I got out of bed and put the kettle on the stove before heading outside to the showers. I rolled a cigarette on my return and smoked it with my tea as I blew the dust off my shoes and begun polishing them with a brush.
When they were done, I took my suit down from the hook on the back of the door and unzipped it from its bag. Fastening a pair of braces onto the trousers, I pulled them up over my waist and stretched the elastic with my thumb till it slapped back against my skin.
Picking out a bow-tie and a handkerchief from my dressing case, I drew open the net curtain and sat down to make up my face.
Big Joe had got a good day. Last year had been the same and the one before that if I recall it. He was lucky like that, Joe.
Hearing my taxi, I put my jacket on and reached for my hat. Glancing quickly at myself in the mirror, I fixed my red nose on and grabbed a brace of Big Joe's favourite beer from the fridge.
The journey into Deal was quiet. I didn't mind, I looked out at the rolling yellow fields and waited for that first glimpse of the sea.
Deal was always one of Big Joe's favourite towns. True, he had a soft spot for Clapham too but the London crowds had changed so much from when we first started that I don't know what they'd make of us now. Deal-folk were different, they took Joe into their hearts and treated him as if he was one of their own.
Sadly, most of the other Wanderers had sadly joined Big Joe to that circus tent in the sky long ago. Or, as was the traveller's way, simply lost touch on life's highway. We now numbered just three, Zoltan, Miss Venus and lonely old me.
Zoltan, the nicest man you could hope to meet had retired to Broadstairs and opened a small tearoom, while Miss Venus had fulfilled a life-long dream of living on a canal boat on the River Stour.
"I won't be needing you again today." I told the young driver as we arrived on the edge of the common. My old friends would give me a lift back to the caravan-park, or if I wished to be left with my own thoughts, I'd cut through fields and help the farmer scare aware his crows.
Walking through the wet dewy grass, I shut the sound out of beeping cars as I counted out my steps till I arrived upon the spot. Waiting for the other two, I allowed myself a little moment alone with Joe before wiping away a tear with my handkerchief just as Zoltan appeared beside me.
"I'm sorry, I tried to get her off the boat," He explained as we greeted each other with a Wanderer's handshake. "But she's in a wheelchair now and refuses any help. She's impossible."
I told him it didn't matter as I handed him a beer.
"She sends her love by the way, to both of you. She says she'll try and make it next year."
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