Holy Grail 2023
Dave & Vinny
As with all chains of events it started with a little thing. A satnav took a van driver down a weird route. A pot hole taken too fast overturns a box full of museum artefacts of unknown origin which crashes against the back door of the van which had not been secured properly and suddenly there's valuable ancient items all over the road. A small unassuming wooden cup bounces as it hits the road and skitters into a pub car park.
…..
Ken stretched at the back door of the Rampant Horse and smelled the morning air.
He instantly regretted it. The estate smelled of burning cars and mischief from the night before with a faint whiff of dog shit. He spotted something by the back step. He picked it up. A small wooden cup. It looked old. He went back inside and placed it absent mindedly on the bar then went upstairs for breakfast.
Later that day…
Scrapps looked out from beneath the Old Pete Memorial table at Dave and Vinny who were once again in lively discussion as The Who blasted out from the Jukebox. However, in the Rampant Horse there were no pinball wizards to be found.
"Vinny please don't take this the wrong way but you do talk shite ninety nine percent of the time."
Rant over Dave sipped his pint.
Vinny shook his head.
"Your problem Dave is you're too satisfied in your two up two down contented marriage to see anything outside of your routine. I'm telling you extraordinary things happen every day, all around us."
"Maybe you're too bored with the bachelor lifestyle that you're beginning to imagine life is a richer tapestry than it is. Bored perhaps of going down the drainpipes of married women when their husbands return home unexpectedly."
Vinny chuckled.
"You make it sound like I live in a 1980s sit com. I'm telling you just look for the little things. Coincidences sparkle all around us like jewels."
"Give me one example?"
Vinny looked around. That wooden cup you're drinking from. Ken says he found it at the back door this morning."
"No clean glasses my arse. Ken's had me over there's no way you can fit a pint in this."
"My point is where did it come from? It could be the long lost holy grail for all you know."
Dave choked on his beer and laughed so hard and for so long he struggled to breathe.
"Here Ken have you got the arc of the covenant in the cellar?"
Ken looked nervous then laughed.
“You don’t want to be going into my cellar Dave.”
Fifty miles away in a large but dimly lit room sat a group of men sat around a round table. A large heraldic logo on the wall featured the letter KT. A nervous van driver shuffled from foot to foot. The man sat at the head of the table felt ill with panic as realisation started to set in.
"What do you mean you've lost a box?"
"I hit a pot hole..."
"We're sworn to protect it and have done for... My God man what have you done?"
Back in the Rampant Horse Dave felt a strange sense of serenity overcome him as he finished his pint.
© Darren Sant 2023
