A Fireside Chat
Story from Blushes 6 Three ducks in echelon angle their stiff-winged flight up a chimney breast; a silver framed photograph looks blankly and obliquely across a small suburban sitting room; a television newscaster delivers his uninspiring account of the days happenings — silently, because the sound knob on the television has been turned down — and he smiles a half-convincing goodnight into two million homes. Ignored by these silent witnesses, a frantically sobbing girl blubbers pathetic pleas for ‘n-n-no more, please — please , Uncle — ooogh!’ In a fender-guarded hearth, a knight in brazen armour watches po-faced and clutches his fire-tending implements, unmoved by the tearful girl’s plight as she tosses her head back an instant after a solid-sounding slap rings loud in the curtained room. Blonde hair dashes across flaming cheeks which have been heated as much by breathlessness and humiliation as by proximity to the hearth and