A Bad Case of Sigbins

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A Bad Case of Sigbins Page 4

by Michael White


  ***

  Wallace leaned down behind the counter and picking up the can of air freshener sprayed it about the shop once again. He did seem to be going through an awful lot of the stuff these days, mostly to quench the smell of the Sigbins, but after the first week of their imprisonment it seemed to fade slightly, whether that was because he was growing accustomed to it or not he was not sure, but he did not think so.

  He did not notice any twinges in his back as he leaned down either, and his arthritis had all but disappeared too. Whether that was down to the Sigbins or not he was not sure, but he suspected that it was, for these days he felt a little different. “Lucky” would be a fair representation of his general condition. Yes. He definitely felt a lot luckier, and definitely healthier too. He had even tried a small experiment the week before and bought a lottery ticket, which he had never done before in his entire life, and was pleasantly surprised when he won the grand sum of two thousand pounds, which he felt was a pretty good start and could possibly lead to bigger and better things as well.

  Lady Spiers-Faulkner had been terribly grateful of course, and her cheque when he received it was more than generous. She had even sent Chalky Whitehaven across with a flask of pumpkin soup a fortnight later, and delicious it was too. The two Sigbins had begun to settle in too. The first three weeks had been the most difficult he had found, for the creatures snarled and growled at him whenever he approached, but slowly they seemed to become accustomed to him, especially after the first few nights when he had taken them in their cage down into the cellar and with a very bright light bulb installed let them feast on his shadow for a while.

  He only carried this on for a while though, and after that he ensured that there was always a plentiful supply of charcoal to hand, and they seemed happy enough after that. Eventually he let them out of the cage, and they were more than happy to wander around the shop though they always seemed to disappear somehow when someone came in.

  He had been wary of setting them free of course but they seemed to be happy with their supply of charcoal and so seldom strayed. He even had names for them. He suspected that the shorter one of the two was female, and so he christened them (if that was the right word) George and Georgina. Currently George was up on the roof of the shop somewhere and Georgina was playing hide and seek with him from amongst the barrels of onion sets and bags of Daffodil bulbs.

  Wallace smiled at his new found pets antics and opening the shop door strode out onto what he thought of as the courtyard, the sun warm and shining down on him as he crossed over to the sundial that stood in front of the shop.

  It was a small price to pay, he thought, what with his new found luck and return to health, but still it was rather a pity and the local children seemed as baffled about it as he had been. Well, at first anyway, and then when he saw George and Georgina running around the sundial it all suddenly made perfect sense.

  That was the problem with a bad case of Sigbins, he thought as he looked at the sundial, but never mind. It was just a great pity that the sundial never cast a shadow any more. Not even in the strongest sunshine. Perhaps he would have to get a weather rock again, he pondered. Perhaps a bigger rock this time. That would stop it being stolen all of the time. Yes a lifeless sundial was a small price to pay, thought Wallace.

  A small price to pay indeed.

  Michael White (25th July - 2nd August 2015)

  * * *

  [1] He had dabbled with ink cartridges, but felt it sort of missed the point of owning an ink fountain pen in the first place. Wallace was a great believer in the adage, “If it isn’t broken then don’t fix it”. The ink fountain pen seemed perfect. Why fiddle with it?

  [2] Chicks.

  [3] Make it go round in circles and get it drunk. (Though not always necessarily in that order.)

  [4] Slowly

 

 

 


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