Maybe Matte had come for my body. I’d seen the movie. Men in dark suits were outside. While they were kicking the door in, I’d hide in the shower with my gun, or climb out of the bathroom window and down the fire escape. That was the young man’s route, and I wouldn’t be a young man in my mind, however lithe my body. For there was another part of me, my older mind, if you like, which was, by now, outraged by the violation, the cheek of it. My body wasn’t for sale, though I had, of course, purchased it myself.

“How did you find me?”

Alicia was sitting on the bed; I stood looking at her. She had shaved her head and put on weight. She wore a top with a bow at the front.

“Why have you grown a full beard?”

“Alicia, I am hoping to be taken seriously.”

I’d forgotten how nervous she was. “Leo, it’s good to see you. How much do you mind me coming to see you?”

“Not as much as you might think. I do need to know how you tracked me down.”

“I haven’t told Patricia—she isn’t downstairs, if that’s what’s bothering you. I looked through your things one time … trying to … I wanted to know who you were. You do know, I guess, that you’re as elusive as a spy. It turned me into a spy. I found a receipt for this hotel and wrote the address into one of my poems. Still,” she said, “if you want to be private, why shouldn’t you be? Do you want me to go?”

“I’ll come with you. Let’s get out of here. I never stay in this room during the day.”

I was putting on my coat.

She said, “You’re writing.”

In the corner of the room, on a small table, were some papers.

“Please don’t look at that,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Leave it! I’m trying … to do something about an old man in a young man’s body.”

“You’ve done a lot. Is it a film?” She was turning the pages. “There’s dialogue. It’s professionally laid out. Have you written before?”

“You encouraged me, Alicia.”

“It was the other way around. Will you try to sell it?”

“You never know. Give it here now.”

“What a strange boy you are!”

I took the papers from her and put them under the bed.

In the café, I asked, “How is my friend Patricia?”