‘A cheese sandwich would be great.’

She buttered bread.

‘I’m going to sit on the sofa with my feet up. My doctor thinks I ought to be in bed and that’s the next best thing. “Rest,” he keeps saying to me. “Rest, rest.” I could strangle him. I get so bored resting and I get so tired doing things. Of course none of that is his fault. Pour it out, there’s a good chap.’

‘What’s the matter with you? If you don’t mind my asking.’

‘No. I don’t.’ She put a couple of chunks of cheese onto the bread and then pushed it across the table towards him. She flopped down onto the sofa and lay back among the cushions for a moment, closing her eyes and looking, he thought, shocking awful.

‘I’ve had all my insides out. All the important bits, I mean. I am no longer to all intents and purposes a woman. Just a thing walking round the world. A useless empty bag of some sort.’

‘You look like a woman to me.’

She opened her eyes and looked at him.

‘A bit tired,’ he said, ‘but definitely a woman. Who but a woman would try and get pictures from a TV without turning on the power first?’

He handed her a glass of wine.

‘Thanks. My name is Clara, by the way. I wasn’t going to tell you, but then I thought, Why the hell not?’

She reached out and took a piece of cheese which she began to chew carefully. ‘Are you sure we’re on the right channel? I don’t want to miss a second.’

‘Laurence McGrane.’

‘Laurence McGrane.’ She mimicked his North Antrim accent.

‘And we are on the right channel.’

De spring is sprung, de grass is ris.

I wonder where de flowers is?

De boid is on de wing,

But dat’s absoid,

How can de boid be on de wing?

De wing is on de boid.

Why do such silly things wake me?

Why is that silly piece of doggerel leaping in my head? Why not the more salubrious Der Frühling will kommen, der Frühling meine Freud’?

The sun is trying to push its way through the clouds. I can see that with my eyes half open.

My mother will ring me soon. ‘I hope I didn’t wake you, darling?’

‘Of course not,’ I will say. ‘I have been up for ages.’

She will know that to be untrue, but she will make no comment.

Morse was mediocre. That happens sometimes; too full of slightly pointless convolutions. Not that that bothered the man, Laurence, Larry or Lar. He fell asleep quite fast, round about the middle of the first episode. He never stirred during the first commercial break when I went to get myself a glass of water. He looked as he leaned back into the chair like a man who hadn’t had a good sleep in front of a television set for a long time. I felt quite disturbed for him.