‘Hi, Rick. So I’m Vance. Old, old friend of your mother. Heard a lot about you.’

‘It’s kind of you to meet with us, sir.’

‘So here you are!’ Josie suddenly filled the space before me. Beside her was a girl of eighteen who I realized was Cindy, the waitress, far less simplified now than when I’d last seen her.

‘Yeah, I don’t think your store actually moved,’ Cindy said. ‘But there’s a new store opened inside Delancey’s and maybe some of the AFs from your old store would have relocated there.’

‘Excuse me.’ A lady in a high-rank blue dress, who I estimated as forty-six years old, came in front of me, but facing Josie and Cindy. ‘We were just wondering if you were intending to bring this machine into the theater.’

‘Hey, what’s it to do with you if we were?’ Cindy said.

‘These are sought-after seats,’ the lady said. ‘They shouldn’t be taken by machines. If you take this machine into the theater, we’ll have to raise an objection.’

‘I don’t see why it’s any business of yours…’

‘It’s okay,’ Josie said. ‘Klara isn’t going into the show and neither am I…’

‘That’s beside the point,’ Cindy said. ‘I’m angry about this.’ Then to the lady she said: ‘I don’t know you! Who are you? Just coming up and speaking to us that way…’

‘So this is your machine?’ the lady asked Josie.

‘Klara’s my AF, if that’s what you’re asking.’

‘First they take the jobs. Then they take the seats at the theater?’

‘Klara?’ The Father had brought his face close up to mine. ‘Are you still feeling okay?’

‘Yes, I’m fine.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Perhaps I was a little disoriented earlier. But now I’m fine.’

‘Good. Look, I have to be on my way very soon. So I’m wondering if you’d tell me now. Exactly what did we do back there? And what can we hope will happen as a result?’

‘Mr Paul trusted me and that was wonderful. Unfortunately, as I said before, I can’t tell you anything more without jeopardizing the very thing we achieved. But I believe there’s real hope now. Please be patient and wait for good news.’

‘As you please. I’ll call in at the apartment in the morning to say goodbye to Josie. So I may see you then.’

The Mother’s voice said somewhere behind me: ‘We’ll talk about this back at the apartment. We can’t talk here.’

‘But that’s all I wanted to say,’ Josie’s voice said. ‘I definitely don’t want you sealing it up, the way you did with Sal’s. I want it so Klara gets sole use of my room and she gets to come and go as she pleases.’

‘But why are we even talking about this? You’re going to get well, honey. We don’t have to think about any of this…’

‘Oh, Klara, here you are.’ Miss Helen had appeared beside me. ‘Klara, look, I’ve just been speaking with Chrissie. You’re to come with us for now.’

‘With you?’

‘Chrissie wants to take Josie back to the apartment and have a quiet word with her, just the two of them. So you stay with us for now. Chrissie will come and collect you in half an hour.’ Then leaning forward, she spoke quietly into my ear: ‘Can you see? Rick and Vance are really hitting it off! All the same, dear, Rick will really appreciate having you beside him as he goes through this. It could still be something of an ordeal.’

‘Yes, of course. But the Mother…’

‘She’ll come and collect you in very good time, don’t worry. She just needs a few minutes alone with Josie.’

‘What I want more than anything else,’ Mr Vance said with a laugh, coming towards us, ‘is for us to get out of this crush. Over there, that diner. That looks fine. Just somewhere we can sit down, look at one another and talk.’

There were arms encircling me, and I realized Josie was holding me in an embrace, not unlike the one she’d held me in that day at the store following the great decision. But this time, she spoke into my ear, so only I could hear:

‘Don’t worry. I’ll never let anything bad happen to you. I’ll talk to Mom. You go with Rick for now. Trust me.’

Then she released me, and Miss Helen was pulling me gently away.

‘Come along, Klara, dear.’

We emerged from the theater crowd, Mr Vance leading the way towards the diner, Miss Helen hurrying to walk alongside him. Rick and I followed the adults a few steps behind, and as the emptiness and cool air moved in around us, I felt my orientation returning. When I looked back, I was surprised to see how dark and quiet the street actually was, aside from the single dense cluster of people around the streetlight. In fact, as we moved ever further away, this crowd – of which I’d so recently been a part – appeared like one of those insect clouds I’d seen in the evening field, hovering against the sky, each creature within it busily changing position, anxious to find a better one, but never straying beyond the boundary of the shape they made together. I saw Josie, waving with a puzzled expression from the crowd’s edge, and the Mother, standing behind her, a hand on each of Josie’s shoulders, watching us with empty eyes.

* * *

—

The darkness grew, and the noises of the theater crowd became more faint, but I knew my observational abilities hadn’t been too badly impaired because I continued to see clearly before me the illuminated diner towards which we were walking. I could see how it was shaped like a pie segment, the sharp end pointed towards us; and how the street forked on either side of it, and how the diner’s windows ran alongside both the diverging sidewalks, so that no matter which way passers-by went, they’d be able to look into its lit interior – at the shiny leather seats, the polished tabletops, and the bright see-through counter behind which the diner manager was waiting for customers in his white apron and white cap.

With no vehicles approaching and the surrounding buildings so dark, the diner was this area’s only light source, throwing slanted shapes onto the paving stones. I wondered which side of the fork Mr Vance would choose, but as we came closer, I noticed a door just at the pointed corner itself. The only reason I hadn’t spotted it earlier, I supposed, was because the door so resembled the diner’s windows – it was made mostly of glass and had painted writing going across it. Mr Vance opened the door, then stood aside to allow Miss Helen to go in first.