James Grant: An Ordinary Fellow

An Ordinary Fellow

“Where have you been, John?” One member of our Friday

foursome

had not been around the golf club for a fortnight.

No-one usually noticed him,

apart from sensing the awesome

power of his tee-shots, and the way

they curved to the right

to end up blocked out by some overhanging limb.

John himself was a mild and unassuming chap,

polite

and spectacle-wearing, with an average frame,

who, like us all, had good days

and bad, and who others might

not even know without his cap.

Even his surname

was unremarkable. Still, he was always

there. Where else would he go? Except for the golf, what

meaning

did daytime hold for us golfers? “Where have you been?”

“I’ve been to Copenhagen,” he

replied, looking up from cleaning

a Titleist in the ball-washer that

stood beside the green.

“What on earth for?” “An awards ceremony

for inventors.” We all laughed at that. Why would

one go

to such an event? “I was named on the shortlist

for a prize.” “And did you win?”

“Well, actually, I did.” So

he had to have invented

something; to persist

in our questioning we began to imagine

what kind of invention such an ordinary

fellow

might have come up with, some painless mousetraps

or accessories for hi-fi

players, an anti-snore pillow,

or innovative machinery

for the farm, perhaps …

But then he silenced us. “I invented Wi-Fi.”

James Grant