A woman hurried over, introducing herself as Florence O’Hara. She wanted to know how many tickets I wanted for The Glass Menagerie, in which she played the mother. Or did I want tickets for Hamlet, in which she played Gertrude? If I wanted to see them both, there was a special offer.

As she said this, I was surprised to see, sitting in the gloom, unshaven and in a big overcoat, a well-known actor, Robert Miles, who’d been in a film I’d written seven years ago. Before it began shooting, he and I had had tea together several times.

I looked at Florence more closely. I could recall Robert trying to get her a small part in the film. They’d been lovers, and were still connected in some way.

Had I not been inhabiting this wretched frame, Robert and I could, no doubt, have exchanged greetings and gossip. Instead, when he saw me looking at him, being both nervous and arrogant, he got up and walked out.

At the same time, Ralph emerged, in the costume of a Victorian gentleman or dandy, with a top hat in his hand. We shook hands, and I sat behind him in the theater seats.

“I haven’t got long,” he said.

“Nor me.”

“There’s a show later. During the day, I’m working on a new play with Robert Miles. He’s trying his hand at directing. I’m working with the best now.”

Ralph was looking tired; his face seemed a little more lined than before.

He said, “I’m playing Dorian Gray as well. Florence is Sybil. I’m having the time of my life here.” He glanced at me. “What’s wrong? What can I do for you now?”

I told Ralph that Matte had “recognized” me, was a New-body himself, required a body for his brother, and was in pursuit of mine. How could this not bother Ralph? After all, wasn’t he, theoretically, in a similar position?

“You come to me with these problems, but what can I do about any of them?”

“Ralph, anyone would recognize that, as with anything uniquely valuable—gold, a Picasso—bad people will be scrambling and killing for it. How could they not? But I can’t just remove this body as I could a necklace.”

“At least, not yet,” he said. Ralph was looking around agitatedly. “You stupid fool. Why have you come here? You might have led them to me. They could kidnap me while I’m onstage and strip me down to my brain.”

“How would they know you’re a freak like me?”

“Don’t fucking call me a freak! Only if you bloody well tell them. And I’m always afraid my maturity is going to give me away. What have you done to alert these people?”

By now, I was yelling, and I had big lungs.