Preparing to drive to the zoo, Byron climbed into the car straight away (to ensure that we didn’t leave without him) while Wilson strode around the car inspecting the tyres critically.
He advised me, ’These tyres would be a lot more durable if you’d let me fill them with rubber instead of air, New Dad!’
After a moment’s thought, he added, ‘Actually, those Traction Engine tyres were so hard, I think concrete might be an even better option!’
As The Bees and their children waved us off from the front window, we embarked on our journey to the zoo – and whatever awaits us there…
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There is no Wi-Fi at the zoo, so I don’t know when I’ll hear from Wilson next – probably when he phones to be brought home.
Of course, I’ll tell you if I hear anything, but he’ll probably be incommunicado for several days at least…
Wilson has received a phone call from his big sister Andrea summoning him and Byron urgently back to the Zoo.
Byron is busy packing his things, while Wilson – who for some reason thinks I could at any moment spring a Surprise Holiday on him at short notice – keeps a ‘Go-Bag’ ready at all times.
For once, that might prove useful!
Since the original call, W has received a follow-up SMS asking him to bring with him his Spoons and Kazoo.
As his case is already filled to bursting, he asked Byron whether he could slip them into his case, subject to B not using them in any way. Obviously.
Spoons and Kazoo, eh? This can mean only one thing!
Once we were back home, relaxing after the excitement of the Steam Fair, Wilson and Byron sat chatting quietly in the garden.
Wilson was explaining, in excruciating detail, the manifold advantages of his new invention, ‘Vermilingua’s Totally Unpuncturable Tyres for Cars and Bicycles’ while Byron made valiant efforts to feign interest and not yawn.
Things were complicated by Uncle Zoltan’s constant interruptions claiming that the Pneumatic Tyre had been invented by one of his forefathers, Maksymilian Dunlop Zoltan, but both boys were doing their best to ignore him.
Just as W was outlining the concept of filling conventional tyres with rubber instead of air, his phone rang – it was a call from Andrea, his Big Sister at the zoo, saying that both the boys were required at home.
She assured him that everything was okay and his Mum, Mrs Vermilingua, was perfectly well, but requested both boys to return home, if possible by the weekend…
We’ve eaten ice creams, we’ve tested our strength, we’ve ridden on a roundabout, we’ve admired a weird car – now, at long last, we’re looking at a Steam Traction Engine!
The boys were strangely unimpressed.
Byron was obsessed with what was inside the wooden box fixed to the back (W had told him it was the driver’s lunch box, and was probably filled with ants) while Wilson studied the solid tyres and wondered whether he could invent something along those lines and sell them as ‘Vermilingua’s Totally Unpuncturable Tyres for Cars and Bicycles’…
Moving on, the boys were still full of talk about how they would buy a Robin Reliant Halftrack between them when they were a bit older.
Byron blushed when Wilson told him that such a car would be a ‘total chick magnet’ and said they’d be able to go on double dates in it.
Passing a Classic Cars Roundabout ride, they both pleaded for a go. I handed over £4 and they selected the cars they wanted to ride.
There was a lot of arguing about who should drive the frontmost car as they rightly predicted that ‘Overtaking will be extremely difficult, if not impossible – even worse than at Monaco!’
Grid Positioning was eventually settled by means of a lightning-fast ant-hunting contest.
Once seated they pretended they were driving not classic vintage motors or F1 racers but ‘The coolest cars in the World’ – Robin Reliant Halftracks…
