So this is the wealthy. This is how they live, cloistered away with their ugly faces and their stultified furniture. Peter doesn’t envy this existence; his own life is more exciting, more intense, he has friends, he doesn’t have to pay for boys to lie on a sofa so he can stare at them. Well, okay—friends. That’s something he’s seen in movies, too. What Peter has is three other children who are always around.

Thome aims the camera at Peter, he assumes a speaking pose, face in profile, makes a better impression. No chin. Okay. Have to do without. He tries out a speech—he’s always trying out speeches that he wants to post online or give to tech journalists. Or to new employees. Or to nobody. He probably just likes to hear himself talk. The sun is shining outside. A rare occurrence to see sun like that in the city. It doesn’t make the place any more beautiful. But it is affecting. People immediately feel more hopeful. Hey, you see, the sun is shining after all those weeks that felt like years, there is a sun. Winter will pass, and then things will grow from the earth, and perhaps things will be better for us … That’s what they think as they frolic on the yellowed lawns of the adjacent Holland Park. Climate change is not having a positive effect on the island’s inhabitants. For a long time there’s been maybe a month of sun per year, and that’s an optimistic estimate. It seems to have gotten colder, probably because for some time geoengineering has been going full blast, as the conspiracy theorists in Thome’s circles well know. Sunbeams being reflected back into space, aerosols in the atmosphere. The weather is mild. Bearable. Except in Africa. Asia. South America. Australia. But hardly anyone knows people there. Speaking of which—

“Can you open your shirt a little bit more?” asks Thome, fidgeting oddly. From invisible speakers comes Schubert’s Winterreise, which Thome likes to listen to ironically. This German whining. The forest. The griffin. Idiots. Should have vanquished them for good—

Thinks

THOME

In passing

Before his mind clouds again. And he stares at Peter. And is at a complete loss.

But it’s good not to be alone anymore, they’re visiting the

FRIENDS