That evening, circling his desk in office, he experienced tremendous boredom. He also felt curiously inspired. He was supposed to meet Faleiro at 5.30. Since it was raining they would have to sit inside. Goel preferred sitting inside. He liked the way the muted rays from the standard lamp lit up Faleiro’s fine and delicate features. Goel would then observe him, slyly and intensely, like a smitten child admiring his football hero.

He left his office at the stroke of five. The car had problems starting. Goel regretted having dismissed the driver. Finally, the engine responded and Goel reversed blindly on to the main road. The gears were heavy and unresponsive. He realized he was driving with his handbrake on and immediately released it.

Faleiro had just finished a chapter and seemed in good spirits. They sat in a room on the first floor of the house. The red-coloured floor had green and black borders running along the sides. Rafters held up the sagging ceiling. There was no electricity, so they sipped their tea in the murky light, their conviviality undimmed by the power cut.

Faleiro was unusually talkative today. He spoke about how good it felt when pieces in the plot jigsaw fell into place, when characters began speaking in their own voices. He spoke of it as a rare occurrence, as unusual as the sighting of an elusive beast. It happened every once in a while, said Faleiro, and it had happened today.

Goel liked it when Faleiro spoke excitedly and fluently. He knew his job was to listen and pretend to understand, even when he didn’t understand very much.

Faleiro filled an aluminium kettle with water for more tea. It was getting on to six. The rain continued to fall, stopping abruptly for a few deceiving minutes, then resuming with its earlier intensity. Faleiro, despite his high spirits, couldn’t resist a complaint. ‘I wish the power supply wasn’t so erratic. It would make this relentless rain a little more tolerable,’ he said, switching the gas off.

‘Do you think it’s a good idea to go out?’ Goel asked tentatively, ready for a rejection. He sounded like a son asking his father for an outing, quietly expecting a ‘no’ because Daddy was busy today and had no time to spare.

‘Go where?’ asked Faleiro, sounding a little bewildered at the thought of the outside world. ‘Go where in this weather?’

‘Well,’ said Goel, almost withdrawing his proposition, feeling embarrassed at having made such a preposterous suggestion in the first place, ‘I thought since we are trapped here in complete darkness, and since you have finished a chapter . . . maybe . . . I don’t know . . . I thought we could escape this rain and darkness for once and go someplace else, do something silly.’