"Second Chance" Part 2.

Did you hate the wait? Sorry about that so on with the story.

Sally is so pround to be on the hall stand as she is 'only' a
letter opener. She has he own house on the stand. It is a red
round leather container. It opens into two halves. Sally is on
one side and a pair of scissors, a black pen and a red pen share
the other side. The letters are put on the stand after the postman
delivers them and each person takes their letters and opens them
with Sally, right there at the stand, so we see exactly what good
or bad news the family receives. Mary opens her father's mail but
she never takes it out and reads it. She also opens Paulo's mail
but never reads it either. Sally sometimes disappears, when the
person opening their letter walks off with her. When she returns
she tells us tales of a large bedroom with big bold brown furniture
or bedroom all done in in fluffy pink material and one that is
checked with racing cars on a shelf. Of the lounge room and the
music being layed. The family room where a T.V. sems to always be
on. A dinning room with a 'huge' table, sometimes it is 'cleared
off' and sometimes it is 'covered' in food. There has been a visit
to a bathroom, where there is a lot of 'running water' I have seen
many animals in the park run, but I have never seen a water. I asked
Sally what sort of animal a water was and she just laughted at me.
She can be quite hurful at times. After all I am the newest to the
house and the youngest and I have not seen as much as most of them,
thankfully more than Poppy.No one else on the stand has seen as much
of the house as Sally.

I have left Poopy till last. She is the third female umbrella on
the stand. Poppy is small. She is pale, yellow with red poppies
on her panals. She is a very striking umbrella, pretty but not
beautiful, if you know what I mean. Mrs. Mary Carbobeanie bought
her for her daughter, Miss. Gina's, tenth birthday. Poppy has never
left the hall stand. Miss. Gina says "I would rather be dead than
seen with such a babyish umbrella." She certainly gets wet to the
skin often enough but still won't use Poppy. Poppy never talks,
but every time it rains she cries. It makes us all rather depressed.

There use to be another male umbrella on the stand, Johnny S. I am
told. He belonged to Mrs. Mary Carobeanie's father. On one of the
ocassions when Freddy was visiting "Lost and Found", the young master
took Johnny. He has not been seen since. He was a large, black, wind
resistent brolly, from England. Bought back on the same trip as
Paddy. Paddy said Johnny was a great mate and deserved better. This
was six months before I came. The hall stand occupants wee extremely
upset, more so when it became apparent that none of the family members
noticed Johnny was missing. I asked what the S stood for in his name.
It is unusal for us to have more than one name. Paddy said Johnny was
a great one for quoting Shakespeare, as he had come from an area near
where Shakespeare had lived. I'm sure he sighted and if he could have
shed a tear he would have.

My real friend, is Cue. He as never moved from the stand either, but
unlike Poppy he doesn't care. He says he enjoys the company. Every
now and then Paulo looks at Cue and says "I really ought to get a
display case for that cue." Cue says that all well and good but being
put away, on his own, in a box, would be like putting Paulo in prision.
I just tryto look wise and nod. Cue is in the stand for sentimental
reasons. He is the first cue Paulo ever used. It was with Cue, Paulo
beat "Little Al" in "THE BIG GAME". I have never found out more details
than this, as Marie insulted Cue by saying he was going to tell me "that
long winded yarn". She said it would take 'forever' and everyone was
sick of it. She never says that about Teddy's boring stories, which makes
me jealous. All the woman go for the sporting types, if only she knew my
secret..oh well. Anyway Cue refused to go on. I had hoped one day to hear
the story but that does not look likely now.

There are many acquaintances on the stand. A peg board has been afixed
to the top of the stand and there are sets of keys hanging from it. They
think they are so cool because they always go out. Two sets are car keys
and six sets are house keys. I asked why there were not together and the
Porche keys said that the weight of the house keys pulls on the ignition
and can damage it. Paulo's house key said he had never heard that before.
Since then there has been a distinct cooling off in the relationship
between the house keys and the car keys.