Part XI - The adventures of Superfly

The flat looked bigger from the inside. This was because you couldn’t see the walls. They were muffled in a muddle of prints, books, journals, and crates. Lots and lots of wooden crates stamped: 'Fragile – Keep This Way Up – Jakarta, Java'. The crates clogged the flat and were everywhere. The living room cum study cum bedroom cum atrocity exhibition was adorned with black and white macro photographs of fossils.

‘That’s a Fishapod’ the Vagabond said brightly, pointing to an ancient looking fossil picture ‘It was found on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian North’

Superfly peered at it

‘It’s the first creature ever to leave the oceans for land. It’s called Tiktaalik Rosea. Look you can even see the bony fins for walking on land with. Charley boy would have loved it!’

‘Please take a seat and I'll get you a drink’ the Vagabond said disappearing into the kitchen

‘Er, take a seat where?’

‘On the sofa’

Superfly looked about for the sofa. Eventually he found it. It was buried under a geological strata of papers and books. He shifted the stuff and found it covered in a thick layer of fuzzy dust harbouring an assortment of microorganisms. He placed the books and papers gently on the floor lest he disturb the fragile ecosystem present therein. He was worried a careless movement of his hand might wipe out species new to science.

The living room cum bedroom cum museum was heaving in books and papers and specimens and crates. Books lying all over the place. Not a surface lay un-sodomised by the written word; Shakespeare, Milton, Proust, Darwin, Winchester, on the shelves, on the floor, stacked up against the walls, under the sofa, behind the radiator. He picked one up at random: ‘on the sexual habits of toadstools’ it said on the cover. He blinked at it. He picked up another: ‘contemporary teapot design in the age of plastic’ and finally another’ Java Man – the untold secret behind man’s origins’

‘Hey Man, what’s in all these crates?’ Superfly shouted

'What do you wanna drink?' the Vagabond said sticking his head around the corner

'Anything. No, actually you got a beer?'

'Sure'

The Vagabond stuck his head round again.'Sorry, I'm out of beer. How about green tea?'

Superfly looked at him as if he'd been invited to swallow a bug

'Er Yeah whatever. Listen, what's in these crates man?'

‘Ah, my latest project. A work in progress’ He shouted from the kitchen. His voice was fevered and excited. He stuck his head around again.

‘I think I may have found something. Something big. I doubt the curates and so called savants at the Royal Geological Society would be pleased though’ he snorted and disappeared into the kitchen again...