‘I’m not like that,’ she said, just so he didn’t get ideas, but he told her he knew that and that she was pretty. And could she sit, like that. Yes, perfect. He positioned her sitting on the edge of the upturned boat and she turned to him in what she thought was quite a jaunty way, and pouted a bit like the girls on the front of Life magazine did. He smiled and she returned it and he held up his hands in the shape of a rectangle. It was nice to have the attention. She’d have to watch this one, though. He was a sly one.

‘I’ll bring my camera for real next time,’ he said.

5.

Much as he wanted a day trip to Norwich with Jack on his own, Peter knew Arthur wouldn’t forgive him if they went without him. He was his oldest and most loyal friend. He’d stood by him when all that bother at the school happened and after his mother died. Jack wanted to take photographs of the city and he had to get some developed. He turned up at the station with a chunky camera round his neck that made him look like a Hollywood press man. The day was overcast and bitterly cold, but as they chugged through the empty fields, Peter was certain it would somehow be different in the city. It was a boys’ outing, a jaunt, each of them somehow with a sheen of glamour, in the anonymity of the train carriage. Jack, geed up at the idea of going to the city, was impossibly appealing with his scarred face and bright hair. Peter thought they probably made a funny-looking threesome – he with his tweed suit, Arthur wrapped up in his service greatcoat, looking rather like a throwback from the war, and Jack, altogether more modern, in his leather jacket. They drank steadily from hip flasks which they shared with Arthur, each of them matching the others shot for shot.

‘To adventures in the city!’ Jack raised his flask in a toast.

As the journey neared its end, Peter’s body leaned closer to Jack’s and he wished now that he hadn’t asked Arthur along after all.

They arrived in a cloud of steam and the three of them stood in the middle of the station as the flow of people eddied around them. Peter was confused momentarily by the dimness of the light, the hoots of the trains, the scuffle of feet and the continual movement. His head hurt and his mouth was dry.

‘Where on earth have we ended up?’ said Jack. ‘The goddamn underworld? Can we get out of here and get some air?’