puff 523 Fri 17th

Aotearoa question of the day
Why do some commentators like Fraqn O'Sullivan seem to see the Treaty of Waitangi settlements as a form of aid?

Friday 17th

Te Whare Miere

Kaupapa koorero moo te raa nei
Ngaa Toorangapuu; Ngaa Kaakaariki

Rangahau
He aha te pai o Ngaa Kaakaariki inaianei? Kua tahaengia o raatou whakaaro e eetahi Toorangapuu?

Subject of the day
Political parties; the Greens

Analysis
What is the use of the Greens? Have their policies been stolen by other parties?

www.greens.org.nz/ -

Isis: the days of the voles continued
Jericho

In a club in Jericho. Late. The Trapeze Twins were doing what they mostly did when not working. Partying. The club was in Jericho.

This guy kept finding a way to sit next to them. The couldn't figure which way he swung. Ken or Barbie. On the trapeze or one out. Finally Benjamin had said 'Look man, do you want to dance with Iris?'

At that the guy laughed and said yes who wouldn't but let me introduce myself and have I got a deal for the both of you.

Or that's how it seemed to the Trapeze Twins to have happpened when they thought about it later. Benjamin and Iris were their English names.They had both been out of it. In fact their first thought had been that Ken, as he inroduced himself to be, was trying to sell them drugs.

Benjamin was twenty three. He had dark hair and an olive complexion. He thought his chi was a bit pronounced but he was a good looking young man who always did well in company.
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He liked going to movies. Benjamin liked action and stunts. He was a Fast and Furious man from way back but he could stand any kind of fast moving film.

Benjamin's sport was Table Tennis. He was good at it and could take on most. He liked watching polo and often wondered about doing a sport involving horses but the trapeze took up all of his time.

His favourite painter was Degas. Mostly though he stayed out of the art world. He'd been to shows with his mother when he stayed with her as a small child but that was as far as that kind of thing had gone.

He liked Nissan Skylines. They had a grunt that satisfied him. Generally he liked fast cars and loved motorbikes especially those used for ramp and circus work.

He liked to wear a little hat. Otherwise he was not a flashy dresser and did not pay much attention to clothes. With a trapeze body he was a clothes horse and looked good in almost anything.

Orange and black were his favorite colours. Benjamin had only had a few opportunities to decorate rooms as he'd never stayed in one place for long enough.

He liked elephants. There was something very solid about them and in the circus they were a stable force.He liked other animals as well although he could do without domestic pets. Most of his experience with animals was on the road with the circus and the animals all had a function, a job to do.

Benjamin liked television shows that connected the living to the dead. He really thought this was possible although he also thought that some of the mediums were making it up as they went along.

He had picked up lots of knowledge along the way but had not attended school regularly. This meant hat he had lots of gaps but it also meant that he had a confidence about him. He knew he could learn.


Iris, like Benjamin was twenty three. Like him she was also dark haired but with a lighter complexion. Also like Benjamin her origins were somewhere to the south of Russia.

She liked video games. Iris could play them all night long and through the day as well. She had laminated posters of video games stars that she liked to hang up wherever she was.

Her sport was In Line Skating. She liked skateboarding as well as rollerblading. Iris was committed to trapeze work though and that really was her sport.

Her favourite painter was Monet. She liked lots of art and though she wouldn't go to an exhibition on her own would gladly do so with someone else.

She liked Porsches. Iris thought they had power as well as style. The thing about cars for her was rapid acceleration and she shared the love of speed with Benjamin.

She had a light black poncho which she wore a lot. Iris was very fussy about clothes, especially amulets about which she was superstitious. In fact Iris was careful to wear amulets she thought appropriate for any occasion.

Red and blue were her favorite colours. Mostly she wore these hues in scarves which went well with her poncho. But they were her colours for stockings and gloves as well.

She liked seals. The sea and its creatures fascinated her and she liked visiting zoos and aquariums no matter where she was in the world. Iris liked to swim as well but she found the opportunity only rarely.

She liked Medium on the television. Like Benjamin she liked things like seances and thought that contact could be made with the departed. Also like him she thought hat a lot of fakes were involved but she believed it could be done and also that the dead were talking to the living in various ways.

