He heard Pansy’s bark in the distance.

‘Just standing there. I do that quite a lot. I listen.’

He saw the dog galloping towards him across the grass with some small child’s ball in her mouth.

‘To music.’

‘Great. That’s great,’ he said, his eyes and his mind on Pansy and the possibility of an angry mother.

‘So I wasn’t … Is that Pansy?’

He nodded. The dog stopped about six feet away from him and wagged her tail. She carefully put the ball on the ground between her feet and looked down at it and then up at him. It was a red ball. It looked quite new.

‘That’s a good girl,’ he said experimentally, and bent down to take the ball.

Quick as a flash she picked it up and moved away out of reach. She put the ball on the ground again and then sat beside it, tempting him to try again.

He did. She moved again. She gave a little bark. Laurence was aware of the woman’s amused face.

‘Pansy, please,’ he said. He turned towards the woman. ‘It’s not her ball.’

‘It is now.’

‘Pansy!’ Her tail thumped.

He took another little step; she retreated. Her eyes shone.

‘Do you have to stand there and watch me?’ he said irritably to the woman. ‘You’re making me feel very foolish.’

She put her hand into the pocket of her coat and took out a paper bag. Pansy once more evaded his grasping hand. A grey cloud blew in front of the sun.

‘It’s going to rain,’ said the woman. ‘Rain was forecast for this afternoon.’

‘Why don’t you go home, or …?’

Pansy barked again.

Across the other side of the grass, women were gathering their children, perturbed by the signals in the sky.

‘Or?’

‘Well, at least go somewhere else.’

‘I’m enjoying this. I don’t get much entertainment at the moment. Who wins, dumb animal or …?’

‘Dumb human?’

‘You said it.’

She put her hand into the paper bag and took out a shortbread biscuit. She held it out towards him. ‘Here?’

He shook his head.

‘No thanks.’

‘It’s not for you, dumb human. It’s …’

‘Bribery?’

‘Top of the class.’

A large raindrop burst on the side of his face.

Pansy barked.

The women were scurrying now for the shelter of the trees.

He took the biscuit from her. It looked really good, homemade, like his mother might make. He bent forward towards Pansy, holding the biscuit out.

‘Good girl,’ he said. ‘Biccy.’

She left the ball unprotected and moved towards him. She sniffed like a connoisseur at the biscuit and then took it gently from his fingers.

‘It’s all quite simple really,’ said the bloody know-all woman.

Laurence picked up the ball and looked at it. It was slimy and the air was seeping out of it through a hole made by Pansy’s teeth.

‘Oh God,’ he said in disgust. He walked across the path and dropped the ball into a dustbin and then wiped his fingers on his trouser leg. ‘You are a disgrace to doghood.’