Five random words.

I like the idea of this. I will mull it over while I do few chores (I've already spent too long on Gransnet) and see what I come up with.

An elephant boarded the Metro at Kingston Park. He carried with him a very large armchair which he'd had gift wrapped for his wife by the very kind staff in Kingston Sofas. The package was heavy and very bulky. He had difficulty negotiating the doors, which closed, painfully trapping his tail. He trumpeted in surprise and frightened most of the other seventy passengers. On reaching his destination, he apologised for all the fuss he had made and struggled off the train with his armchair. The streets were crowded with homeward bound commuters, making it difficult to carry the armchair without annoying people. He was very glad to get home, and his wife was delighted with her birthday present.

I might think of something better: Watch this space!

Trying hard to interpret the French voice crackling over the tannoy, I gathered that they apologised for some incomprehensible delay to my connection on the Metro. Sighing, not wanting to be late for the party my cousin Matilde was organising now that I was soon to be seventy,
I gathered my belongings which were heavy due to the elephant's foot I was bringing as a gift for my cousin; a foot which had been made into an attractive planter. I knew that she treasured such oddities. Eventually I arrrived at her apartment with it's fabulous view of the Eiffel Tower, handed her the elephant's foot and enjoyed the amazed look on her face as I sank into the nearest armchair, exhausted but happy as she gave me a glass of wine and began to introduce the guests.

He sat in his armchair, washed and polished awaiting his breakfast and looking forward to the day ahead. He glanced around the room, his eyes alighted on the little elephant, it had always looked so out of place amongst his late wife's delicate things. He closed his eyes and remembered the day he had found it lying in a gutter adjacent to the Paris Metro. As he had stooped to pick it up a child had rushed forward and grabbed it from him. Gently the child's mother had removed it from her daughter and pressed it into his hand. 'For you soldier, I apologise that I have nothing more to give, only thanks for our freedom' A memory he cherished with pride and as clear as it was seventy years ago.

Yet again she apologised to the cat for squashing him as she heaved herself out of her armchair. 'Blimey' she thought to herself, 'I'm the size of a flippin' elephant. If I don't lay off the chocolate just think how big I'm going to be when I get to seventy! It's already a tight fit getting into that Mini Metro; I think I'll need to buy a truck!'

He had left for the station to pick up his free copy of the Metro newspaper as usual. She looked out of the window and saw him pass number 70 across the street. She put the note that she had written that morning on his armchair, pinned her favourite elephant brooch to her coat, put her bag over her shoulder and without a hint of apology, walked out of his life.

"We are not really addressing the elephant in the room" said the therapist. Henry looked at her through narrow, suspicious eyes. Could she see it too. The big pink elephant sitting beside him in the armchair. The one that had followed him onto the metro, after the old boys seventy year reunion in Paris. The one that nobody believed in. Not the lady who thought he was attacking her, as he tried to move her out of the way, not the Gendarme, and certainly not the Judge. Henry had apologised for the confusion and mayhem he had caused, but really it should have been Nellie who was apologising. She had sat beside him in the dock, swinging her trunk defiantly, nearly decapitating the Barrister sitting in front. Ivy had said that he was lucky to get a sympathetic Judge. Counselling instead of a prison sentence. But apparently they were all wrong. This therapist seemed like an educated woman, a Doctor with a string of letters after her name. Nellie winked at him, I think this is going to be alright she said.