I think about blackberries and I look forward to September this year when they will emerge from their briars and fill the air with their delicious smell. I like to eat blackberries straight from the bushes despite all the talk of the danger of worms. Everything in this world has a right to life. I get to the Vico Road and I stop for a breather and look over the small stone wall built along the footpath behind which people throw their bags of rubbish from their cars. There is nothing of particular value to be seen. I cross the road and head up towards the Obelisk at the top of Killiney Hill. I feel like my legs have a strength of their own and this is the thought that is carrying me. I am sweating profusely and I’m not entirely sure if the top that I purchased in good faith is worth its price tag. I climb the last of the steps and I come out into the open area in front of the Obelisk. A smaller monument to my left has a set of steps at its base and I sit on one of the steps and stare out to sea. Dalkey Island seems to call to me and I want to go there, I want to go there very much but I am in my heart afraid of the current that surrounds the island. I am afraid that the sea will be too powerful and that it will catch me in its arms and throw me out on to the sand days later as if I am a worthless migrant fallen from an unseaworthy vessel. This is my fear. I close my eyes and then my body swerves forward and the tiredness that I have been fighting with for most of the morning is now finally catching up with me and I am powerless. I shake the sleep from my frame and I stand up and I do a couple of easy enough stretches. I hold my right foot with my hand and I push it into the back of my arse and I hold it there nice and firm counting to thirty. I do the same with my other foot. I move on down off the hill and something has clicked in with me.

I arrive back to the house and I feel changed, as though something has shifted. Jenny looks up briefly from what she is doing. There are flecks of paint along the insides of her long arms and they are mainly orange, and black, and yellow. She looks at me but she doesn’t say anything about my beardless face. I check to see if there is hot water and then I go upstairs to shower.

The evening isn’t long about settling in and I start executing my plans for the smoked salmon and the pasta salad.