Saturday December 21, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Shortest Day

Dear Brown.

A juvenile bastard smashed a window in the tap room last night at 12 as we were locking up. Not a customer of course. Dad went home. It's always sad to see him go. Samuel watched from an upstairs window and sobbed. Michael Brown and his father, old Harold, appeared at 1pm and remained until 4:30 or so. We argued about religion. Old Harold claims to be an atheist and he became very heated when Michael spoke of Christ and 'God incarnate' &c. Harold taunted his son. "Do the 12 million turkeys slaughtered this Christmas have souls too?" "No. Only humans go to heaven" explained Michael. "Well", said Harold, "heaven must be an awful place for a) St Francis of Assisi, b) Barbara Woodhouse,  and c) the Birdman of Alcatraz". Old Mrs Brown phoned and was fuming. They had spent too long here. I took Samuel down to see them. I do like Brown. Such a fun person.

-=-