‘Take a moment to look around you,’ they cried. ‘Take extra care in wet weather. Wear a coat. Are your mittens on? What about your medication? Don’t get down until we let you – wait, please! The onboard supervisor wants to dry your eyes and hold you for a moment, because you’re important – your safety is important. If you see something suspicious or wrong then please report it. Text us, phone or simply wave your arms…’

Michael smiled, and pressed his nose to the glass.

Some kind of gantry was coming into view, and he could see the engine rolling under it. The track curved, and the next two carriages appeared, then the third. The driver sounded his horn, and Michael saw why: a gang of orange-suited workers were standing off to the side, resting. When he came abreast of them, he noticed one was a woman, and she was staring right at him. He lifted a hand and waved, and she continued to stare, as if he was invisible to her, or insane. Then she nodded and looked away.

He stood back and felt better. Now was the moment to drink, so he knelt down and poured himself a half-glass of whisky. Amy came to mind again as he sipped it, for marrying her would have changed his life – and he might be standing with her now, or sitting down with magazines and papers. They would be looking at puzzles together, and he would have a role.

‘You okay, love?’

‘I’m fine. How are you?’

‘Fine.’

They would confide in each other, except he could never confide anything worth confiding. They wouldn’t be here, though. He would be back at her home, doing something in the garden perhaps. The evening would come at last and they would find themselves on the sofa doing what everyone did: they would be watching television. The television connected to the DVD player, which connected to the World Wide Web as well as the Sky box, so all they had to do was call up a menu of movies, documentaries and sports fixtures that made choosing anything impossible. The screen was hideously big, and the sound system involved speakers in every corner, large and small: they had chosen it together in a store where you walked down aisles of televisions, all showing shoals of fish. Shoals of fish seemed to illustrate the phenomenal quality of the multi-pixilated picture, and the colours had made Michael feel drab.