It was evening when Dexter woke. The whole afternoon had passed. He went to find his father in the kitchen.
‘I’m sorry, Dad,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to sleep that long. Why didn’t you wake me?’
‘It wasn’t my job. You’re not a child any longer, Dexter,’ his father replied angrily. ‘And you were so drunk, there wasn’t any point in walking you. You don’t think that your mother wanted to see you like this, do you?’
‘I’m sorry,’ Dexter said again. He looked around the room. ‘Where did I put my car keys? I have to go now.’
‘I’ve got them and I’m going to keep them,’ his father replied. ‘You must not drive when you’re drunk, Dexter. You’ll kill yourself or you’ll kill someone else, which will be worse. I’ll drive you to the station now. You can get the train back to London. And you can come and collect your car at the weekend, if you’re sober by then. Perhaps you’ll be able to talk sensibly to your mother then, too.’
Dexter tried to argue, but his father wouldn’t listen to him. And he wouldn’t talk to him on the way to the station. But as Dexter was getting out of the car, the older man held his arm.
‘Listen to me, Dexter,’ Stephen Mayhew said very seriously. ‘Your mother was looking forward to your visit today. And now she’s very upset. She hasn’t long to live, you must know that. If you come here drunk again, I won’t let you into the house to see her. Do you understand me? I won’t open the door to you.’
Stephen drove away and Dexter walked sadly into the station. When he was waiting for the train he tried to phone Emma. ‘Emma will understand me,’ he told himself. ‘I need to see Emma.’ But Emma wasn’t at home. He left a message on her answerphone. He asked if they could meet later that evening. He said he’d call again.
When he got back to his flat and called again, Dexter still got the answerphone. ‘Emma, where are you?’ he said to the machine. ‘I miss you. I need you. I’ll try again later.’
Covent Garden and King’s Cross, London.
Emma didn’t get any of Dexter’s phone messages that evening because she wasn’t at home. When Dexter left his first message, she had just left her flat in Earls Court, West London. She was walking to the nearly Underground station. She was on her way to an Italian restaurant in Covent Garden where she was going to meet Ian Whitehead.
Emma had only seen Ian a few times since she had left Loco Caliente to train as a teacher, but they were still friends. They sometimes talked on the phone. And tonight he had invited her to meet him for dinner. They had been friends for three years, but Emma had never slept with Ian. She knew that he wanted to sleep with her. She liked him, but did she want to sleep with him too? She didn’t know and she wondered now how the evening was going to end.
At the station, Emma bought a ticket and waited for her train. Soon, it arrived and Emma boarded it. She sat and thought about how her life had changed since she had met Ian. She no longer shared a flat with Tilly Killick. Now she lived on her own in the small rented flat in Earls Court. And now she was ready for a new career. Tomorrow she was going to an interview for a job as a teacher of English and Drama. The job was in a comprehensive school in Leytonstone, in a poor part of East London. Emma was very confident about this job. She had enjoyed her year at teacher training college and she knew that she was going to be brilliant teacher.
Yes, her life had changed. But Emma knew that her character had changed too. She had mellowed. She no longer had a strong opinion about everything that happened in the world. Sometimes, she could even see that there were two sides to any argument.
‘I’m twenty-seven-perhaps that’s the reason,’ she thought. ‘Perhaps I’m getting old. Perhaps I’m ready to compromise.’
When Emma arrived at the restaurant, she saw that Ian was already there. She hoped that this was the beginning of a pleasant evening. Later, she’d decide about what was going to happen next. They ordered food and wine and Ian started to talk. He seemed very nervous and Emma tried to help him to relax.
But an hour later-at about the time Dexter was leaving his second message on her answerphone – Emma was feeling desperate. Ian had been trying much too hard to make her laugh. She guessed that he was practicing his stand-up comedy act on her. The problem was that everything he said was a joke and it was impossible to have a conversation with him. This was driving her crazy. She guessed that Ian was feeling desperate too. Everything he said made the evening worse. In part of her mind Emma wanted to leave and go home. But in another part of her mind she felt terribly sorry for Ian. It was clear to her that he wasn’t a good comedian and that his ambition to have a career in stand-up was just a dream.
At last, she couldn’t listen to any more bad jokes.
‘Ian.’ She said suddenly, ‘will you be quiet for a minute, please! Will you just shut up! ’
Ian looked very surprised and he stopped talking. After a few