Chapter 9
“D’you have a wife?”
Although he’d heard the question, Nick took a while to swim back to the surface. “Hmm?” He turned his head to the old man who sat alongside him, sharing the park bench.
“A wife?”
“Oh…”
Nick turned his gaze back to the white terrier snuffling in the grass in front of them. He and the old man had been sitting quietly, watching the man’s dog. Something would distract the terrier, and the dog would lift its head, prick up its ears, and gaze around, expectant, hopeful. Nick had been watching the animal just so he didn’t have to think. What would it feel like to be a dog? So simple a life: sleep, eat, walk, have someone scratch him behind the ears, or tickle his tummy now and then, lick his balls whenever he felt like it…he could handle that.
The old man sigh
