Getting a lift home the other night with Anne, we entered the Crinan wood layby in total darkness. We both noticed the fish lorry pick up van , parked at an odd angle , (almost making it impossible to pass) , "are you going to make it by Anne?", I asked...
"Oh I think so ...", she replied , cheerily. We did scoot through, and I noticed not a soul loading or unloading. Strange, I thought, usually there is visible activity. My neighbour , also returning home at the same time followed behind us , as his beams blasted through Annes' back window.
I was off loaded and thanked Anne for driving me home, ... Earlier that day Louise had phoned to say she would be picking me up at twenty minutes to six, for a meeting in Ardrishaig. With only ten minutes to spare I decided to save her the trouble of driving all the way along the lane to the wagon in pitch darkness.
So I readied myself, and torch (bike light ) in hand, I walked back along lane to wait for her at the corner. To my amazement , I found the Lorrry still there with the empty pile of scallop cages stacked behind it. Parking lights still on it , I approached and as I shone my light at it , a sudden yelling and screaming from within the van met my astonished ears. "Help! let me out, let me out , somebody help me!!... Please somebody...." Much taken aback by this, I decided to yell back, "Ive got a mobile phone, do you want me to call someone??", ...."Just open the fuckin' door will you???", So I did and the poor lad was freed, ... He went on to explain to me that the safety catch on the inside didnt work, he was irate about the boss not fixing it , and a sudden gust of wind had blown the door shut while he was inside.
He was ever grateful , and offered to take me to Ardrishaig , but I told him that Louise would be miffed , if I left and she arrived not finding me. Having been locked up for two hours, he needed to make up for lost time as he was headed for Berwick on Tweed.
Becoming subsequently exasperated, by Louise still not arriving and it now being six fifteen pm, I phoned her on my mobile....
"The meeting isn't for two more weeks", her voice crackled through the ether. So I explained the whole episode to her and we thanked God for the Fishmans sake. The chances of anyone passing on foot in that black November night after 6pm, were slim.
The random chance , of happenstance and misunderstanding in an obscure place, had saved the fishman from spending the night in a refrigerated container vehicle, with several boxes of doomed captive scallops on the shell.
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