At last–Chapter CCCXIII of Violet Crepuscular’s epic romance, Oy, Rodney. I have skipped Chapter CCCXII because I couldn’t find it anywhere.
As instructed by the Wise Woman of the Woods, Lady Margo Cargo has hired three men who are each the seventh son of a seventh son, all expert morris dancers, and all named Squeeb MacTavish, to remove Black Rodney’s curse on the vicar’s backyard wading pool. If you don’t understand that sentence, welcome to the club.
All three are now in position to perform the magical ritual, each equipped with an orange beach ball. Looking on are Lady Margo and her fiancees, Lord Jeremy Coldsore and the American adventurer, Willis Twombley, whom she thinks are the same person.
“Ready?” cries Lord Jeremy.
“We are ready, my lord,” answers Squeeb MacTavish–well, answers one of them. Which one doesn’t really matter.
“Then do yer stuff!” shouts Twombley.
With their backs to the pool, all three toss their beach balls into the air, hopefully to land in the middle of the pool. They do, all three of them.
Out from under the pool, with blinding speed, shoot three slimy tentacles, instantaneously wrapping around the three morris dancers and snapping back under with the three men. Gone, all three of them.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen!” Lord Jeremy cries. Twombley laughs, earning a frown from Lady Margo.
“I deplore this man’s laughter at this manslaughter!” she declares.
“And I, dear reader,” exults Mr. Crepuscular, “have executed another crepuscularity!” She is sure this will catch on as a literary technique.
(“Toldja that so-called Wise Women of the Woods is full of it!” grumbles Lady Margo’s crusty old butler, Crusty. “She’s never been right about anything.”)
Here the chapter dissolves into an orgy of self-congratulation by Ms. Crepuscular, too shameful to repeat here.
That Mac Tavish clan has always been a bit shaky, IMHO, and the Wise Woman of the Woods is so daft that she doesn’t realize that she’s being mocked when they call her that. 🙂
“Here the chapter dissolves into an orgy of self-congratulation by Ms. Crepuscular, too shameful to repeat here.”
She is obviously a Millennial.
Now you’ve gone and hurt her feelings.
Perhaps she can find a safe space … under the wading pool.
And you think Boris Pasternak had a tough writing environment?
I meant it in the most positive sense possible. 🙂
“I deplore this man’s laughter at this manslaughter!”
This ought to be the funniest thing I’ve read in ages!