It had taken two hours to find that old man, two hours of bombast, self-opiniation, irascibility, histrionics, anger (or was it pseudo-anger?), egomania, pedantry, and intolerance. The evening was suddenly still - like the old man who lay on one of the single beds in the room, his curly grey chest hair crinkling over the top of his singlet, his dishevelled white hair a halo around his head.
As it dropped, six Indian mynahs had come to roost on the television aerials on the roofs outside.
The wind had stopped whistling and rattling the aluminium frame windows.
