4

What does this sign say?  It’s not very well lit.

“Where is the monster, then?” laughs Isobel.

I knew a minotaur once.

“What? No you didn’t!”

I did.  I remember… once he had lost his nail clippers (again) and his wife refused to let him buy any more.

“And…?”

Well, he had no choice but to wait for Christmas and pull crackers with everyone[*] at the table until he won a pair of nail clippers.

“Did it take long?”

A fair while.  He also ended up with three combs, five gold rings and a mood fish.

 

“What’s that jangling noise, Daddy?”

I hope it’s not really the minotaur.

“No, it’s just me,” smiles the lost boy, “just jangling my tokens.”

Really?  How many have you got?

“Never mind that, Dad,” interrupts Isobel.  “Tell me more about your friend the minotaur.”

Okay.  You know, well, he had trouble with things around him turning to gold all the time.

“Wasn’t that King Minos?”

Obviously… his Dad, of course!

“I wish you could do that!”

No you don’t… he could never even throw the rubbish away… and then there was the customary annual eating of children... and other silly things.

And he was always making bad jokes, until his wife snapped and took him to Birmingham IKEA and got him lost.

She wouldn’t show him the way out until he promised to behave better.

That lost child…  he really is jangling as he walks, isn’t he?

[*] Except his brother – who was also half-half, except the other way around.  He couldn’t pull a cracker, but he was exceptional with the castanets!