Shhh! Scribbler at Work

Call That a Yarn?

(prompt: 'spin' 16/2/2018)

"... and right in the middle there, just like the bloody song, was a redback spider!" Joe stopped only long enough to take a great gulp of his beer. "I tell you, the bugger was grinning at me - real evil-like."

"Arr go on. Yer pulling my leg, right?"

"No way, mate. I'm telling you, if I hadn't had my trusty torch, I'd have been cactus. I'd not be here with you to tell the tale." And he wiped the froth from his lips with the rolled-up cuff of his shirt.

Baz gave Joe a playful punch in his shoulder, nearly knocking him from here to kingdom come.

"Arr c'mon. Redback on the toilet seat! Phhht..." And Baz nearly fell off his own seat laughing - never spilling a drop of his beer, of course.

Joe closed his eyes and shook his head in disgust. "Do I look like the kind of fellow who'd spin a yarn to an old mate? Are you dinkum?"

Baz snorted in answer, raising his eyebrows high above suspiciously twinkling eyes before tipping up his beer for another great slurp, leaving rivulets running down each side of his mouth. Unlike Joe, he didn't bother too much about mopping up. Mostly, all such overflow was left to dry in his whiskers.

"Spin a yarn? SPIN... A... YARN? So where'd that one come from, chum?"

Another 'pal' punch accompanied the challenge, causing Joe to put up his hand to ward off any more, and answer hastily, "I DO, as it happens! I DO know!" And he grinned his cheesiest, lifting his top lip in a triumphant type of sneer.

"It was the tars, way back when —"

"TARS? Wot the hell are TARS?" Baz wasn't too happy when Joe knew something he didn't.

"Sailors, you great bogan. Thought you'd know your slang, if anyone would."

"Arr stop all yer palaverin' and get on with it, will yer?" The belligerent tone of his voice clearly showed Baz was getting more than a little aggravated now. And his expression wasn't one to make a maiden's heart beat faster, either.

With the deepest of sighs, Joe continued, "It was way back in the dim, dark ages when 'Brittania Ruled the Waves' and all that kind of stuff. And it would take months and months to get anywhere in those whopping big sailing ships. So when they were becalmed—" The frown and raised eyebrows on Baz's grizzly face made Joe sidetrack a moment to explain the 'down time' signified by that drop in the wind and it being a time for doing all the mundane, fiddlier jobs. The frown remained, but a glint of comprehension in Baz's eyes, encouraged Joe to continue, "... so when they were 'becalmed', the SAILORS sat in a shady spot on deck and mended or made new ropes. Being such a boring job in the midst of such a monotonous time, they would tell tales to pass the time."

Baz's eyes lit up with unexpected comprehension.

"They'd SPIN A YARN!" he said triumphantly.