Gazooka by Gwyn Thomas

BUT the sun and all the baked ironies it propagates on this earth were already hard at work.

By the time we reached Trecelyn the last petal had dropped from the red rose that Moira Hallam held in her mouth. Moira did her best.

She was upset once or twice by Cynlais who in his excitement kept ramming his drum major’s staff into her back to remind her that she was not alone.

One or two of his thrusts were wild and almost sent Moira hurling into the crowds on the side-walk. Gomer Gough and Uncle Edwin went on to the road and told Cynlais firmly to cut out this manoeuvre with the staff.

Moira kept chewing at the bare stem of her rose and tried to make up for the lack of petals by making more challenging the fine, fluent swing of her body beneath the lovely shawl. Jenks the Pinks had been on the point of making some remark about the lack of stamina of his petals but he just looked at Moira and said nothing. But it was a new band, not much older than our own Matadors, the Aberclydach Sheiks, that did for us in the end.

A few furlongs outside Trecelyn one of our scouts, Onllwyn Meeker, came tearing along the road to give a report on what he had found to Gomer Gough.

Onllwyn Meeker had been running hard and he had to be held up and dosed from one of the lemonade bottles that had been brought along for the harder-pressed marchers before he could make a reasonable statement. Meeker was an alarmist and Gomer had been cautioned against making him a scout, and it seemed from the way he shook his forefinger and rolled his eyes that he might well go off the hinge before he managed to tell us what he had seen in Trecelyn.

‘Gomer, Gomer,’ he said. ‘This is a wonderful band you’ve got here. The Matadors are a credit to Meadow Prospect, but I’ve just seen the Sheiks of Aberclydach and you’ve got a surprise coming to you.’

‘What’s up, Onllwyn?’

‘I’ve just seen them. They’re wearing grey veils and dressed like they think Arabs dress in Aberclydach. They’re playing some slow, dreamy tune about Araby and swaying from side to side with the music, looking and acting as warm and slinky as you please and promoting a mood of sensuous excitement among the voters.’

CONTINUES TOMORROW