though, can I?’ he said as they strolled among the tourists.
‘No you can’t.’
‘And Mason doesn’t sound like the kind of man to take kindly to bad news.’ Bennett slung an arm round Daniel’s shoulder and pulled him close. ‘Why not try to see
what else of Lawson is left inside you? It might help. Do you really think you’re going to find someone just by walking round town? Mason only gave you three days and it’s day two
now.’
‘Lawson was drawn to me when we met. Perhaps someone else will be too. The down-and-out on the train said the person I needed to make the fit will be wherever I am.’
‘And you believe him?’
‘There are people coming from all over the world to visit here,’ said Daniel as groups of tourists bustled round them.
‘Hello!’ shouted Bennett at the crowds, pointing to Daniel. ‘Anyone here interested? He’s someone you can make the fit with if you want?’ But while some people
glanced up at them, most just looked embarrassed and walked on.
Bennett raised his hands in surrender when Daniel scowled. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I can see it might be uncomfortable finding out what bits and pieces of a dead person are stuck
inside you, so let’s walk a bit more and see what happens, until we meet someone or we up come with another idea. I can multitask anyway. Work off the chips at the same time.’ He
belched and smiled at all the disapproving faces passing them by.
They wandered among the crowds of shoppers and tourists like two pilgrims searching for a hidden, sacred place. But the only time anyone noticed Daniel was when a young kid
gawped at him, pointing him out to his mum, as if he had just stepped off the front page of the newspaper.
When a pack of girls from school recognized him too, they catcalled his name across the traffic, swigging from bottles of cider, their middle fingers raised, the sunlight flashing off their
varnished nails.
‘You’ve got to love ’em,’ said Bennett, blowing them each a kiss.
When Bennett spotted the down-and-out they had met on the train, he chased after him down the street, shouting that he wanted his hip flask back. But the man ducked down an alley, his mackintosh
flapping. When Daniel followed them, he found Bennett at the end of the alleyway, panting, his hands on his head as he stood pondering which of the three separate passageways to take.
‘Vanished like a bloody cat,’ he said and cursed.
Eventually, the two of them lay down in one of the parks on the sunburned grass. Bennett picked up a stick and turned it in his hands. ‘So much for meeting someone. All
we’ve done is go round and round this bloody town. People’ll start talking, you know.’ Bennett tossed the stick as high as he could and watched it cartwheel round and snap like a
bone when it landed on the dry brown grass. He stared at the two broken pieces and clicked his tongue. When he looked round, ready to say something, Daniel was staring at him.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll try it.’
Bennett bought a notebook and pencil from a kiosk in the park and sat quietly beside Daniel, waiting to write anything down that might be useful.
Daniel lay silently for a few moments, thinking about Lawson, focusing on everything he could remember about the man. What he had been like in the hospital. How the house he had lived in was set
out. Everything he had mentioned to Daniel about the fit and what he hoped they could do together. Ever so gradually, Daniel began to sense they were having an effect as little flickers of the
man’s memories – things he could not have possibly known about – revealed themselves to him, flitting like sparks through the black of him as he kept his eyes tight shut.
They were mundane moments at first – Lawson brushing his teeth or eating a meal or driving a car. But they had a momentum of their own that carried Daniel into a deeper thinking and he
started to remember other things in sequence from across the man’s
‘No you can’t.’
‘And Mason doesn’t sound like the kind of man to take kindly to bad news.’ Bennett slung an arm round Daniel’s shoulder and pulled him close. ‘Why not try to see
what else of Lawson is left inside you? It might help. Do you really think you’re going to find someone just by walking round town? Mason only gave you three days and it’s day two
now.’
‘Lawson was drawn to me when we met. Perhaps someone else will be too. The down-and-out on the train said the person I needed to make the fit will be wherever I am.’
‘And you believe him?’
‘There are people coming from all over the world to visit here,’ said Daniel as groups of tourists bustled round them.
‘Hello!’ shouted Bennett at the crowds, pointing to Daniel. ‘Anyone here interested? He’s someone you can make the fit with if you want?’ But while some people
glanced up at them, most just looked embarrassed and walked on.
Bennett raised his hands in surrender when Daniel scowled. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I can see it might be uncomfortable finding out what bits and pieces of a dead person are stuck
inside you, so let’s walk a bit more and see what happens, until we meet someone or we up come with another idea. I can multitask anyway. Work off the chips at the same time.’ He
belched and smiled at all the disapproving faces passing them by.
They wandered among the crowds of shoppers and tourists like two pilgrims searching for a hidden, sacred place. But the only time anyone noticed Daniel was when a young kid
gawped at him, pointing him out to his mum, as if he had just stepped off the front page of the newspaper.
When a pack of girls from school recognized him too, they catcalled his name across the traffic, swigging from bottles of cider, their middle fingers raised, the sunlight flashing off their
varnished nails.
‘You’ve got to love ’em,’ said Bennett, blowing them each a kiss.
When Bennett spotted the down-and-out they had met on the train, he chased after him down the street, shouting that he wanted his hip flask back. But the man ducked down an alley, his mackintosh
flapping. When Daniel followed them, he found Bennett at the end of the alleyway, panting, his hands on his head as he stood pondering which of the three separate passageways to take.
‘Vanished like a bloody cat,’ he said and cursed.
Eventually, the two of them lay down in one of the parks on the sunburned grass. Bennett picked up a stick and turned it in his hands. ‘So much for meeting someone. All
we’ve done is go round and round this bloody town. People’ll start talking, you know.’ Bennett tossed the stick as high as he could and watched it cartwheel round and snap like a
bone when it landed on the dry brown grass. He stared at the two broken pieces and clicked his tongue. When he looked round, ready to say something, Daniel was staring at him.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll try it.’
Bennett bought a notebook and pencil from a kiosk in the park and sat quietly beside Daniel, waiting to write anything down that might be useful.
Daniel lay silently for a few moments, thinking about Lawson, focusing on everything he could remember about the man. What he had been like in the hospital. How the house he had lived in was set
out. Everything he had mentioned to Daniel about the fit and what he hoped they could do together. Ever so gradually, Daniel began to sense they were having an effect as little flickers of the
man’s memories – things he could not have possibly known about – revealed themselves to him, flitting like sparks through the black of him as he kept his eyes tight shut.
They were mundane moments at first – Lawson brushing his teeth or eating a meal or driving a car. But they had a momentum of their own that carried Daniel into a deeper thinking and he
started to remember other things in sequence from across the man’s
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