An Old Friend: Version A Part 15

Lisa dried the dishes and placed them back in the cupboard.  She was glad she had gotten up early this morning. She was in a rather good mood, after having received a call from Michael the night before. He told her he had just arrived home from Scotland, and would be in to see her the next day. He didn't say exactly when he would come by, so she did everything quite early so she'd be ready at any time. She quickly ate breakfast, fed the dog, and went back upstairs to get dressed.

The weather had improved somewhat over the last week or so, and it was nice and sunny today. She slipped on a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved top. Then she went back downstairs to straighten up the house a bit. She vacuumed the rug and washed the dishes.

At last she picked up her diary and a pen, and sat on the couch. She tried to write every day, but with a schedule like hers, it was hard. Sometimes she would go a couple of weeks without writing a diary entry. She had written about how happy she was at the prospect of seeing Michael again the day before she went to meet him, and how wonderful she felt that they were getting married.

"Monday, 3 June 1974..." she dated her entry. "Last night Michael arrived back from Scotland. He rang me  at 9pm and we talked for almost an hour. He told me he was so glad they were finally done filming on location, and how good it was to be back home....and to be back with me. He said he'd come by and see me today, but didn't give a definite time. He said he had lots of stories to tell me about filming, and a collection of photographs as well. I can just imagine all he's going to tell me; as I was leaving they said he was going to be 'wearing mud and shit' that day. Poor baby..." she smiled as she wrote.

"...He's going to be moving in with me. From what he's told me, the flat he's living in is fairly small and drab (wait until he sees this house --just joking). I suppose I'll see for myself; he needs some help moving his belongings in, so I promised I'd help him bring some small items here. He's also co-opted Terry Jones to help with some of the bigger items..."

"...Well, dear diary, I must end soon. I don't know exactly when Michael will be here. He said last night he'd try to get down to the barber shop and get a trim before he comes, but he wasn't certain. No matter, whenever he arrives, I'll be ready."

Lisa smiled with satisfaction as she wrote the last word. She looked down at the diary and her mind started to drift, when she heard a faint whimpering noise at her feet.

She looked down and saw Tess sitting in front of her, hanging her head. "Tess," she exclaimed. "What's the matter?"

The dog did not react, but looked at her with soft, pleading eyes.

Lisa looked at her knowingly. "Ah, you know something is going on today, don't you?" she smiled. "Come up here, girl." She patted the couch cushion next to her.

Tess jumped up and lay down next to her, resting her head on Lisa's lap.

"That's right, Tess. My fiancé is moving in." she said soothingly as she pet the dog. "But oh, you'll love Michael. He's quite a darling. And I'm sure he'll love you too....I hope," she trailed off.

Lisa's eyes began to droop. She had awakened quite early and now it was starting to catch up on her. She dropped the diary onto the coffee table, put her head back and quickly drifted off to sleep.

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She woke up with a start as she felt Tess jump off the couch, and heard the doorbell ring.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. She picked herself up off the couch and walked curiously over toward the window. She edged the curtains aside and peered out.

It was Michael.

She knocked on the window to get his attention. He turned his head, and when he saw her he smiled broadly. She held up her hand and gestured 'I'll be right back'. He grinned and nodded.

With that, she scooped the diary up off the coffee table, ran upstairs and threw it into the end table next to her bed. She sailed back downstairs and eagerly unlocked the door. As she opened it, she saw Michael smiling happily.

"Ah, there you are!" he exclaimed. 

She blushed a bit, and he leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her and giving her a slow, tender kiss.

As he stepped back, she stood in one place and looked at him. She couldn't believe it had been four weeks since she had seen him last. He was wearing a white, button-down short sleeve shirt and a pair of blue jeans. His hair had grown a bit longer, and his bangs were now parted and swept over to one side of his face. She couldn't help but stare at the sweet, handsome guy she was going to marry five days from now.

Michael looked at her expectantly, and she broke her stare.

