White Polo

She comes out in curlers.

"Yes?"

"Sorry to bother you," I say, "but my taxi driver told me there was a
white polo for sale up here."

"Up here?"

"Yes."

There is an ancient rusty polo standing on the road right outside her
house.

"I don't know about that," she says. But she is smiling behind her
waist high gates. I am smiling like a fool because I don't want her to
think I am a fraudster after her pension.

"Eric!" She bawls through the open door of the house. Eric comes out.
He is wearing a shirt and tie and a pullover. He has two hearing aids.
He smiles too. I continue to smile.

"This lady says there is a car for sale up here."

"Up here?" says Eric.

"Yes!" I beam. " A white polo. My taxi driver told me."

"A what?" says Eric.

"A polo," I say loudly. I turn round and look at the white polo parked
outside their house. "My taxi driver said the lady who owned it had got
a new car."

"A new car?" asks Eric.

"Do we know anyone who's just got a new car?" she asks Eric.

They both look up and down the street.

"He's just had a new car, there." Eric points at a house over the road
and down a bit. I look where he is pointing. In order to do this I have
to look over the roof of the polo parked outside their house.

"Is he selling his old car?" I bellow at Eric.

"I don't know about that, Eric says.

She and Eric discuss him and his new car for a bit and I stand my side
of their waist high gates, smiling and smiling.

"What car was it you said you were looking for?" Eric asks.

"A polo," I yell happily.

"What's a polo like?" she shakes her head as if there are far too many
types of car about these days. Which of course there are.

"Like that," I say, pointing to the white polo parked right outside
their house.

"Oooh," she says, "is THAT a polo?"

"Yes!" I say.

"And what colour is this polo you are looking for?" asks Eric.

"White!" I grin. My face is beginning to hurt.

"Oh!" they both say.

"Who does it belong to?" I ask them. They tell me it belongs to the
lady next door. "Is she in?" I ask them.

"Oh no," they say, "she went out this morning in her new car."