Arcade

 
After lunch I give Harmony a hug. She squeezes me tight. I am smelling the jacket I massaged last night with my bubbly planks of my finger. I am smelling the cologne I received for 8th grade graduation last year that I spritzed on the lapel of my coat so that perhaps Harmony might sniff it and be baptized with recollections of our dalliance on the Thames last night.
 
I tell Harmony that I will call her once we get back to the hall.  Ahlex clears her southern throat and reminds he girls that they all have skit rehearsal when they get back to the hall.
 
I regroup with the Big Ten. Apparently Baker kept inexplicably farting during lunch and blaming it on the requisite old waitress.

We exit Ye Harte and Garter. Vivian states that we have free shopping time for the next hour.Bryan notes that since it is four-twenty maybe we should blast the Bob Marley a little bit louder.

We amble around what is referred to as the arcade. Somehow the daily shenanigans have ceased. Josh just can’t go five minutes without reminding us that we need to meet pronto as soon as we return to the hotel to work on the skit since we have no clue what we are doing.

Vivian continues to make historical notes about the castle. I can’t stop thinking about  the long walk.  The way it unfurls like a tongue from the mouth of the castle. I inexplicably continue to go out of my way to snap pictures of the  architecture of everything in sight. I still go out of my way to purchase a glossy-flavored guide at every attraction. I have gifts for Pat and Tim. I have a gift for Hale. I have not seen the pharmacists store where Grandpa Salm requested that I purchase razors.

 

Everyone is shopping. The miniature Knight souvenir that says England a he bottom is at ever gift shop. Trevor makes a comment that he wishes Windsor castle had a GAP so that he could purchase more Rugby shirts for his fraternity brothers. While walking we pass several other groups. I learn the boy with the mustache and trench coat is in Nat's group though he always appears to be walking by himself. Another group of girls who could be either Rita's group or her bus only Rita is nowhere in sight. A girl who is tall and looks like she plays college Volleyball is chatting with a girl who is of Hindu descent. I am next to Chris and Justin. I try telling Chris that the thing is about this trip is that there are so many of us and we are from all across the United States and that we all have stories only because of the nature of the tour we can perhaps not even intimately meet a tenth of those not on our bus. 

We see the Italian duet. Spencer as always pretends to trip on russet medieval brick coercing the girls to form bubbles over their lips with hands and giggle aloud.
 

It is ten days into the trip no one seems to glean my pun to about having to lose weight every time I spend a British pound. Ahead of me Eagle Scout Josh is going over purported notes for the clueless skit we are to give in five hours. Spin  Doctor Kenny is talking about how he called two girls in Daisy's group last night who vouched that Daisy was completely over Spencer.

 Alaska Bryan is still talking about 420.  I make a mental note on the bus to ask Bryan to run with us tomorrow morning.

Bryan who can run a sub five minute mile.

 Chris from Nebraska is behind me. He is trying to get my attention. He calls me Harry.00

“Hey Harry. Do you want this?” Chris says, holding up the teddy bear. “I mean do you want this for a gift to give to Harmony?”

Chris is holding a teddy bear he bought at a gift shop on an impulse buy. It is dressed in the outfit of a British constable.

He tells me that he bought if for his little sister back home in Lincoln Nebraska but the he realized that he already bought her a Hard Rock café t-shirt the other day.

“How much did you pay for it?” I inquire. Chris tells me that he paid fifteen. I have appx. 150 pounds left in which to purchase souvenirs for myself and my parents' at Harrods.

He tells me that he will sell it to me for fifteen pounds. I think about Harmony lounging in her bed in the Gloucester wearing nothing with the exception the British Teddy occluding salient anatomical offerings.

I tell Chris that he has a deal.  

Justin continues to look back at me and rattling his head back and forth, saying the words “whupped” with the tempo of his chin. Jim Baker inquires that since I am coddling a teddy bear I might as well go ahead and breast feed it since it’s the most action any area above and below my chest is going to see this entire trip. Josh comments how we really need to find a time to iron out the last minute details of our skit before tonight so that we can win and have more spending money. There is the continual idle prattle mention the name Daisy. Spencer is trying to give Banky a hardcore wedgie.

“I don’t know Harry, I mean, yer the one who’s all mature and shit, maybe you should just go on ahead and bang Vivian.

I continue to hold the bear as if it is intended for a vital organ transplant.

“What’s that?”

"It’s a teddy bear dressed as a British bobby. It’s going to be a gift for Harmony.”

Justin looks back at me again.

Your whupped, Hair You are really fucking whupped.

Whupped.