Contributed by Martyn Green Coordinator, Baywater Anglers

Morning found Lenny curled up outside of his cave, waking none too happily when he felt the form of his housekeeper going into his lair to clean up the mess. She clattered and banged and muttered away to herself while the two crayfish, of course, slept through whatever she did. Their snoring, however, much to Lenny’s disgust, had stopped. ‘Typical’ he thought to himself, as he went off to get his jobs done. With so little sleep, it was a very long day for Lenny, especially as everybody else seemed to be fast asleep and not venturing out of their homes. One or two shrimping nets entered the pool, to loud human cries of excitement, but finding nothing in them the children soon lost interest and turned to pastures new. With no help and no-one very responsive, Lenny found that his chores took much longer than usual. Eventually, however, they were finished and he was able to go home. He was very, very, tired and really looking forward to his nice, cosy bed. ‘Good!’ He thought to himself, ‘not a sound! Bruce and Wayne must have gone out for the day.’ Then, with a heartfelt sigh of relief, he opened the door, turned to put the torch on and… “Surprise!” … he nearly fell to the floor, deafened by the raised voices of nearly everybody in the pool, all of them gathered and hidden behind every piece of furniture in his lounge and beyond. “G’day, Lenny!” “We thought, seeing as you were gone, that you wouldn’t mind…” “… us havin’ a party to cheer you up. You looked so miserable last night I said to Bruce, Bruce, I said, we are going to have to cheer him up.” “I know the very thing, Wayne!” Said Bruce. “Let’s have a party!” “So we did!” The brothers and the rest of the guests laughed, taking the look of horror on Lenny’s face to be one of astonished good fortune. They did not see the look of pain on his face as the strains of Waltzing Crab Hilda, which, in his opinion, had been sung to death the night before, began to fill the cave. It was going to be a great party! And so began a fortnight of frenzied activity which exhausted poor old Lenny more than anything else in his life. Finally, exhausted well beyond the point of civility, he came home from his chores, determined to send the brothers packing, only to find a note pinned to his door. It read:

Links:

And so, with a feeling of vast relief, he finally did!