‘Or trains, for that matter. It’s not a hobby, but I suppose I’ve come to resent paying a lot of money for a cup of undrinkable coffee. The kind that… you know, if you were blindfolded, you’d genuinely wonder what it was in the cup. It’s incredible how easy people find it to make bad coffee, and I don’t know if it’s because they don’t use enough, or if the blend is a… a cheap one. I think you can store it for too long, of course – that’s when it just goes stale. I used to work for the council, and you had to make sure it was fresh, because if you didn’t use it up, you really noticed the difference. In the quality, I mean.’

‘I don’t drink it,’ said the woman.

‘You’re more of a tea person, are you?’

‘A what, sorry?’

‘You’re more into teas, are you? If you want a hot drink, you prefer tea.’

‘I don’t drink tea, either. I cut out all caffeinated drinks a few years ago, and I feel much better for it.’

‘Good for you. I keep meaning to, or trying to.’

‘It’s blood pressure.’

‘Yes, that’s the worry. That is the worry. I went for one of those Health MOTs a little while ago – they were organising them through my local library. They said that my chief weakness, or… vulnerability, I should say, was blood pressure. If I could work to get the blood pressure down a bit, then… I’d have got the MOT, so to speak. They don’t give you a certificate as such, it’s just a printout and you can take it along to your GP if you want to follow anything up. A free service – I thought it was a really good idea.’

The woman nodded, but said nothing.

Michael remembered the young man who had interviewed him, though it hadn’t actually been ‘a little while ago’ – it had been seven months previously, in February – just before Valentine’s Day. A section of the library had been cordoned off, and there were two chairs and a small table. The man conducting the interview had been almost half his age – no more than twenty-five – and he was a fitness instructor on loan from the leisure centre, with the loveliest manners. The whole thing had taken less than an hour. In that time Michael had learned that the man had only recently changed jobs, having worked before in a department store, selling beds – a role that hadn’t suited him at all. He’d become increasingly frustrated.

Michael went to speak again, but the woman was pressing the little headphones back into her ears.

He closed his mouth, and thought about Javed.