Bron-58

Continued from Chapter 58:

“This is where we first met, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is. You were fiddling about with that flower-bed.”

“I was not fiddling about! I was giving the flowers the best chance of thriving.”

“Bollocks! Flowers were fine. You were just eyeing me up.”

“OK, I was eyeing you up. What’s that you’re reading, Bron?”

“Test me: Rule 55. When the train has been brought to a stand at a stop signal and is likely to be detained there for more than three minutes, the driver must send the fireman, guard, or other incompetent person to remind the signalman of the presence of the train…”

“Competent person. Otherwise, you’ve nailed it. “You like rules and regulations, don’t you?”

“Do I?”

“I think…they help you make sense of the world. Which can be a pretty scary and chaotic place.”

“Got to know this stuff, if I’m going to drive trains for a living.”

“I’m sure you do. Can’t have any random person taking the controls of the ten o’clock to Holyhead.”

“Ten ten to Holyhead. Reporting number ID 0-eight.”

“If you say so, Bron … Can see you’re going to be a bundle of laffs over the next few months…”

To be concluded in Chapter 59