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He settled to his work again, feeling lonely and shaken.
There d been a time in the past when Ax and Fiorinda had both played away
relentlessly, and in the most hurtful way possible. So, not new bad news.
Butwhat s happening? What s happening to my darling ?
Shortly Sage arrived, big and bouncy, growling about the fucking trains.
?Where s Fee?
?Out.
?Oh, said Sage, surprised. ?Back soon?
?No. Ax kept his eyes on the documents. ?She s at the 69, with that Chinese
drummer. Not sure of the name. Very pretty young guy. She won t be home.
?What?
?You heard.
?Ax, I don t get this. She asked me to come up tonight.
?Welcome to my world.
?Shit. What s wrong? What the fuck is wrong? ?Don t know. Could be that she s nineteen, wild and
free, whereas you are
turning into an unavailable neuroscience nerd and I am a fuckingbureaucrat.
Ax went on reading. Sage, on the opposite couch, chewed the surviving joint
of his right thumb and staring at the gas flames. Silence reigned.
At last Sage jumped up. ?Ah, this is no good. Leave that. Get your coat, c mon,
you can drive me somewhere.
Ax found himself guided, swiftly and surely (curiously, Sage was a good
navigator when not behind the wheel) towards the south-west motorways.
?Sage, what is this? I am notdriving you to Cornwall.
?No, no. Devon will do fine.
Ah well. What s the point of being a rockstar dictator, if you can t burn up
some Private Transport Hypocrisy records once in a while. They reached Croyde
at two in the morning. Sage led the way through the chill, sea-scented night, the
sparkling moonlight, to a café with a weatherboard upper storey, and chucked
gravel at a window. A woman s torso appeared there rosily in lamplight,
generous naked breasts, broad moon-apples eyeing them. She opened the
window and leaned down.
?Oh, hi, Sage.
?Hi, Mel. Keys, keys!
?Just a minute.
She vanished, came back and chucked a bunch of keys into Sage s cupped palms. The keys opened a
cavernous workshop on the beach, smelling of wax
and solvents; white dust hanging in the air. They suited up, took a couple of
boards and headed for the water. Before the first plunge Ax was ready to rebel,
IT IS FEBRUARY YOU MANIAC, but once he was in it the sea was thrilling:
warmer than the air, full of tremendous life. The waves came in beautiful sets,
straight as if drawn by a ruler, not big, but big enough. There was no rivalry, no
competition, not tonight: it was pure joy.
When they d had enough they sat on the beach, insulated by good suits and
warmed by all that energy. The moon was fabulous. Ax sifted cold silky sand
through his fingers. ?Maybe we re not quite over the hill yet.
?Nyah, this proves nothing. My dad s over seventy and he surfs.
?Your dad is over seventy?
?Yeah. He s seventy-five.
?He doesn t look it!
Sage s dad was five foot eight or so, olive skin, silver-dusted jet- black hair:
you could see he d been the spit of Marlon Williams when he was a kid.
?Mm, agreed Sage gloomily. ?He doesn t, does he? People will be taking him
for my younger brother in a year or two.
Ax grinned at the sea. ?Fancy a fuck?
Sage glanced at him sidelong, looked at the sky and laughed, glittering with
mischief. ?Shit. I was planning to jump on you.
?Go ahead. ?Too late. It wouldn t be the same. Well. There s a mattress in the loft.
The mattress was very seedy. The icy dark air wrapped them round. They lay
together afterwards, intertwined, unwilling to move; while the cold crept over
their sweated skin, and breathing slowed
?D you think we re taking this too seriously? whispered Ax.
?No baby, I don t. I never would have believed I d end up in bed with a bloke,
but you re the love of my life. You and Fiorinda, both. Nothing else matters.
?I meant, the way she s behaving. As if she s really fucked off with us 
?Oh. Hahaha . . . Well, maybe. Maybe we just have to stop being boring.
?But you re the love of my life too. You and Fiorinda. Nothingelse matters.
?All we need to do is remember that.
They pulled a disreputable rug over themselves, slept for an hour and zoomed
back to London in the dark of dawn, a steady hundred and forty klicks around
the potholes and the surface breaks. Sage, curled up in the passenger seat,
opened an eye and mumbled plaintively, do you have to drive so fast?
?Yeah.
She was home before them. She came out into the stairwell as they let
themselves in down below.
?Hi, said Sage, ?did you fuck your pretty Chinese kid? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]