“If you think this isn’t going to be something that a lot of people aren’t going to know about, you’re a fool.”

He leaned closer to me. “You get full-on, full-time security. Big guys around you all the time. That’s the price of a big new dick and fresh liver.”

“How am I going to afford it?”

“You’ll have to work.”

“At what?”

“What d’you think? You used to be a writer. You can start again, in another style. You could become … let’s say, a magical realist!” I could see Florence in the dressing-room doorway, waving at him. “Imagine where I’ll be in ten years’ time, in fifteen, in twenty! How do you know I won’t be running one of the great theaters or opera houses of the world?” I was sitting there with my head in my hands. “I didn’t tell you. I will now. Ophelia and I—the girl playing that part, of course—are getting married. I didn’t tell you this, either: we have a child together. A few days old, and perfect. I was afraid for a while that it would be some kind of oddity.”

“Well done.”

“Are you going to see the show? Maybe it’s better you don’t hang around here, if you’re being chased.”

I indicated my body. “All I want,” I said, “is to be rid of this, to get out of this meat. I want to do it tonight, if possible.” He was looking at me pityingly. “I guess I could find the hospital myself, but I’m in a hurry. What’s the address of the place you took me to?”

“Up to you,” he said, skeptically.

He told me the address. I wouldn’t forget it. He was glad to be rid of me.

I said, “Good luck with the show. I’ll come and see it in a few days’ time, with my wife. She and I are planning to spend a lot of time together.”

At the top of the stairs, I heard Florence’s voice behind me.

“What name?” she called.

“What?”

“What name for the tickets to the show?”

“I’ll let you know.”

“Don’t you even know your own name?”

Coming into the pub was a young woman with a baby in a sling. Ralph’s kid, I guessed. But I was in too much of a hurry to stop. There was a miserable cab office at the end of the street where, in my old frame, I had known the drivers and listened to their stories.

I told the cabbie to drive fast. As we went, I looked around continuously, staring into every car and face for potential murderers, thinking hard, convinced I was still being followed. Where I was going wasn’t far, but I had to be careful.

Not long after we’d left the city, I said, suddenly, to the driver, “Drop me off here.”