Clara breathed it in. Fresh, not sharp, but with a certain clearness to it. The light had the quality of a perfectionist. Autumn was approaching.
*
I could put in a couple of fancy terms in latin. Yeah, that could work.
*
Harmony and Clara looked at each other, grinned, and simultaneously said "You're amazing."
"Jinx!!" Harmony cried gleefully.
*
From that despiseable radio there came a song, one of Harmony's favourites, in fact. [Madness - Our House] In Slovenian. AND incorporated into a commercial. Our girl sat there, chewing rapidly and giving the radio a disbelieving and rather bewildered stare. She stopped doing both of these things for a moment, her mind going through all the possible ways to most effectively destroy that measly little piece of machinery, then she swallowed and resolutely gave the radio the most disheartening glare she could muster. The radio, unperturbed, carried on with the horrid commercial quite cheerfully.
*
Harmony leaned in, and whispered, trying to sound sinister: "Let me tell you.. about the Paper Man."
*
"..and so this is why we we have to run out into the field, and tell the cows exactly, I cannot stress this enough, exactly, what that guy said about mixing cocktails, and give them each an apple and pat them on the head, but we must be sure to remove any bugs (from the cows, not the apples), because bugs would eavesdrop and jeopardise the whole thing. In conclusion, the cows will be so overcome by our kindness that they will tell us everything we need to know about grass. There."
Harmony finished triumphantly, then, after a moment's thought, added - "And we absolutely must be sure that there are no ugly houses in sight, they keep me from concentrating."
Dante was doing his best to make sense out of this, and that was his mistake.
"Ok.. But really, how does that fit in with-"
Harmony, who had realised this, interrupted: "Oh, don't worry about the logic, that's completely unnecessary."
"But-"
"In fact, it can be rather annoying at times, getting in the way of my ingenious plans. Probably because it's so misunderstood.. "
Dante sighed, and stopped trying to make sense.
Much better, Harmony thought.
"Alright, so what do we have to do now?"
"We don't have to do anything. Except prepare. Blankets, apples, some other snacks, your book, flashlights."
"Flashlights?"
"We're going at night, obviously."
"What? Why?"
"Because I said so. Oh, and orange juice. Can't forget the orange juice."
*
Breathless as he was, Dante ran up to Clara, breathless, looked at her with absolute panic in his eyes and said, breathlessly: "What are you doing this Saturday?"
