Guitar

But suddenly the fog began to lift, and I realised I could make out shapes moving in the distance. Human shapes. A group of shapes. Dancing. A group of people dancing in a circle. A group of people dancing in a circle around a naked guy.

"What, Him?"
She, of course, recognised him as a really famous guitarist from a band I was pretty certain I'd never heard of. She was always doing that to me with music. I'll recognise songs if I know them - I've got a pretty good memory for that, but remembering exactly who sang what and who made up what group were skills that were beyond me.

We kept watching, and gradually it became obvious that the earlier mentioned famous guitarist was watching back. Suddenly he held up a large sign - large enough for us to read it from a reasonable distance, through the still substantial fog.

It read "Phone '5'"

Our caravan did have a phone, but I was a bit sceptical. However, I dialled the number anyway, the old red rotary phone going <click><click><click><click><click> as the dial rotated back to its comfortable resting position. I heard ringing. A man answered. I asked if he was who she thought he was, and he replied yes. Even hearing his voice didn't jog any kind of memory as to his identity.

He explained that he was teaching performance dancing air guitar, but he was afraid that we wouldn't be able to join the group, and frankly, they were still all too useless to be watched anyway. Besides, staring was rude. Apparently there had been a space for a new person, after one of his pupils got over excited and smashed up two or three of the other student's guitars, but that had been filled since then.

Trolley

That was short lived however, as I realised where the alleyway led.

The children of course all leapt off to safety in plenty of time, shouting and giggling about what great fun they'd had, but I didn't have that option. Few of them bothered to sit and watch as I shot straight into the canal, and my metal frame slowly sank into the dark murky waters.