Just Married
JUST MARRIED

When they entered the town that was tucked away in the French hills, the sky was already closing in with the swelling swags of darkness. He had heard tales of such places where honeymooners were often welcomed with rites enacted under a sailing full moon: as they staggered into the last valley, he told his companion about the pots of wild honey that locals toted from the slanting outward doors of their cellars and they would then force-feed the newlyweds, whilst chanting ribald rhymes. She didn’t believe him of course. He didn’t suopose she listened to his crazy legendeering, for she was more worried about finding lodgings for the night.

Dogs seemed to bay across the valley, from each extremity of the town, as if passing messages of their coming to their snoozing masters. The couple would need to steer clear of the dogs for, unlike in England, rabies was rife hereabouts.

They held hands as they talked among the ghosts of their fears.

“Darling, have you noticed that most French butchers have a skimpy array of dark meat on their slabs, with hardened, dried-out edges. They have no connection with the plentiful variety of English cuts...”

He could have bitten his tongue off: he did not have need to hark back to the argument they had had earlier in the day: he had made her feel sick with speculations on the nature of the meat served uo at the auberge that very lunchtime.

“Dick, please... I still feel queasy... Look! All the lights have gone off in the town all at once.”

In one fell swoop...

“It must be some kind of curfew or blackout.”

It was then that they heard the droning noise and the whirr of wings above them. The last they felt was the blood congealing in their veins. The last they saw were hordes of figures with nets over their faces being led towards them by straining dogs across the dark emerald fields of pruned trees. And the last they heard was the chanting:

“A real live English loving couple,
Let’s oil ‘em, make ‘em supple.
But first, slice off his sting!
Before he sheathes it in her thing...”



(Published ‘Arrows of Desire’ 1989)