“Dammit!” said the driver up front. “Diggory, we’re going to have to make a pit stop here.”
“Where’s here, Norton?” Diggory called out from inside the carriage.
“We’re in Murmurgrouse. I believe there’s a place up ahead that can help with the tire.”
“Don’t we have a spare?” Diggory called out.
Norton murmured something under his breath in front and gave his head a mild scratch. “No, Diggory. We don’t have a spare. We had to leave that back home, remember?”
“Oh yeah, I remember. I wanted to see out the back window and we didn’t have room for it anywhere else.” Diggory let out a goofy chortle and shrugged his shoulders as he chortled. Diggory looked out at Norton and noticed the driver pinching the bridge of his nose slightly with his eyes closed. “Are you getting a headache again, Norton? You should get that looked into.”
Norton took a deep breath in and raised his head up. “Not really.” His mouth moved again like he was saying something, but Diggory couldn’t hear what he said. Then Norton spoke up louder so Diggory could hear him. “Come on and help me get this carriage to the yard over there. If we stay in this spot, we’re bound to cause a jam.”
Diggory jumped out of the carriage. “What do you need me to do, Norton?”
“Help me hold up the wheel post, so it doesn’t drag on the ground. There’s a spare pair of gloves in the compartment of the door there so you don’t get any splinters.”
Once Norton and Diggory set the carriage down at the edge of a nearby yard, they ventured into the village to see if they could find a place to get their carriage up and running again. Norton was used to driving Diggory around ever since Diggory was a young boy. Norton knew the real reason he was assigned as Diggory’s driver was not so much that Diggory was a chancellor’s son, but that it was usually in everybody’s interest, including Diggory’s, that he have someone nearby at all times. Sometimes, even though people do well in school, when it comes to everyday social matters, well that’s another story.
As the two got closer to the buildings in the centre of the village, Diggory noticed that some people passing in the opposite direction would mutter something under their breath as they passed.
“Hey Norton.”
“Yes, Diggory?”
“You ever been to this place before?”
“Yes, Diggory ... on a few occasions. Why do you ask?”
“I noticed people muttering when they walk by us and there’s something familiar about it.”
“C’mon Diggory, keep up. Well, not every place runs smoothly, you see...“ As Norton was about to explain more to Diggory, he saw that a parade was suddenly forming from the big government building in the core of the village. “You’re about to see one reason why. Look up there.”
On a balcony of the main government building, a man with gray hair and a paunch called out to the people below. “A parade is about to begin people. It’s very exciting and has lots of music, and colour. You should all enjoy it.”
It was interesting to Norton and Diggory that even though the man spoke of excitement and fun, they couldn’t help but notice that the man did not express those things with his voice and body language. In fact, the two of them found the man on the balcony didn’t appear to have much of a personality at all and had somewhat of a flat, expressionless tone to his speech. They found it completely bizarre.
Meanwhile, at the base of the government building, there was a bit of a scuffle as someone with a big sign was pulled off to the side.
Diggory turned to Norton. “What happened to the guy with the sign? I didn’t even get a chance to read what it said.”
Just then, a stream of balloons, musicians, and people in costumes started to march down the street. While their faces were all painted with bright colours and happy faces, Norton could see that some of them were muttering under their breath as the parade began to proceed around the government block.
“That’s just it, Diggory.”
“That’s just what, Norton?”
“That’s what I was telling you about. When someone tries to question the government about something that happened in the village, or ...” Norton lowered his voice to a whisper, “related to the village, but not necessarily in the village, the head of government puts on a big show of some sort or tells everyone to go on holiday to distract from answering questions. Have you ever heard the word ‘prorogue’, Diggory?”
“Prorogue? No. What’s that?” Diggory’s face lit up due to all the excitement with the parade.
“Focus, Diggory. Prorogue. It’s from the French word, proroger...”
Before Norton could finish the explanation, Diggory interrupted. “Sounds like a song.” With that, Diggory broke into song and clapped like a simple child as the parade continued going around the village centre. “Frere Zackuh, Frere Zackuh, proroger, proroger, semeh la Batina, semeh la Batina, ding ding dong, ding ding dong.”