Somehow she had developed a passion for drawing and painting and would scrawl on napkins or anything to hand. She liked looking at cartoons and comics, not for their messages but for their styles.

Esme practised taking pictures on the Tramp as he lay sleeping. Edmond, for that was his name, looked at least ten years older than his four score years and eight. His face was lined and gaunt and he had a slight stoop. Too many hedges had been slept under for there not to be an effect.

He had, ostensibly, no family, his wife and children a distant memory after an equally distant trauma which he could now only half remember. He'd spent time in institutions, He'd had shock treatment, he'd had medication for a long time. At night he liked to move his tongue around in his mouth. This was freedom. He could remember the effects of medication and treatment that made his tongue thick.

In sports he liked the Hunt but that too was more of a memory like a dream of a faraway time. But in the back of his mind were hounds, red jackets, horses and rippling brooks to be jumped.

In the arts he liked Mondrian. It was the sense of order that he liked. Everything in its own partition. You could see what colours were where. He could relate to anyone who made sense out of anything.

Edmond's car of choice was an Aston Martin. It went with his drink of choice which was Moet. And a long time between or since drinks it had been. His health had not sufferef by being off the grog though and he looked in much better shape that Selwyn the Don who was much the same age.

If he had a choice he would dress a bit like Prince Charles. As he did not have a choice he dressed like other tramps. Used and more used clothing, anything that would hold the warmth and yet not be too heavy to carry.

Edmond's favorite colour was blue. He did not know why. He could remember times after shock treatment when all he could see seemed tinged with blue. Even now, in his freedom, he could close his eyes and make the world go like that.

He liked horses but also, for some reason which he'd forgotten, ferrets. He must have had a good time at some stage and ferrets must have been around. Edmond could not summon up what or when that might have been.

Sunday Theatre was his favourite television show but it had been years since he'd watched it. He had his special places by the river where he liked to sit of an evening now. Quiet, peaceful places. Better than being medicated for bed and sitting in a dorm with people shouting and carrying on and trying to watch Sunday Bloody Theatre.

He was withdrawn in his moods and sometimes now he would not answer when people spoke to him. People on the riverbank knew him and would tolerate this kind of thing but over in Summertown it was different. He was actually more withdrawn there and more than a little frightened. In Summertown he was anxious, in Oxford itself Edmond was terrified.

Ar school he'd been good at his subjects, good across the board and very good at physics. Sometimes he'd find himself arguing away to himself and being quite impressed. It took him back to school.

He was popular amongst his schoolmates. People had liked and respected him in that faraway world before the trauma. Now he could only think of that as though it was another person. Now he lived for the riverbank. It was him and he was it.

Edmond had an odd habit, a quirk. Je would dance around on the path by the river and kick up dirt and leaves. He would do this periodically. It was a kind of a fit and might last for ten minutes.

Esme and Bella planned to use the polaroids of Edmond as he lay sleeping as a basis for their friend Rob to make stencils and these were ready for Rob who came by a few minutes later. Bella had spent a long time working on her art. She showed her work to Esme on the path. Leo and Simon Two, the undergraduates, came along. Simon Two was called that to distinguish him from Simon the Private Detective who was a subjest of the deepest mystery for Esme and her chums.

Bella was Esme's best mate and they were a very tight unit. Like Bella she was antagonistic towards the Tramp but she was fascinated with Edmond's origins. Esme thought here had to be reason for Edmond setting up residence on the riverbank. Esme thought there had to be some deeply hidden relationship with on or some of he other figures on the bank. Perhaps with Simon or his mother.

Like Bella Esme thought he Don was strange and that he drank too much. She thought Sam talked too much. But she was deeply taken with the idea of being a private detective and watched Simon attentively.

The man with the private zoo decided he needed sharks.It meant a great deal of expense with salt water and son. Perhaps he'd find an island or an isolated bit of coast and set up a shark pen.

As pretty well always, the first person Simon and Sam saw at the Joiner's Arms was the Don. 'Portrait of a Pickle,' muttered Samantha. Certainly he liked his wee dram without being anywhere near the border and certainly not north of it. 'Gay as a bee,' muttered back Simon as the Don pretended Samantha was not really in the room.

