He slit open the envelope. It was a bunch of reviews sent on by Eddie. Jack read them, but the only words that registered in his mind were those that referred to Catherine. “Catherine Adams delivers a stunning performance.” “Miss Adams is impeccable. She was born for the part.” “An actress new to the Dublin stage, Miss Catherine Adams, turns in a rare and moving performance.” He felt a painful twinge of bitterness, of jealousy and sadness. The two of them should have been sharing this moment together. He would have liked to have been called onto the stage, and to take her hand and bow. It would not happen. It would never happen.

He stuffed the newspaper cuttings in the pocket of his oilskins and sauntered fearfully round the peninsula. The sea roads were creamy yellow in the cold January sun. Each person he met tumbled by, full of their own life, at home in their own consciousness while he was trapped in an alien perspective from which there was no relief.

He sat in the cottage for two days without stirring. Then Hugh the chef arrived with Daisy and the cat. He was glad that he remembered Hugh’s name but distraught to find that he had forgotten the dog. Daisy went frantic with joy at seeing him, then lay down in his accustomed place. This is how it will be, thought Jack. Who do we have to talk to when we are alone? He looked at the holy pictures that he had kept on the wall and wondered should he remove them. If he left them there what magnificent madness, he wondered, might home in on his deranged mind? He took down the Madonna, the Crucified Christ and yet could not bring himself to remove a small plaster cast of Joseph holding his son, for the shadow the statue threw on the wall of the mantle he found comforting.

The banal and the ordinary things began to count. Through them he would re-enter the world, for he had not the strength to begin listening to God. He tried to imagine her in her new life. Would she be able to trade in ceaseless affection with some other again? Would the evil energy be dissipated now? They had lived together thinking they knew everything about each other, but they had forgotten the strange world that would be there after they parted.

Who would take care of them now?

For a long time their life had been full of forgiveness. How serene the world was after they’d argued! Then the forgiveness stopped. The moment that had actually happened he could not remember. It had passed him by.