"Oh, I'm sorry... um… come in," she said, embarrassed.

"I was waiting for you to say that," he winked at her. He stepped inside and Lisa closed the door behind him.

"Yeah, I was hoping to get down to the barber shop this morning, but as luck would have it Nigel is on holiday and won't be back until later this week." He rolled his eyes. "Apparently he doesn't care if a few people go blind," he said sarcastically, as a strand of hair drooped into his eye and he swept it to the side. She smiled at him sympathetically. "Ah, well," he sighed. "I guess I'll have to stop in and see him the morning before the wedding. It's not a big deal, I suppose."

He stood in the middle of the room and looked around. "So. This is the Dobson residence, is it?"

Lisa smiled at him and nodded. "That's right. Er.. I know it looks somewhat small, but the bedrooms are upstairs."

He looked at her. "Oh, that's quite alright. Believe me, it's much nicer than my flat," he giggled.

"Well. Would you like the grand tour?" she asked.

"Oh, by all means, please do." he winked.

She nodded and directed her eyes over toward the kitchen, which was set off a bit from the main front room."This is the kitchen here," she said, pointing.

Michael nodded. "Ah. Lovely."

She blushed a bit and led him down the short corridor. "Over here on the left was my grandmother's room when she stayed with me. Now I guess it's just a sewing room, though it was also a sewing room when she lived here," she giggled nervously. Michael laughed.

Lisa pointed the rest of the rooms out to Michael, including the bathroom which was at the end of the hall. Then she led him upstairs and showed him the bedrooms. The smaller one was hers, and the larger was the one that had been her parents'. Even though they had moved out after she had graduated, she still kept the room up and the bed neatly made. They had taken most of the other furniture however, leaving only one chest of drawers.

Michael looked around inside this master bedroom.  "So. I guess this will be ours, eh?"

She looked into his eyes. "Yes, I guess so," she said softly. He smiled at her and put his arms around her, kissing her tenderly.

Suddenly, they both turned around as they heard someone making their way down the hall, toward the bedroom. Lisa shut her eyes and sighed when she realized it was only Tess being her nosy hound self.

"Well. Who do we have here?" Michael smiled.

"That's Tess, the dog I hinted at earlier." Lisa answered.

Michael bent down and smiled. "Tess, is it?" The dog walked over to him.

Lisa nodded. "She's a two-year-old beagle, and a veritable sweetheart," she grinned.

"Ah, I'll bet she is," Michael answered warmly. "Come here, girl," he gestured to the dog.

Tess reached up and licked his face. Michael shut his eyes and giggled. He began to pet the dog and she stopped. "Well, we've got off to a good start already," Michael grinned.

Lisa looked down at him. "I knew you would like her," she smiled.

Michael rose to his feet. "She's wonderful, love," he said softly. He realized he had left his wallet on the coffee table downstairs. In it were a few pictures that were taken during the Holy Grail shoot. "I guess you're eager to hear all the stories about shooting the film. I've got a few photographs also if you'd like to see them."

"Oh, of course I would," she exclaimed.

Michael turned his head toward the door. "Well, they're downstairs in my wallet."

She looked at him.

"Er, the photographs, that is… not the stories," he said jokingly.

She giggled and rolled her eyes. "Okay, let's go back downstairs then." She exited the room and started down the stairs, with Michael following.

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After they made their way downstairs, Michael fetched his wallet off of the coffee table and sat down next to Lisa on the couch. "So, where would you like me to begin?" he asked eagerly.

"Well, you could start by telling me what happened that day I left, when they kept saying you would be wearing mud and shit," she giggled.

Michael blushed a bit. "Ah, yes. Plague Village," he said dreadfully. "Well, here's the long and short of it," he sighed.

She smiled expectantly at him.

"I was playing a character called "the mud eater." It was my job to crawl through the mud, and put some of it in my mouth and eat it."

