I refused to hand over the watch and aimed an uppercut at his chin, but Carl struck back with a swift stab between my left armpit and my chest. The knife was cold, but the pain only hit me when he pulled out the blade.

I staggered a short distance to a pool of light cast by a streetlamp, and that’s where a young couple from Sussex found me and called an ambulance.

The young man shows me the dial of my watch so that I can register the time of my death. The last thing I see before my heart empties of blood is my father’s watch. It has stopped at five to three. Then my heart fails for lack of blood.

DAY THIRTY-SIX

Henri

I grope along the asphalt with my left hand and ask the young man to help me to my feet and call an ambulance. He stares at me in disbelief.

As always, I was out and about. I swim through the nights as I used to in the period of suspended time before I met Eddie. When I meet a woman in these hazy, drunken, wandering nights I let her go her own way. What am I supposed to do if I enter the unknown realms of her being and don’t find the same riches as I found in Eddie? Her goodness and magnanimity.

I reached a stretch of road where some of the streetlights were broken, and there Carl was waiting for me in the dark.

“Hey, mate, I need help, you know,” he said. “Name’s Carl. What’s yours?”

“Henri.”

“Okay, Henri, I’ve got two kids, see, but—”

“No need to explain. I guess you want money?”

“You guessed right, mate.”

He really did look like a stressed-out father of two, but his face had twisted into a junkie’s. I gave him all the money in my pockets.

“I sniff, I do pills. I’ll take anything that’ll get me high. What’s the time, by the way?” he asked slyly.

I glanced at my watch. “Just before three.”

“Gimme yer watch!”

“We can go to a cash machine instead.”

“Forget it. Too many people.” He scratched himself. His eyes were red. “Go on, gimme yer watch. Now!”

“There are derivatives now that ease the withdrawal symptoms and—”

“Shut up and gimme that watch!”

“No. It was my father’s.”

“So what? Did he croak or something? Gimme the fucking watch or I’ll chop yer arm off!”

I refused to hand over the watch, although his knife was hovering level with my stomach.

“My father and I were out at sea,” I said, gazing into Carl’s inflamed eyes.

“So what?”

“Give me a minute to say goodbye to it, please. Would you do that for me? I tell the story and then you get the watch?”

He nodded nervously. “Okay, but make it quick.”