
There have only ever been sixteen flamingos
We will see when we arrive
Arrive where
The Flamingo Lake
There is no Flamingo Lake
An hour later both Petra and Paul were to be found under a tree on the shores of a thin lake
After swimming for a while they returned to their bags only to find that a flamingo had stolen them and was parading with the bags on a rocky outcrop some metres above them
What shall we do
Nothing
We have to do something otherwise we will spend the rest of the day in our swim gear
That flamingo is the 17th Flamingo and the 17th Flamingo does not exist
It looks real enough to me look it has my summer dress dangling from its beak
Turn around Petra
Why
Just turn around
What do you see
The lake
What else
Flamingos
Count them
What
Count the flamingos
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
I have counted 16 flamingos
And that proves that the 17th flamingo does not exist
Petra turned around and looked for the thieving flamingo but it was no longer where it had previously been
It was a trick of the light that’s all Petra
Was the theft of the bags a trick of the light
Or the games with my summer dress
The bag is where we left it and you did not bring a summer dress
You were wearing a vest and shorts
I brought a summers dress
The red one
It is in the apartment
I packed it just in case I burnt
Check the bag
Petra unzipped the bag but could not find her summer dress
This is all getting very strange Paul
Not really but let us return to the town and leave these beautiful creatures in peace
As they approached the town they found that they had joined a queue of traffic
A lorry had spilt its load of summer dresses
Near the roundabout a disinterested traffic cop was giving directions to the traffic towards the town
It was then that Petra noticed that he was not the only cop on duty
As on the other side of the shallow roundabout there was a flamingo in her summers dress directing traffic safely away from the town