Deus ex machina

I delayed getting up by reading Newry Spud memes and listening to the news.
The Ukraine has shunted COVID into third place, second being given to the opening of the Salon d'Agriculture in Paris.
In normal times this annual event would have been comforting (the world keeps on turning, the Salon has opened...)  But not today.  Today it seemed a bit irrelevant.

I shrugged off my torpor and put 6 hilly k.m in my legs and 12 into Paco's and Bernie's. 

Submarine Ben turned up for lunch at Polfages with his 1950's camera.
He slipped plates into the back, planted a tiny cuboid spirit level on the top and squinted into an upside down world before clicking the button.

In the evening Emma and I pulled the sofa up to the fire while Paco and Bernie played behind us.
Then Bernie was gone.
We called until we were voiceless.  The cats ran amok up and down the canal trees and under the car in a nature-knows-something-is wrong kind of way.
My night was restless.  When I got to sleep I dreamt I could hear the boy coming up the stairs or barking from the passerelle below. 
While lying awake I waited for the Deus to exit the machina with some good news.
They didn't.