Fred Wakes Up 2
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 4254
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Fred awoke with what he considered to be a start but anyone younger than
70 would have considered to be an almost imperceptible slowness. As he
struggled to open his rheum-gummed eyelids, he realised with some
disappointment that he had woken up again and that any escape from his
plight would have to wait until the night fell again and he could return
to sleep. Once his eyes were open, he sat up as best as he could in his old bed with the broken springs and scanned his surroundings, looking for the smallest of changes in his situation (although his poor eyesight made this extremely difficult). But there was none. He was still in that small, dirty bedroom with the awful chintz wallpaper and the porcelain dog statues and the woodworm-ravaged furniture and the dirty window with the cracked pane through which pale daylight streamed like watery pi-. Talking of which . . . Fred now noticed with a sinking feeling that the centre of his mattress was cold and damp. "Oh, the shame of age!" he thought to himself. Although even a younger man would have fared little better with no legs and no assistance. The chamber pot lay a few feet away, to the side of the bed. He had not been able to use it for three days, and it was now both rank in its smell (Turpin had not emptied it before he had left so suddenly) and attractive in the facilities it promised sotantalisingly, just out of reach. (At least, Fred consoled himself, he had not had a bowel motion in two weeks). Having already consumed the "choicest" tidbits from the food Turpin had piled on the bedside table before his departure, Fred was now left with a selection which withered the old man's meagre appetite like blight on a grape vine: bowls full of stewed prunes and egg sandwiches with curved corners vied for space with curried offal and raw fish. At least drinkwise Fred had no worries as he had been left an enormous barrel of water into which Turpin had helpfully inserted a straw so long that Fred had to do little more than turn his head to place it in his mouth. Although the dead mouse that had bobbed to the surface some time yesterday had proved a little off-putting for a while.
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Eric Kantona
12/15/2005 2:54:55 AM
21477450 episodes viewed since 9/30/2002 1:22:06 PM.