Page 113 - What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

checking her pupils, and they both wanted to come over to the flat and verify her

experience. Lena was most intrigued by the wall clocks
(“They all read twelve-thirty? Did you hear them ticking?
“Come to think of it, no—no ticking.”)
and Sam wondered about the cold.
“Talk to Jacob . . . maybe he’ll test the next phase on you two . . .” They said
they’d like that. She didn’t think she’d told them anything that made Presence
seem like good fun, so it was most likely that they were just being supportive.

Sam gave her a pouchful of Assam leaves: “Let me know what you think . . .”
On the way home she stopped at a supermarket and bought winter groceries.
Lemsip, hot chocolate, ingredients for soup and for hot toddies. She put it all
through self-checkout so she wouldn’t have to make any small talk about
summer colds. Then, wondering how Jacob was doing, she checked their joint

account and saw that he’d made a card payment at a Waitrose about an hour ago,
for more or less the same amount as she’d just spent. She wouldn’t mention this
in her notes; it was cheating. She shouldn’t be able to guess whether or not he
was cold too.
—

SHE’D FORGOTTEN to lock the front door. Just like waking up at twelve-thirty, it’d

been years since she’d last done that. People told horror stories about Catford but
she would’ve been more worried about going in if it was the Holland Park front
door she’d forgotten to lock. The stakes were higher over there. She dumped her
shopping bags in the kitchen and went back to the front door, locking it behind
her with exaggerated care. Jacob came out of the room filled with puppet stages
and looked around him, nodding. “Not bad,” he said. According to the clock just

above his head it was still twelve-thirty. He took a step toward her and she took
a step back.
“What are you doing here?”
“Why are you shivering?” he asked back.
“Er, because it’s bloody cold in here?”
He held out his hand for her to touch; he was warm, and she closed both her
hands around his palm. He winced, removed his hand from hers, and brought her

two more jumpers to put on. He didn’t need to be told where to find the jumpers.
She went back into the kitchen, found her notepad, and made a note of that. Then
she put the kettle on, and Jacob asked if he should do the same with the central
heating.