The truffle war snippet

These days her gate was always shut. No strangers were welcome, no hawkers given the time of day and no pigs allowed to wander past the fence line. Well, only one pig actually. A very large pig. A humongous pig and Mona's best friend, confidant and faithful companion.

Marmalade ran full pelt, (no mean feat) to greet the Landrover. She squealed in delight and rubbed her flank against the iron railings of the gate.

“Out of the way darling.” Mona opened the latch and pushed. Marmalade pushed back, a game they played every time Mona came home. The Rover on the property, the gate shut, the dogs ready for some fun and Mona said,

“Get ready Marmalade.” The pig pricked up its ears. This was her cue. She snorted and turned to race the car to the garage. When she was just 10kg, she was as fast as a whippet. Now Mona gave her a good head start, but at 300kg Marmalade had a hard time standing still, let alone running. The Landrover crawled in first gear as the pig trotted. The dogs had raced on ahead and already forgotten the game. Marmalade was a stayer. She hated to come second and Mona never disappointed her. She made it to the garage door first and turned to watch the car pull up.

“Ok, you win.” Mona pulled out a Turkish delight from the glove compartment of the car and flourished it for winner. “Wait. Wait.” She took the wrapper off, lest the pig eat the whole lot and fed it to her in bits. Those bits hardly touched the sides on the way down.

“Off you go.” Mona collected her bag and went inside. The pig trotted to the front porch with the best view of the valley and plopped itself down on its settee, which used to be a three seater, but now after 300 kg of pig resembled a broken bean bag. There is just so much punishment a bit of furniture from Ikea can stand.