“I have never before failed in such a way.”
It took me some time to gather that this was Mr Samuels and was, in some sense, an opening gambit for conversation. Not exactly a bright opener. He fingered his glass of water, keeping his unremarkable eyes firmly gazing into the middle distance. Perhaps it wasn’t an opener, after all, but an aside, or a quick slip into the workings of his mind. The discotheque lights played over his blank face, turning him red and green turn and turn about, the poor man.
“How could I have forgotten the club? I, I who am so careful!”
“Bad luck?” He didn’t hear me.
“A slip.”
“Unimportant.”
“That could have precipitated an avalanche.”
“An avalanche?”
“Incredible.”
“Incredible, indeed”
“Quite, quite unbelievable.”
“Unbelievable.” I still wasn’t sure he wa
