The Butler Stands Poles Apart

    From his lofty vantage point, the diminutive Butler looks down at the central Piazza below. The citizens parade around as though without a care in the world. All dressed in their brightly coloured clothes, and open umbrellas held aloft, although there’s not a drop of rain to be had, like so many parasols in the sun.

   The Brass Band plays from two Village taxis as they are driven around the Piazza. A man pushes his Penny Farthing, and another rides his tricycle, and frogmen wear their wet suits!

   Its Carnival time you see, there will be music, dancing, happiness, all at the Carnival "by order!" Yet why our diminutive friend the Butler should take such a keen observant eye on proceedings is a little beyond me at present. He doesn’t say much, and wears his cape inside out, and because there’s a danger of getting into fractions, he doesn’t wear a Penny Farthing badge, and like Number 6, is not forced to wear it.

   But here in the afternoon sunshine what better place could there be, than to be here in The Village? An idyllic atmosphere, which presents itself like a holiday camp set somewhere on a coast. However instead of red coats, there are different coloured piped  blazers worn by both staff and citizens alike. The Brass Band plays, and the people cheer and wave their little flags, all dressed in fancy dress costumes for Carnival. Yet the expressions upon the faces of the citizens give sign to the chilling and dangerous underlying current which flows through the heart of The Village. Such is the falsehood brought about by the cheering of the people, which is actually piped through The Village public address system. So many people parading uniformly around the pool and fountain in the piazza, and everyone in costume. Well everyone except Number 6 who has had his own suit delivered, because perhaps he is still himself. And yet Number 6 isn’t the only one not to have been given a costume! There’s the Butler, who unlike Number 6, hasn’t even his own suit of clothes to wear for the occasion! Although we do see the Butler wearing his own clothes, as “himself” is might be said, in ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ when he departs the Green Dome, suitcase in hand.

  

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