Chasing Eternity

Dolt woke in a morning stupor from endless nights of drinking cheep white wine; it’s pay day, the golden pigeon has pooed! He has his morning cough, a residue of gunge of stale tobacco tar and what ever it is the stuff that seems to feed of the wine. He found his wallet easily in his little caravan and jumped in his brightly coloured Ford Falcon panel van. The pub was open and he ordered an egg and bacon toasty and a jug of standard Aussie larger; but the EFTPOS came back declined. He contacted his bank and sure enough there was nothing in there. He was convinced it was Thursday; it’s only Tuesday – two days to pay day. “That was a horrible dream – I was sure it was payday!” With no money for booze Dolt had to make do with Charlie’s fruity elixir. Dolt hated fruity elixir. There are two schools of cheep wine: crisp dry white and fruity elixir; they don’t mix. It was half past ten in the morning and Dolt was having his first cup of wine in a dirty coffee mug in Charlies caravan.

“What have we got to eat?” Dolt asked Charley.

“Almonds, oats, black coffee.”

“I’m tempted to call Mum.”

“I wouldn’t complain.”

Dolt called his Mum and secured a small loan to go shopping. He got some diced lamb from the butcher then frozen stir-fry vegetables and fresh garlic and ginger from the shop, he had rice and spices in his caravan and there was cheep white bread for the animals and a loaf of good seeded bread for the staff. One beer at the pub and a cask of crisp dry white to take away. He cooked up a curry that would last until the real pay day.

Wednesday was a sleepless night, his money came in right on midnight. He checked his account and it was there, nothing he could do about it until the. Morning when the shops and the library open, the pub doesn’t open until ten. Come an early Thursday morning he makes his way to the library to check his emails and do some banking transfers. He was traveling all up and down Queensland and getting paid fortnightly, while his bills were arriving monthly in a letterbox in Burrum Heads, a small coastal village a little north of Hervey Bay. To deal with this he sent his Mum money every fortnight to cover the bills, she was good for small loans too and these were settled on pay day at the nearest library. He updated his blog and surfed the internet for a few hours before heading for the pub. A jug of standard blond bubbly Aussie beer. He sang for his last glass.

“Pay-day Thursday
Every other Thursday

I’ve got cash to splash

Little off a lay-by

Little off a hock
A little there for stash

A little there to splash

Pay-day Thursday

Every other Thursday

I’ve got cash to splash

I’ve got cash to splash.”

The barman, the only audience for Dolt’s outburst gave him a big grin and a thumbs-up.

They packed up the show and headed out to the servo at the end of down town Kennelworth. They filled up and headed out on the road to there next pitch The Show Grounds at Kandanga. They had several vehicles to move: first Dolt in his panel-van with a small caravan with balloon, clown and fairy paintings in tow. And Charley with the animal trailer, a twenty-eight foot with four wheels two monkey cages in the front and pens out the back for goats, ponies and alpacas. Being toed by an Isuzu four ton tray-back. Then the pair of them back back in the panel-van. There to pick up a two ton pantech towing an eight meter tri-axil tent trailer. The pantech had a host of once useful things, now largely broken and beyond repair. There was enough stuff there to provide lights, music and sets. And there was a working Husqvarna two stroke engine motorbike that was fun to get around town on.
They got all the vehicles on too the block and started to put up the pitch. The big-top was up by sunset and Dolt headed out to the pub to tell the barman all about it. He knocked back a jug of beer in three quarters of an hour and sang check-in out now the funk soul juggler while improvising with his juggling balls as he walk out the doo with a cask of wine.

The next day it was up at nine feeling lousy and dragging himself out to Charlies caravan to drink instant coffee heated in the microwave in dirty mugs. First take Lilly for a walk around town. Lilly liked gum that she would find people had discarded and would run on all fore along steel tube and cyclone fences. Dolt left Charlie and Lilly and went around the shops putting up posters and telling people about the show. The last stop was the pub where he had a couple of schooners; a fortifying ale. When Dolt got back to Charlie there was a young woman there bleeding from her forearm asking frightened questions.

“Do you think I should goto the doctor?”
“Yes – to be on the safe side. Monkeys live mostly off of fresh fruit so there teeth are disgusting.”

“”You could brush there teeth.”

”Hhaa – like I’m going to brush a monkeys teeth!”
“I brush my dogs teeth.”
“Dogs are far more sociable.”

“Will I get rabies?”

“”No – no rabies. But there maybe places in the world that get that and the idea of a rabid monkey it very scary.”

“How do you know I won’t get rabies?”

“There is no rabies in Australia.”

“Why not”

“It’s one of those things: Britten, Australia, New Zealand – no rabies, we don’t know why, if we could work it out we would become famous for fixing a huge global problem.
If you can’t get to the doctor just put a bit of Betatdine on it and it should be alright. Thank you for being so understanding.”

Then Dolt went back to the pitch and picked up Serenity the new pony to take for a walk around town around school out time. Some young girls came to ask questions about her and were disappointed when told she was a girl. A couple of elderly tourists had photos taken with her. Then in the paddock on the way back she started to pull on her rein; harder and harder she would pull getting a longer and longer rope, until she had time to charge. She made repeated charges at Dolt with him having to jump out of the way of the angry pony. Eventually Dolt proved the rope and ran, Serenity made charges at him while he ran to his caravan. He jumped through the open door of his caravan and sat in safety for a while; then called Charle who came and calmed the savage beast and soon Serenity was secured with the other quadrupeds. “You won’t be taken for a walk again!” Dolt told Serenity while he fed her some chopped up apple.
Then just after sun set the music is put on, traditional circus polkers and Charlie takes his place on a seat at the front door with a till on his lap. Dolt jumps up on his stilts that turns him into a nine foot tall clown with red and gold trousers, brightly coloured Harlequin coat & tails and a sequinned jesters cap. He shakes hands with the audience as they turn up with a jovial “Welcome to the show.”
He bought some sausages, onion, capsicum, garlic, bread and butter. Found a few suitable sized logs and put a cast iron cooking plate between the stones creating a hot plate fire place. He collected dry wood as he travelled around. Sometimes stopping in likely places on the side of the road to find good sticks, and had a saw to cut the bigger peaces up. Olive oil, cracked pepper, Italian herbs – stir fry onion, capsicum and garlic to go with sausages cooked on an open fire out in the country on a cool dark South East Queensland autumn night. A friend of Charlies from another circus way back when he was working in the big shows as an advance-agent; selling the show and plaid country and western classics while that had there dinner and wine.