Some fun in the sun

What about some fun in the sun....a short story as summer approaches....

https://winetourismspain.com/

Fiesta

“Have they finished?”

Clem and Satsu watched from their yellow rocket in the Parque Sierra de Cebollera for the third day.

“No”.

“Can we get out? They look friendly and happy.”

“Maybe if we had what they’re having we’ll be happy too.”

The evening sun warmed the visitors as they stepped out of their spacecraft into the fiesta of San Mateo. As they hopped into the plaza, two locals beckoned to the strangers to sit outside a café.

“Ola”.

Clem and Satsu hopped on to the metal seats.

Pedro brought two wine glasses and a white bowl overflowing with shiny green olives.

“Por favour”. He filled their glasses from a carafe of Rioja and raised his own glass to them. The other café customers raised their glasses too.

“Welcome! We’re glad you’ve joined us.”

Clem and Satsu stared at them.

“Drink up!”

“Enjoy!”

“Salud!”

The visitors looked at each other. They picked up their glasses and sniffed the dark, red liquid with their large square orange noses. It was sweet and pleasant. Then they set their glasses back on the table.

“They don’t like our wine?”

“It’s the best in the country!”

Clem and Satsu lifted their glasses again. Once more they sniffed the wine and set the glasses back down.

“What’s wrong with the wine?”

“Nothing! It’s the best we’ve had in years.”

“Maybe they’ve different customs where they live.”

“Maybe they think it’s poisoned.”

“Look, I’m drinking this. It’s very good,” said Pedro. Everyone else raised their glasses, smiled at the visitors and sipped the delicious, ruby wine.

Once more Clem and Satsu lifted their glasses, sniffed and set them down on the table.

The woman at the next table reached over and grabbed some olives. Clem and Satsu copied her, slowly munching the olives. Soon their dish was empty.

“They’re just taking their time.”

The café crowd sipped their wine in the evening sunshine enjoying the San Mateo fiesta. They cheered the brightly coloured children’s parade passing by.

Again, Clem and Satsu lifted their glasses. This time Satsu poured some wine into the dish where the olives had been. He started lapping the wine like a cat lapping milk from a saucer. He stopped, looked up at Clem and clapped. Clem filled the dish from her glass and began to sup the wine from the dish until it was empty. They both clapped, stood up, spun round three times and sat down.

“They like it!”

Pedro brought two clean dishes and filled them with Rioja.

“Salud!”

They were soon empty. Clem and Satsu clapped, stood up, spun round three times and sat down.

“You’re very welcome here,” said Pedro. “We’re delighted you like our wine. We’re honoured you chose to visit our Rioja region and try our wine first. We’ll give you some barrels to take home. We hope you’ll visit us again. We’ve always taken pride that ours is the best wine in Spain, but today you’ve shown us it’s really out of this world!”