At forty seven Selwyn the Don was overweight and very unfit. Out of shape was too kind a phrase for the state of his body. He was not a tall man. It was basically a matter of too much to eat and drink, a lot of time spent indoors and next to no exercise.

He had no family save for an aunt in Chelsea who he visited sometimes. His parents had never known what to make of him and they both passed away early. He and his aunt had a tolerable relationship. They were both lonely and needed at least one friend.

He hated sports and even disliked games except for chess and even then that was an occasional preference. Conversation was his sport and he was good at it. Conversation always required, of course, someone to do it with and that meant the company at the Joiner's Arms.

Sometimes the company at the Joiner's Arms did not want to play his talk games though and this left him sitting on his own and drinking too much. And this meant that he could get all morbid and nasty to people like those on the other side of the bar. This had of course affected his popularity rating and made for a vicious circle in that people simply did not want to talk to him.

Van Gogh was his artist of choice. Edmond could not really say why but he supposed that people had asked him about his favourite artist enough times for him to have something ready to say.

He did not think of cars much but had fond memories of an Austen Seven. He shared an affection for bicycles with Simon but they were such simple machines and the sturdy, old fashioned kind of bike that he liked was so commonplace and regular in North Oxford that he couldn't really get carried away with them.

Selwyn conformed to the obligatory dress of the Don. Shabby suit, loose tie, off white shirt and, of course, the scarf. Now and then he enjoyed wearing a gown and he knew a lot about the meanings of caps and gowns and graduations.

Grey and fawn were his colours of choice. He liked walking along the Isis at dawn, hearing the plop of the odd vole or whatever it was that made sounds in the river at that time of day.

The raccoon was his favorite animal. His nanny must have dwelt on Hiawatha stories and lingered on an illustration featuring the raccoon. He likes flicking over nursery memories and was unusual in that he could still do so at his age.

Selwyn liked quiz shows on television. He related to the quizmaster and thought of himself polishing a question with just the right tome and nuance. He never tried, or almost never tried to answer questions.

He was a depressive alcoholic and that explained his moods. It also explained why he liked to talk out loud as he walked home from the Joiner's Arms and sometimes shout words like damn and blast.

At school he was excellent in class except for Public Health. He hated the nurse who gave instruction. She did not fit in with his idea of a teacher. So Selwyn would pout and doodle in class.

His schoolmates gave him hell. He was not a rugger man. He lived in a world of his own and loathed being in groups of fellow students. He thought of nasty nicknames for others in his class but never used them.

The Guvnor as they called the publican raised his eyebrows in the background. The Don really pulled the Guvnor's chain, rang his bell. This made for conversations which ran into the corners and up the walls, The Gunvor, usually standing behind the Don and out of his view would raise his eyebrows, shake his head and mimic the Don's effeminate mannerisms and generally, as he himself would say, create.

Tim the Guv was thirty seven. He was very fit and well proportioned. This meant that he had no need of a bouncer at the Joiner's Arms. Besides he had some Australians including his mate David Walker who drank regularly there and they could back him up. Having said that the pub was some distance away from things.

He liked going to football. Tim was an Arsenal fan, a Gunner from way back. Other sports were OK and he had a passion for he dogs although harness racing was a bit pretentious for him.

He'd been born in Ireland, in Cork. And then they'd shifted to Liverpool and then to London and then to Oxford where his Dad had worked at the Cowley car plant.

Another passion of his was Indoor Bowling. Dave Walker and a few of the lads from the pub had their own team. Not that they set the world on fire but they carried the flag and put it out there for the Joiner's Arms.

Tim liked collectibles, especially old pewter mugs. He had mugs hung all around the walls of the Joiner's Arms and they were a conversation piece. He also liked old farm implements and these were scattered around in the garden bar and hung from external walls.

Tim liked stovepipe trousers, usually black, pointed shoes, also usually black and Tee shirts, mostly white. He wore his hair slicked back with a curl in front rather like the old rock and roll star, Bill Haley.

Gold and grey were his best colours. These were more for his flat when he got around to getting one. For now he was stuck with the countryside hues and shades of the Joiner's Arms which gave him lodgings.

