I found a photo of José Ivan on the internet. It had been taken two weeks after his landing. The man’s hair is short again and his beard has been shaved off. His skin is blotchy and seems to have peeled off in places. The expression in his eyes is joyless. And, Mr MacKay, guess what José Ivan says, according to the caption? ‘I just want to be left in peace.’

Wishing you a good winter.
Annu

Dear Mrs Heiskanen,

I laughed a lot, reading José Ivan’s story. The man drifts at sea for almost a year and a half, on his own, mostly, not knowing if he’ll ever make it ashore alive, and when he’s finally rescued, he says, ‘I just want to be left in peace’!

As for everyday life, only you can do it. You and I, we know it’s all make-believe. But it’s still not worth giving up on altogether. That’s what I think. Every day I go to my boat, though I know it’s not really important. Then again, what else have I got? If I weren’t fishing, what else would there be?

Best wishes,
Hamish M.

My friend Mr MacKay,

Thank you for your latest letter; it was a great help to me. The very next morning I went to my workshop, tidied up and set to work. I started simply: pot holders! They are nicely rectangular, clear in every way. (Find one enclosed within.) A rectangle is a pleasant shape, isn’t it? Anything you can contain within four corners is clear. A little like the frame of a painting. In fact, all the things I make – carpets, wall hangings, pictures, pot holders – are rectangular. Now that I think of it, the rectangle is my favourite shape of all time.

My niece plays at murder mysteries. She appears to be obsessed with the business of bodies. Lately she has been asking me to draw a line round her. She lies down on the floor, sprawls there as if she has just been stabbed in the back and demands I draw round her with chalk. It is really important to her that the line is unbroken and reflects her actual size. Then she stands up, examines the figure, walks to the other end of the room and dies again. Our library upstairs is currently littered with bodies.

Annu

PS the story I am sending this time is from a newspaper. You might think it is not relevant but I could not get it out of my mind. Not so much what happened, but why.

A WRESTLING MATCH

Jürgen fell out with his school friends. The boys started wrestling, and Jürgen lost. He was annoyed but went with his friends to a bar. Then he decided to leave, and ran home. He grabbed his father’s guns and returned to the town centre on his scooter.