Alison: Hello, Yuk!
Erica: Hello, Alison. I found your consent form for the camp.
Alison: Oh thank heavens you brought it, Yuk! I was wondering what I was going to do. Come in.
Erica: I can't stay. My sister's in the Olympic swimming team and I have to help coach them.
Alison: Do you?
Erica: I hold the stopwatch.
Alison: Really?
Erica: And write their names on a clipboard.
Alison: Oh.
Alison: Wouldn't you like to come in and have a drink? I can make milkshakes.
Erica: All right.
Alison: What is it?
Erica: Your house is.. so tidy.
Alison: My mother's a bit fussy. I always have to clean things up straight away
Erica: Where's your dad?
Alison: Ssh! Mum's having a sleep upstairs.
Erica: Where's your dad?
Alison: They got divorced last year.
Erica: Oh! Did you dad go off with...? That's not as bad as losing your father in a tragic plane cash. You can still go and visit him, can't you?
Alison: Not when he's gone off to Canada and hardly ever writes anything. I'd invite you into my room to play records but I don't want to wake up my mother. She works very long hours at the weekend.
Erica: Which hospital does she work at?
Alison: Who?
Erica: Your mother.
Alison: She's not a nurse. She owns a restaurant.
Erica: Like a pizza parlour?
Alison: No, it's a proper licensed restaurant with the waiters. They have silver candlesticks on the tables and velvet chairs...
Erica: Oh!
Erica: We could play hats.
Alison: What's Hats?
Erica: It's a word game. Everyone has to think of a different hat in turn, and if you can't think of one by the count of ten, you're out.
Allison: It sounds fun.
Erica: When my father was in the Antarctic gathering rock specimens for the museum, all the men used to play Hats when there was a Blizzard and they couldn't leave the tents.
Alison: I thought your father was a test pilot.
Erica: He was a geologist as well.
Alison: Haloes and beekeeper's nets.
Erica: What?
Alison: Bank robbers' balaclavas and Viking helmets with horns.
Erica: We haven't started yet.
Alison: I have. Fireman's helmet. Go on, Yuk.
Erica: Riding cap. One, two...
Alison: Baby's bonnet. One, two, three...
Erica: Surgeon's operating cap. One, two...
Alison: Diamond tiara. One, two, three, four, five, six...
Erica: Those lace things Spanish ladies wear on their heads.
Alison: You mean mantillas.
Erica: I was just about to say mantilla!
Alison: Ssshhh! Executioner's hood with slit eyes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine...
Erica: I'd better go. I've got to go down to the racetrack and get my mother's friend's horses landed on the float.
Alison: What about the Olympic swimming team?
Erica: I do that every second Saturday. i just remembered today is my racetrack Saturday.
Alison: Well, thanks for bringing my consent form over. See you Monday, then.
