White Elephant.

I met Lucinda in town - in a coffee shop - and there was a fat American with her, sitting at her table and he was going through photos with her... sitting beside her and showing her photo after photo after photo.

I watched from the outside.

They weren't talking much. When I came in the fatman jumped and guiltily started gathering up the pictures... I couldn't really see what they were off but there were a few of him. Long unwashed slightly bushy hair, a black beard, glasses... over weight... he looked like he'd spent too long playing a foxy elf princess on World of Warcraft...

'This is John".

"Oh hi John."

"Hi" Californian... confident... slightly nasal.

"he's an old friend of Barney's"

"Oh yeah I didn't think he had any."

John laughs... it sound like a small cavalcade of horsemen riding over a tin bridge.

"Have you seen him of late?"

"No" stimulus response.

"Well, Cornelius' let me know if you do see him... well let Lucinda know... I've got some news for him."

I didn't like that. He left. I liked that.

Lucinda went into denial mode, John had recognised her from a photo of Barney at some festival a year back, is an old freidn, she doesn't know what he wanted with him...

She's lieing.

I look in her bag when we got home, I had a feeling that she'd taken a photo when John was laughing.

She had.

It was of this.

Crap. Isn't it?