Me: Dave’s upstairs on the bed with his eyes closed.
Nell: That’s what you’re supposed to do on a bed.
Me: No. They are closed in an awake kind of way. He’s not asleep.
Nell: Oh. He’s probably meditating.
Me: Dave doesn’t meditate. He’s not a meditating kind of animal.
Nell: Meditation isn’t just for cats and woodlice, you know.
Me: Cats and woodlice?
Nell: Yes.
Me: Are you going to elaborate?
Nell: Certainly not.
Me: It means explain.
Nell: I knew that.
Me: I never knew woodlice meditated.
Nell: Henry and Horst do it all the time. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed.
Me: I’ve noticed they can go a bit quiet.
Nell: Go a bit quiet? They are not exactly talkers.
Me: They talk to Dave.
Nell: David has keen ears. I’ve told you this before.
Me: Why does Dave need to meditate?
Nell: Sally is going back to London soon.
Me: Oh dear. Is her mission accomplished?
Nell: No, but Rupert and John are on the case.
Me: I thought not because Babycakes Gillespie is out there again.
Nell: Where?
Me: In the field with the llamas doing some kind of strange dance.
Nell: That will be Tai Chi. The llamas do it every morning.
Me: I never noticed.
Nell: That’s because you write in the mornings. You don’t notice anything.
Me: I noticed Dave meditating.
Nell: David is hard to miss.
Me: Sally is going to miss him.
Nell: Yes, she is.
Me: And he will miss her.
Nell: I know. Poppy is going to make him a nice bowl of goulash for his tea.
Me: He loves goulash.
Nell: Yes.
Me: But it’s not Sally.
Nell: Of course it isn’t Sally. What a ridiculous thing to say. Sally is a Golden Retriever.
Me: I know. Sorry.
