Henry visits Sebastian

Henry continued recalcitrant, locking and unlocking himself as the mood took him without any reference to myself or to the authority of his key. He insisted that the battery in his key was ‘casi descargada’ so I put in a new battery. He was not having any of that, and continued his insistence that his key battery was running out of juice.

Changing the key wasn’t helping – he was determined that whatever key I used, it was still on death’s door. In all I changed the batteries in both keys twice – they can’t all have been dud. I felt that it was only a matter of time before he locked me in and I perished, only for my mummified corpse to be found months later.

With this grim picture in mind I took him over the mountain and down to the Poligono for Sebastian to sort out. I explained, and Henry obligingly ignored Sebastian’s request for him to unlock. Sebastian’s next move was to dismantle Henry’s card key and extract the secret skeleton key lurking within. Having effected entry he looked at Henry’s electronic display panel with its suicidal message.

I knew what he was going to say, so I jumped in quickly with ‘I’ve changed the batteries. Twice.’ ‘I’ll put it on the diagnostic machine. I’ll ring you when it’s finished.’
To Sebastian cars are machines, not members of his family, so therefore they don’t get names. However, he is enough of a gentleman not to tell me that cars have makes, not names.

The rest of the day continued without drama, and as evening approached and I had heard nothing I made a supper judgement. I had a sort of feeling that cooking supper was a mistake, but I carried on nevertheless. Sure enough, just as I had got to the point of no return, when supper was inevitable and not to be delayed any longer, Sebastian rang.

I woofed it down like a starving wolf, summonsed my chauffeur for the day, Stephen, and we set off over the mountain to collect the chastened and fully functioning Henry. I dived into my handbag to extract my purse and pay – no purse could I find!

Never mind, I’ll pay on the card. Good idea, except my card is in my purse! ‘I can’t find my purse. I’ll come back to pay tomorrow.’ I wasn’t unduly worried; my purse is on the kitchen table – I must have forgotten to put it in my bag.

Was it on the kitchen table? Had I forgotten to put it in my bag?
I’ll tell you next week!