Her Name Was Lola

54 Prickles of Memory

June 1998. Although Max is sometimes free and easy with Charlotte Prickles he never forgets that she’s his meal ticket. Having had no Page One these many weeks he is very careful when he visits her again. ‘Hi, Charlotte,’ he says. ‘I was in the neighbourhood and I thought I’d stop by and see how you’re doing.’

‘After all these years you’re still calling me Charlotte,’ she says. ‘Why don’t you call me Charlie? You would if I were a walking-around woman.’

‘I didn’t want to get too familiar,’ says Max.

‘Nothing stays the same,’ says Charlotte. ‘You have to get more familiar as time goes by.’

‘OK, Charlie,’ says Max. ‘Whatever you say.’

‘Good,’ says Charlie. ‘I agree with what you said to your mind not long ago: sadness is the basic hedgehog condition.’

‘I didn’t mean to offend you,’ says Max.

‘You didn’t,’ says Charlie. ‘The thing is, maybe we should put the usual approach on hold for the present and talk about ideas that probably won’t go all the way to the bank.’

‘I’m with you, Charlie,’ says Max.

‘Good. Do you remember, we were talking about my strange dream?’

‘I remember,’ says Max.

‘I said there was moonlight on a river,’ says Charlie. ‘A full moon reflected in the water, in the glimmers of the water in the night. Strange moonlight, not from now. Moonlight from long ago. The sound of a fish jumping. Close but far away, far away in time.’

‘I remember,’ says Max.

‘Tell me,’ says Charlie.

‘I was at Scout camp that summer,’ says Max. ‘My father had died in August the year before. Bugle calls for every part of the day. For raising the flag in the morning and lowering it at Retreat. We slept in tents with wooden floors. I had a little oil lamp I used for reading. Privies in the woods. We had camp-fires where we told stories and sang songs. We applauded the stories by saying, “How! How!” We went swimming in the afternoons. When they blew the whistle and yelled “Buddies!” you and your buddy had to join hands and hold them up together. We did a canoe trip down a river. Was it the Allegheny? I don’t remember. There were great blue herons, little green herons, turtles. We slept under the stars. The Big Dipper, the North Star, Orion the hunter. We heard the river in the night, we heard fish jumping. We heard owls and raccoons. In the mornings there was mist coming up from the river. We were in the water a lot. There were councillors in every canoe and we used to have canoe fights. All of us could swim or we wouldn’t have been on the canoe trip. We used to turn over each other’s canoes.’

‘What else?’ says Charlie.

‘I don’t remember any more just now,’ says Max.

‘Maybe later,’ says Charlie.

‘Yes,’ says Max. ‘Maybe later.’