Well spotted, Max, a glitch. A friend recommended transposing it to first person and seeing if anything else
came up. It didn't really except for some line crunching. So I retransposed but missed one bit.
Bill
On Wed, Nov 20th, 2013 at 5:22 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> a good yarn,
>
> easy to sense it holding an audience,
>
> while they wonder is Will Bill?
>
> After all, in line four it says 'our' rather than 'their'…
>
> Max (never been to Tidal River)
>
> On 20/11/2013, at 9:50 AM, Bill Wootton wrote:
>
> > The Pact
> >
> > A name, just give them a name
> > and the game can move on ...
> >
> > Tom and Will agreed to tell each other first
> > when they broke our sexual ducks.
> > No risk for Will - it would be a long time coming.
> >
> > As good as his word, six weeks later,
> > Tom duly reported a bloody tale the day after
> > Kate's deflowerment. Kate who Will met first
> > at a party where no less a person than her brother
> > said Go for it, she's keen. But conversation
> > had flagged and she was a bit weedy he thought.
> > Not to Tom.
> > He - they - found something in each other
> > which continued for months.
> >
> > A pity said bush-bred Tom. Back home
> > I got all the fights I wanted but no sex,
> > whereas now -
> > Cut it out, Will said.
> > No it's true - let's go down The Bloke
> > and pick a fight.
> >
> > A year later, playing Truth or Dare
> > in a rented lodge at Tidal River
> > beer run dry, in company
> > of a dozen or so, Tom chooses
> > to call him out. Remember that
> > deal we made, Will -
> >
> > A name,
> > just give him a name.
> > Long pause
> > lengthens
> > All looking -
> > are they looking at
> > a virgin?
> > He's not
> > but has been not
> > for only about six hours
> > having undergone ravishing
> > with Megan who's in the room too
> > but now quietly withdraws.
> >
> > What's the Dare?
> > Ah, jump out
> > that window
> > says Tom.
> > Without
> > opening it.
> >
> > A name,
> > and it can't
> > be Megan's.
> >
> > Winsome,
> > Will whispers.
> > Megan's friend,
> > not present,
> > never would be
> > in this company,
> > unlikely ever
> > to hear of the lie.
> > Impressed rumblings.
> >
> > But Tom's not done
> > Is that ... all?
> > he presses,
> > no other?
> > Fresh pause.
> > One other.
> > (Why does he say it?
> > Pride? Some latent
> > fealty to Truth?
> > Guilt?)
> > Well, who?
> > Can't say.
> > Must say.
> > No.
> > Impasse
> > drags on
> > uncomfortably
> > increasingly
> > embarrassingly
> > until game
> > peters
> > out.
> >
> > Unlike the friendship
> > which sputtered on,
> > albeit intermittently.
> >
> > Five years later,
> > Will stepped up as Best Man
> > when Tom married a Dutch girl
> > near Rotterdam.
> > Soon afterwards Tom returned the favour
> > when Will tied the knot with his share housemate
> > at the MCG on a Friday night.
> >
> > Megan married an accountant.
> >
> > Winsome, Will met twenty years after
> > the pact unravelled, at a school reunion.
> > A nurse now, who happened
> > to deliver Megan's first baby.
> > The betrayal - just never came up.
>
>
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