‘Yes, sunshine. Pretty well as soon as you’ll let me get into my house,’ I said.

‘Go soon, you shouldn’t stay in there long,’ he said animatedly, almost desperately. ‘Please.’

I couldn’t quite understand his urgency. I definitely understood mine, though.

‘I promise. You look after yourself,’ I said. I opened the door, and he turned suddenly and bolted up the street as though Spring-Heeled Jack was after him, without once looking back.

Phyllis was still up. She jumped a mile when I came in. She had the television turned up so loud that she hadn’t heard me outside. Her face looked subtly appalled, as though I had casually walked back in with half my head missing and said, ‘Now how about a nice cup of tea?’

I told her that I was going to London, and then I told her roughly why. She couldn’t take it all in. At one point she said, ‘Why don’t you call the police?’

I said, ‘Come off it, Phyllis. Do you think they’re going to give me a round-the-clock police guard and a medal because I performed a public service and hit some Loyalist in a bar?’

She looked down at her slippers silently, a chastened child.

‘You’ll be able to run the newsagent’s,’ I said. ‘And then if things calm down maybe I’ll be able to come back. I’ll phone to let you know how I’m doing, and write you letters.’

Her powdered parchment face crumpled slightly. Tears were welling in the downturned corners of her eyes.

I said again, uselessly, ‘I’ll phone you all the time, to see how you’re doing.’

I had the minicab booked to pick me up at six in the morning. I didn’t plan to go to bed. Phyllis wouldn’t go to bed either, although I sort of wished she would. She said she’d keep me company while I was packing.

She got some of my things down from the wee loft cupboard, where she had put them. I didn’t have that many clothes: I bundled them all into one suitcase. Phyllis took them out again and folded them up into rectangles, meticulously laying them flat.

Then I started hauling out my books, choosing which ones to leave, which to take. I had to leave Strange Stories and Amazing Facts behind, on the grounds of its weight. Pity. I didn’t feel unhappy during the packing. I felt as though all the messy foliage of my life was being pruned into a clear, clean shape, the tidy form of two medium-sized suitcases.

At three in the morning, Phyllis went off to bed. She set her alarm and said she’d get up in two and a half hours, to make me tea before I went off.