There was a constant stream of people scurrying past and I continued to scan the crowd as I forced myself to swallow bites of my Pret Posh Cheddar. Every now and again as I’d scuffed around the streets, I’d been calling my own number from Leonard’s phone in the hope that he might eventually answer. As I absently hit the redial button again and put the phone to my ear I nearly choked on the last mouthful of my lunch.

“Hello? Hello? Leonard, is that you?” I could definitely hear a voice and it sounded like his, but it was muffled and tinny and felt like it was coming from very far away.

“Leonard, hello? Can you speak up? It’s me, Sadie. Where are you? Are you okay?”

His voice kept cutting in and out, but from the snatches I got he sounded very flustered and upset. Confused, even.

“I...oh...so terribly sorry. I just wanted...well, because, I promised Iris...and I thought... I just...oh, I really don’t know...but I just thought I would try to...so silly of me. And then the phone wouldn’t... I’m so sorry, Sadie, I...rather a mess of things I’m afraid.”

I suddenly remembered that I’d put a PIN lock on my phone after I’d come back from the toilet one day at work to find Dennis scrolling through it.

“Just checking you haven’t been texting your boyfriends on my time, Sadie, ha ha.”

I realized that if I really had left my phone on silent, not only would poor old Leonard not have known we were trying to call unless he had it in his hand, he also wouldn’t have been able to call us back, even if he’d wanted to.

“Leonard, don’t worry about all that. But are you all right? And where are you?” There were a couple of seconds’ silence and I thought we’d been cut off. “Leonard? Are you...?”

“Well, now...not far, really. About an hour out of the city, I think, and... I actually found some on the side of the road...then, oh dear, the Austin wouldn’t start and... I tried a little something but...”

Leonard’s patchy voice trailed off entirely at that point, but I could still hear his raggy old-man breathing. And all I could think was, this is all my fault. If it wasn’t for me opening my big mouth about Norman’s plan, right now Leonard would be ensconced safely at the Wheeler Center, most likely enjoying an online class in Mandarin and drinking hibiscus tea. But instead, he was stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, probably with no clue as to how to get back. To a place he wasn’t even supposed to be.

“It’s okay, Leonard. Don’t worry. I... I can come and get you. No problem. Don’t worry about a thing. But, Leonard, you need to tell me. Where are you?”

There were another few seconds of radio silence, like Leonard was definitely trying very hard to remember where he was. I held my breath. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, and all I really wanted was for someone to tell me not to worry about a thing. That they’d come and get me.