Secrets and Pies / July 17 2008
I keep bumping into Reg; I think he’s stalking me. And, apart form his – sometimes quite sophisticated – jokes, he does, rather worryingly, tend to say some odd things.
Earlier today, outside the Starlight Café in the village, he looked like he was dressed for a rap video: he had on a baseball cap, baggy jeans and a New York t-shirt. Such an ensemble would suit a younger man perhaps, but on Reg the look was a little incongruous (to say the least) as he is, I believe, in his early sixties. As usual, the earplugs for his iPod were continuously popping out of his lugholes in a vain attempt to escape his sweaty head. He was munching his way through what appeared to be a still-frozen meat pie. ‘Hi, Reg! That looks underdone.’
‘S’alright,’ he chewed. ‘Pie’s a pie.’
‘What kind is it?’
‘Eh?’
‘Is it chicken or beef?’
He looked puzzled.
‘What kind of meat is it – white or red?’
He glanced down at the unappetisingly soggy, half-eaten thing in his hand. ‘Brown,’ he said after a slight pause. ‘It’s brown.’
‘Where’s your bling?’ I teased him.
‘My what?’
‘Your bling, Reg.’
He changed the subject with a question of his own. ‘Do you like the Stones, Davy? The Rolling Stones?’
‘Sometimes. Why?’
His voice became a conspiratorial whisper: ‘I’ve got a secret.’
‘Reg, I – ‘
‘Do not worry, young Jedi,’ he tapped his nose and winked at me pointedly, ‘I can see you’re busy. All will be revealed in due course.’ With that, he began a loud, tuneless whistle and trotted off towards the council offices, his elaborate and noisy gait carrying him not entirely unheralded along the busy thoroughfare.
I stood with Audrey for a few seconds and watched him disappear from view, his bowed legs skipping intermittently to some inner rhythm, some private hip-hop soundtrack that was his and his alone to enjoy – or endure, depending on your point of view.
Filed under Hip Hop / Music / Pies / Reg / Rolling Stones / iPod
Comments
One comment on “Secrets and Pies”
Nelson Galaxy / July 17th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Most definately endure.
Leave a comment
