Chapter TwentyWhen Felix leaves work that evening the city seems subtly changed; an urban place in the beginnings of bloom. Blossom settles in the gutters and across the pavement; pink icing petals on the black road.
People drift like lost souls down London Road. His feet lead him down East Street, past the Engineers’ Memorial. In one way, at least, he feels indebted to the statue. Had she not listened to him, he might have drowned in Southampton; the halfway city between the sea and the sky. So many have drowned already. It is not a slight against the city, but the way of men and women, who seem so willing to forget themselves and what it means to be alive.
He is standing in the alcohol aisle of his local convenience shop when his phone rings. Michael had still been talking with Coleson
