Chapter 40
Bernard Cottle finishes the Codeword puzzle in the Express and puts his pen back in the pocket of his jacket. It is beautiful up here this morning. On the bench, on the hill. Too beautiful, a cruel trick played on those not still here to see it.
He had seen Joyce and her friends driving off somewhere this morning. How happy they had looked. But, then, Joyce seems to make everyone happy.
Bernard knows he has gone too far inside himself, knows he is out of reach, even to Joyce. He is not going to be saved, and he doesn’t deserve to be saved.
Still, what he wouldn’t give to be in that car right now, looking out at the view as Joyce nattered away, perhaps picking the loose thread from the cuff of his jacket.
But instead he will stay here, on the hill, where he sits every day, and waits for what’s to come.