Lisa wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Michael grinned and shook his head. "Oh, no, it wasn't real mud, you see. They made up some chocolate for me that LOOKED a lot like mud, that I was supposed to eat. But of course, sitting there amidst the mud, it was virtually indistinguishable. I said to them, 'how will I know which is the mud, then?' They said, 'oh, no, don't worry, you'll know.' I'm thinking 'well, what the hell is the POINT, then?'" He giggled as Lisa looked up at him and grinned.

"So, what happened?" she asked.

Michael stopped giggling and sighed. "Well, after crawling across the shot in the mud seven times, I really began to lose it."

She looked at him curiously.

"Terry Gilliam said 'CUT!' for the eighth time, and gave the excuse that the wheel on the Dead Cart was off just an eighth of an inch to the right. Not only that, but he also said they could see my back in the shot. I finally screamed, fell down into the mud, and began to beat my fists with it, whilst yelling 'fucking fucking waste of time'."

Lisa began to giggle, and Michael was glad that she didn't find him daft because he actually lost his temper. "What did the others do?" she asked.

"Obviously they had never seen me so mad. Once I had calmed down, John and Graham started clapping. It was truly a liberating moment, I have to admit," he chuckled.

She laughed. "So...anything else?"

"Well...there was the one time that Camelot blew over," Michael said thoughtfully.

Lisa looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

Michael grinned apologetically at her. "Let me explain," he started. "We had planned to film in all of these castles, but two weeks before we started filming the Scottish National Trust barred us from them. They said we wouldn't respect 'the dignity and fabric of the buildings.'" He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, we went mad looking for other places to shoot. We came up with two castles, Castle Stalker and Doune. So for Camelot we used a cardboard cutout, stuck it up on a hill and filmed it like that. Well, for this one scene Graham is saying 'let us ride to Camelot!' Then later he says 'no lets not go there, it's a silly place.'" Michael giggled.

"We're in the foreground and the castle is stuck on the hill which was really only about 10 feet away. It blew over a few times, so of course we had to stop and reshoot until it stayed up."

Lisa nodded.

"Oh, and then there's the Knights Who Say Ni," he added.

Lisa furrowed her brow in confusion. "The what??" she asked.

"Knights Who Say Ni," Michael explained. "It's a long story. I play the head Knight of Ni, who prevents Arthur and Bedevere from passing until they bring him a shrubbery."

Lisa laughed. "My, you chaps sure come up with interesting ideas!"

"Thank you," Michael grinned. "Anyway, they put this huge beard and mustache on me, stuck a big black helmet over my eyes, put antlers on top of it, then put a huge black coat on me and stuck me up on a ladder in the middle of the forest. I'm up there, acting my socks off and you can't even see my face! And to make matters worse, all the insects are buzzing around me... I was saying, 'this is awful. I've lost all the comedy in this!'"

Lisa laughed at him. "Awww, you poor baby. Well I guess you're relieved to be all through with it."

Michael shook his head. "Oh, you don't know how relieved, Lisa." He reached for his wallet and dug out 5 or 6 photos. "Here's the photographic evidence," he grinned.

She took them from him and looked down at them. The first photo showed Michael with a muddy face and mud in his hair.

"That's Plague Village," he remarked. "About 15 minutes after my loss of temper." She looked up and grinned at him.

The next photo showed Jonesy, Michael, and Neil Innes in a wooded area. Michael and Neil had their arms up in the air, and looked like they were singing.

"In case you're wondering, yes we were singing," he chuckled.

Lisa smiled as she looked through the rest of the photographs. They were mostly candid shots of Michael and the other Pythons between shoots.

Michael looked down at his watch. "It's just about noon. Have you had any lunch?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Well, Terry said he'd meet us at my flat at 3 o'clock to move some of my things over here. Why don't we go for a bite to eat, then I can show you my flat?"

"Sure, I'd like that," she replied.

He smiled at her. "Alright then. I know a nice little place just down the road."

She smiled and nodded as she closed and locked the door behind them.