My brother stayed with us on Saturday night. I stayed up until midnight arguing with him about the economy. Then I put him on the floor in a sleeping bag. During the night the air mattress deflated. The cat sat on his head. He asked whether there could have been two cats in the room. There could have been; the neighbour’s cat has worked out how the cat flap works. At 7, the cat began miaowing loudly and insistently for her breakfast. At 7.10 she was joined by Michael who got his breakfast and ate it beside his uncle’s inert body. When I came down at 9.30, I told my brother he had to get up as we were going out at 10.30 and if he wanted a lift, he would have to be ready. About 10.20, he said that he might just let us go and walk into town by himself later.
Shortly afterwards, I was speaking to my sister and asked her whether she had been speaking to my brother since his stay. “Did he say anything?” I asked. “Only that the sooner you got a new house, the better.”