Tim's car of choice was a Ford. He liked other cars but he reckoned he knew what he was getting with a British assembled Ford. He'd once owned a van and that had been fun.

He liked ferrets and stoats. It was just the speed with which they could move. Tim liked the zoo and often went with some mates, sometimes before a Gunner's game he liked to wander around a zoo just to settle and get into the mood.

He liked Dancing with the Stars on television when he was not watching football. Not that he was a dancer himself but you had to hand it to them. They were good at what they did.

His schooling had been patchy. His parents hadn't taken education that seriously and he was making up for it, he thought, by being at Oxford and listening to people talk. The Don was just a bit too rich for him though and Tim found that he got on his nerves.

Sam would quietly mutter and text away to one side while our Don made grand conversational sweeps. Sometimes Sam sent texts to people farthest way at times like this. People like Paullie, Simon's dad who lived in Los Angeles. The slant on the Don that Sam took meant that people he was never likely to see had a fairly jaundiced idea of him.

Simon found all this madness diverting and useful. People humouring one another all over the shop. Nothing he could do. He could get on with being amiably vacant. Pleasant pint he found it actually.

Parakeets were shreiking. The man by the fountain drank a lime and water.It was hot in Bogota. He called one of his cutouts. This man in turn had the task of running the phone to certain people. He was in Venice.

He called a man in a country at the edge of the Caucasus.

Get that insurance package ready he said.

Going from the photograph of the two American men Esme and Bella did a stencil on a bit of wood and showed it to the Tramp. He wondered what hey had been doing on his patch, on his stretch of the river which was, of course, his home and advised them to show it to Simon.

Esme and Bella decided to do just that but in their own sweet time.

Samantha and Simon did pay attention to one another on the walk home. They walked past the Tramp who, as usual was at the beginning of the walway near the pub waiting for something to happen. They both liked walking beside the Isis which had a certain black allure to it at that time of the night. There was usually a bit of quiet action: punters drifting out of the dark and the splash of the odd vole or whatever.

And then they were home makin a nice hot cup of tea. And after that Sam was quiet and Simon ready for some new stuff to do in the morning. First things being at the beginning Simon went to the covered market to buy food. Sam did not shop but knew about shopping and where to go. Simon was a study in applied helplessness when it came to shopping but he liked to get out on his bike and ride around Oxford, scarf flying.

In Bogota Julio sat looking at the fountain playing in his yard. Some of the early moves, the preliminaries were coming into place.

Birds danced on the edge of the fountain.

Underneath a cat stretched.

A parrot went on and on in the background.

On the river path beside the Isis Esme showed the stencil to Leo and Simon Two, the undergraduates.Leo studied science and Simon Two the theatre. They all pondered the meaning of the stencil. Why were two strangers poking about where they did not belong on the banks of the Isis?

The thing was that North Oxford was a safe place. Tramps and academics felt safe in North Oxford. Lots of money and lots of eccentrics. The gypsy children were routinely sent up to the Summerhill shops, a mile or so up the road to buy things. Got them out of the layby. Young teenagers liked to roam. It was summer.

The two missing people, the Trapeze Twins as they were billed on Simon's Job Sheet, were not children or even teenagers but from what Simon could make out they were what he called specials. They were so focussed on trapeze work and the like that they evidently lived in a world of their own. They were like cultural treasures to the modern Roma, the layby people, whoever they were, so good were they as acrobats.

The Twins were not biologically related except in the most distant of ways.

And yet they had a wild streak according to those who knew them. Anything was possible with them.

But they had got lost on the local Roma leader's patch and he wanted to find them The acrobats were wanted for performance throughout the world, the wide world as well as in the camps of gypsies. They were in demand and money was involved.

Simon had a job figuring it out. One thing was that you did not, by and large, mess with the gypsies. Who would want to risk their wrath? Stealing gypsy acrobats? Not a smart move thought Simon. They connnected throughout Europe and the world. They knew things. A set up within a convoluted set up no doubt but it had to be sorted just the same.

The bait was presented as a contract, a deal. To work in America. In Vegas.

Big money, lots of frills in the contract. Winks. Nods.The twins bought it. Even the catches, the possible fish hooks which involved a quick and quiet disappearance from North Oxford and no publicity, no waves, the hunter said, in the States.