Sandra was sitting sewing as she listened to the music. Layers of harmony throbbed about the room, it was a beautiful rendition of "Our Lady of Autumn" led by Gardenia, who, with her long blonde hair and slender legs, looked like a medieval princess. Sandra was having trouble with this particular item, she had been making a small fluffy dark brown teddy bear, but, it kept ..changing shape, not working. at one point Sandra looked down, startled. There, all chocolate and fluffy, was not a little teddy bear - it was a bat, with wide bat wings.

Here was jOhn from Hull, who had had a few, getting his empty beer glass read by Freda. This is a peculiarly Australian form of fortunetelling, Freda had learnt the art of reading the froth on an empty beer glass from her grannie, who in turn had learnt it from her alcoholic father. Freda gazed intently into the empty glass, watching the shapes and sprays of the froth in their pattern on the empty glass. Should she tell jOhn what she could see there? It was hard to believe, but she could see a strange figure, almost like a ..giant bat, with teeth.

Freda looked down at Sandra's sewing and shuddered. What a strange night this was.

She looked up at jOhn, took a deep breath, and said, jOhn, have you collected any other new pets, apart from your hamster?