Dock of the Bay – Sandra 44

[For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and more recent Sandra episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

It was a busy day at the docks. There were lorries literally everywhere. They were queued up five or six deep in places, some worryingly facing each other having found themselves unable to park in any other way. The car park managers were clearly inexperienced at this job, or maybe they were being intentionally bad at it, determined to create maximum chaos with the low level chaos that would was always going to happen anyway.

Perhaps most worrying was the number of lorries which had tried to embark on the scarce to find ferries to find the gap between shore and ship too far. A grand total of fifteen lorries plus loads were already in the water with no sign of rescue. Although a few of those looked suspiciously like they'd just followed everyone else thought Sandra. Alongside the waterlogged trucks and their cargo were several cars and a rather retro looking Thomas the Tank Engine train which Sandra suspected had not run on any rails ever. To top off this scene of disaster and desperation, the perpetrators of this scenario, rather than panicking and trying to remedy the situation and save all those involved were highly amused by it all. They were commentating on the drama they had caused and giggling as the final bubbles exited an Epstein’s low loader with highly expensive container.

Yes, thought Sandra, who would care about this scene, given everything? The idiocy of paperwork, the surreality of the pandemic and the futility of trying to rationalise a thing. There was a chance normality would reassert itself, but that wouldn't be for a while now and it certainly wouldn't occur while that massive Pinocchio puppet head was floating across the sky dropping marbles on everything. It appeared to be the end of days and given that, who would even venture a quote when everything was so mixed up and destroyed? Anyone who opened their mouth could be signing up for the responsibility to actually try and do something about it.

And so instead Sandra near whispered a commentary as the scene unfolded. She was a little worried things would get worse before they got better, but it wasn’t about to get better.

'We at Epstein's are still striving to be a family oriented business," she muttered. "Even when lorries seem to be lost we have the staff to swim out and save them – and of course the shipments of fresh rocket which seem to be so prized by our European neighbours. Naturally, we no longer carry fish. Certainly not live fish but then we ceased that when everyone got aerated about veal calves."

"What are veal calves?" asked a small voice.

Sandra smiled and ignored the question. "And yet even when we're losing fight and lorries our distinctive colouring has been specially created to give a sense of wellbeing and security for all who may see us. We are indeed, as ever, the Knights of the road."

And then, as if by magic, it was all over. No fireworks, no big deal, just time for lunch and Frankie needed to get to the kitchen sink. There may have been no fireworks but there was an almighty noise as Freddie and Sukie complained in the strongest terms that their game had been way too much fun to stop now.

Over it was however. And despite the noise Sandra was able to direct the children across to the lounging part of the enormous downstairs room where a few clicks and cries of frustration due to slow internet access later (and that was just Sandra) the Unicorns reappeared. All was peaceful and calm and heading for a healthy salad, half of which the kids would flick at each other when their mum wasn't looking.

"Are you thinking of going back to work at all?" Asked Frankie. "Not that I'm asking you to stop what you're doing or anything, because, you know, fun and kids off my hands for a bit."

"I'm dreaming about it," admitted Sandra. "Not in a lovely dreamy hopeful way, but in an actual way. Last night. And the night before."

"And..?" 

"It was OK. Frustrating and not as much fun as when I was working for myself."

"So..." asked Frankie. "Leaving job? Going back? What does it mean?"

"To be honest I have no idea," said Sandra. "It sort of feels like anything could happen and t would probably be OK."

"That's good," said Frankie. "Means you could do anything."

"Or that there's no real reason to do one thing or another," said Sandra. "In which case that's probably bad."