“So where are you off to next?” Edmund asked, coughing over all the Saharan dust Peter was stirring up.
“Eustace has to present his paper to his committee and Mary needs to settle the remainder of Richard’s estate. After that, they are not in agreement,” Peter said with a shrug. “I do not much care, so long as there are no camels.”
“There was talk of the Kenya colony?” Edmund asked. “Wasn’t Richard’s other wife Kikuyu? I remember Mary saying something about owing his family a visit?”
“If my irresistible attraction to even-toed ungulates persists, I may avoid the Great Rift Valley, and I don’t if there are sufficient reptilian remains in West Africa to entice Eustace unless they can work in a trip to Tendaguru.”
Peter would never mock Mary over the pervasive invasiveness of sand again. It was everywhere. Standing over a dustbin, he shook out a dusty boot. No scorpions, at least. “Sorry,” he said, as Edmund coughed again.
“So where do Mary and Eustace want to go?” Edmund handed him a mop. If Peter had made the ruin, Peter could clean it up.
“Mary found more of those giant crocodile teeth, so she wants to go the Everglades of Florida and look for alligators. Eustace has heard about cannibal dinosaurs in New Mexico.”
“The Everglades?” Edmund exclaimed. “But that would mean…”
“I’m afraid so,” Peter replied with an air of great misery. “Boats.”
OK, forget Mary/Peter, my new favorite ship is Mary/Eustace :-) I can just see Mary meeting Eustace again after some period of time in which he's done a good bit of growing up. And he's spouting off about lizards and coprolites and evolutionary possibilities all the while completely missing (or misinterpreting) how *excited* Mary is getting about the... um... discussion.
Later, the others begin to notice Eustace's strategic deployment of archeological topics to manage Mary's mood and attention, and come to the conclusion that perhaps he has learned something about human interaction after all.
In particular, he has learned to be sparing and precise about the deployment of conversations on the topic of hips. Richard would be proud.
OK, forget Mary/Peter, my new favorite ship is Mary/Eustace :-) You get right on that. Because there are some places even my over worked imagination cannot go, and I think that's one of them. Now Eustace with a hopeless crush on Mary, oh yes, that I can see. And she tries to be very gentle about it and Jill feels just AWFUL about it because she's not all pretty and older and sophisticated and smart and blonde like Mary. And then everyone dies. the end. Leaving Mary and her multi-national staff to raise the next generation of Pevensies from various out of wedlock and otherwise unconventional relationships in a setting that is combination zoo and United Nations youth camp.
Oh, now that you've made it an unrequited triangle with Jill I like your version better. Except the everyone dying part. Oh wait, that's Lewis. Oh well. And yes, I agree the Eustace, the oblivious yet alluring man of science is... unlikely :-) -H
Eustace, the oblivious yet alluring man of science is... unlikely :-)
Marry me. Oh wait a minute, I perceive some impediments. Never mind. Better yet, come out here and clean my laptop of the Diet Coke I just spit up when I read that. And if we throw Peter into the mix, I suppose it becomes an unrequited love quadrilateral? I think maybe I'll stick to swamp boats, alligators, and camels. Maybe prong-horned antelope develop a similar affection for Peter.
“Eustace has to present his paper to his committee and Mary needs to settle the remainder of Richard’s estate. After that, they are not in agreement,” Peter said with a shrug. “I do not much care, so long as there are no camels.”
“There was talk of the Kenya colony?” Edmund asked. “Wasn’t Richard’s other wife Kikuyu? I remember Mary saying something about owing his family a visit?”
“If my irresistible attraction to even-toed ungulates persists, I may avoid the Great Rift Valley, and I don’t if there are sufficient reptilian remains in West Africa to entice Eustace unless they can work in a trip to Tendaguru.”
Peter would never mock Mary over the pervasive invasiveness of sand again. It was everywhere. Standing over a dustbin, he shook out a dusty boot. No scorpions, at least. “Sorry,” he said, as Edmund coughed again.
“So where do Mary and Eustace want to go?” Edmund handed him a mop. If Peter had made the ruin, Peter could clean it up.
“Mary found more of those giant crocodile teeth, so she wants to go the Everglades of Florida and look for alligators. Eustace has heard about cannibal dinosaurs in New Mexico.”
“The Everglades?” Edmund exclaimed. “But that would mean…”
“I’m afraid so,” Peter replied with an air of great misery. “Boats.”
Reply
Later, the others begin to notice Eustace's strategic deployment of archeological topics to manage Mary's mood and attention, and come to the conclusion that perhaps he has learned something about human interaction after all.
In particular, he has learned to be sparing and precise about the deployment of conversations on the topic of hips. Richard would be proud.
-H
Reply
Reply
-H
Reply
Marry me. Oh wait a minute, I perceive some impediments. Never mind. Better yet, come out here and clean my laptop of the Diet Coke I just spit up when I read that. And if we throw Peter into the mix, I suppose it becomes an unrequited love quadrilateral? I think maybe I'll stick to swamp boats, alligators, and camels. Maybe prong-horned antelope develop a similar affection for Peter.
Reply
BTW, hippos are also even-toed ungulates. Far more comedic potential than antelopes.
-H
Reply
Leave a comment