When Diggory finished his song, he looked around to see Norton putting his head down again, pinching the bridge of his nose ever so slightly. Norton then looked directly at Diggory. “That doesn’t even make any sense, Diggory. Stop it.”
“But it’s a fun song. Try it, Norton. Frere Zackuh ... Frere ...”
Norton crossed his arms and stared unimpressively at Diggory. “Stop. It.”
Diggory looked down at his feet briefly as the two continued to walk closer to the government building. As quickly as the parade began, it seemed to subside as the parade members made their way back into the large door they had started from.
As one of the villagers passed Norton on the street, Norton tried to get her attention, but she just mumbled something and kept going. Norton experienced this a few times. It wasn’t until he started to mumble something under his own breath that another villager stopped to look at Norton.
“Can I help you with something?” the stranger asked Norton.
“Oh yes, please! I’m looking for someone who can help us with our carriage tire.”
“You’re actually looking to get something done? Hmmm. Yes, I think I know of a place. Fortunately, it’s not run by the government, or you’d be (incoherent mumbling).”
Diggory looked sideways at the stranger for a moment and then at Norton, “You fit right in, Norton.”
Norton looked quizzically at Diggory. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at Diggory (incoherent mumbling).”
Diggory looked at both the stranger and Norton again. “You just did it again. You’re doing what everyone around here seems to do. How is that?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the stranger and Norton said simultaneously. They looked at each other and smiled shyly.
“The garage is right around here. You should keep it quiet though. It’s not a lot of places around here that get things done in a timely manner anymore.”
“How is that?” Diggory asked, trying to keep his voice down.
“People try to ask questions about strange occurrences all the time, but as you might have seen the parade just a little while ago, when someone tries to ask the government something about almost anything these days, they try to distract us with some kind of show. Depending on the question, or if anyone tries to remember the original question, the distraction goes on for a longer period of time. You just missed a great sports show that went on for three weeks. It’s surprising that anything runs in this town. The only thing they can’t prevent is time.“
“I just came up with a song about proroguing. Do you ...”
“No. She does not want to hear it.” Norton interrupted, looking sternly at Diggory with his index finger wagging ‘no’ at Diggory, and then turned to smile back at the stranger, “I’m sorry, you never told us your name. My name is Norton and this is Diggory.”
“Maybe I should hear the song and then I’ll tell you my name?” the stranger asked.
“Trust me. You don’t want to hear it.” Norton responded as Diggory opened his mouth to start singing and got in one clap.
“Come now. Let’s hear it,” The stranger prompted.
Diggory looked over to Norton, and then put his hands down to his side. “He’s right. It’s better that I don’t sing it.”
The stranger looked back over at Norton who smiled back at her, shrugged his shoulders, and made a face as if to say I guess he changed his mind.
“Alright then. Maybe later,” the stranger replied.
“You never told us your name.” Diggory and Norton said.
“Oh look, we’re here. Jeremy will take care of you.”
The stranger introduced Jeremy to Diggory and Norton, who then explained the problem with their carriage. As the stranger was about to exit, Jeremy called out, “thanks for the business Delores!”
Delores stopped in her tracks, put her head down briefly, turned around and waved back.
“Thanks for the help Delores!” called out Diggory and Norton.
Jeremy suggested that the visitors walk around for a little while longer while he worked on the carriage tire. Before another parade ended, Jeremy found the visitors and had them set up in the fixed carriage.
“Thanks for the fix Jeremy. We really appreciate it.” Norton shook Jeremy’s hand and paid the bill.
“Glad to have the business.” Jeremy said and sent them on their way.
“Is there anything we can do for you?” Norton asked from the carriage.
“Nah. The government will always find a way to distract us from anything they have cooking over there. Strange though, because they set these rules out for companies to run properly and quite frankly, we couldn’t afford to ‘work’ like they do. Someone’s got to do the work around here, right?”
As they set off, Norton soon found he was humming the song Diggory sang to him earlier on and finding it annoyingly catchy. Some ways down the road, Norton soon figured out why he couldn’t get the song out of his head; Diggory had been belting out the tune in the carriage. “Diggory!!”
Crick crack crow, the wire bend, and that’s the way the story end.
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