Idiopathy

strains of the evening but from the strains of her life to date. She took out her phone, wrote
SOS, K
, and sent it, along with Daniel’s address, to Keith’s number. It was hit and hope.

    T his time, Daniel took a very different approach to descending the stairs. Where previously he had wanted to convey simmering rage and carefully marshalled argumentative force, he now wanted to communicate a sense of carefree lightness, almost frivolity, as if to make it very clear that he had either completely moved on from the evening’s distressing events or, even better, that those events had failed even to register sufficiently to necessitate him now putting them behind him. If he’d put less thought into it he would have near-skipped down the stairs, but he didn’t want to overdo it, and so trotted lightly from step to step and emerged into the dining room with what he hoped was a perky energy, only to be confronted by an energy that was very much the antithesis of perky.
    ‘Where’s Nathan?’ he asked Katherine, who was slouched moodily at one end of the dining table flicking her cigarette lighter on and off. ‘And what’s burning?’
    ‘Nathan’s gone,’ she said flatly. ‘Nothing’s burning.’
    ‘Gone where?’ Daniel felt a quick, hot wave of panic as he realised it was all over, followed by what would have been relief had it not been tempered by the niggling sense that he had, in some adult and therefore critical way, failed.
    Katherine shrugged. ‘Just gone. Had enough. Said to tell you he was sorry, thanks and everything, but he had to go.’
    Daniel sat down at the opposite end of the table and pulled Nathan’s half-finished beer towards him. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘Shit.’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Katherine.
    ‘Maybe I should call him,’ said Daniel, patting his pockets for his phone.
    ‘I’d maybe give that a few days,’ said Katherine.
    ‘Right,’ said Daniel. ‘Yes, of course.’
    They sat in silence, Daniel continuing the work Nathan had begun on the label of the beer bottle, Katherine continuing to click her lighter on and off. Now that the evening was essentially over, Daniel found he just wanted it to be completely over.
    ‘That’ll be Angelica,’ he said pointlessly as footsteps sounded on the stairs.
    ‘Really?’ said Katherine.
    ‘Oh,’ said Angelica, perching herself on Daniel’s lap and looking around. ‘Where’s Nathan?’
    ‘Gone, apparently,’ said Daniel.
    ‘That’s such a shame.’ Angelica sighed, giving the statement an appropriate moment of concern, then deliberately brightened with a show-must-go-on smile. ‘Katherine. What can we get you to drink?’
    ‘I’m OK – I’m waiting for a lift,’ said Katherine. She mustered what might have passed for a smile, but seemed to give up on it the moment it arose, letting her face drop back in defeat.
    ‘OK,’ said Angelica gently. ‘Well, I’m going to have another cup of tea. So I’ll put the kettle on, and if your friend hasn’t arrived then …’ She made a vague gesture and wandered into the kitchen.
    Katherine stared at Daniel.
    ‘What?’ he said.
    ‘Nothing,’ she said.
    ‘Do, er, do you need any help with that tea, dear?’ Daniel called through to the kitchen.
    ‘No, no,’ said Angelica.
    ‘Right,’ said Daniel.
    ‘You two chat,’ said Angelica.
    ‘Yes Daniel,’ said Katherine. ‘Let’s chat.’
    The doorbell rang. Daniel was out of his seat before the chime had even faded. Angelica came out from the kitchen.
    ‘That’ll be Sebastian,’ she said. ‘I’ll …’
    ‘No,’ said Daniel, already half-running for the door. ‘You make the tea. I’ll, er … I’ll just …’
    He opened the front door. He had never in his life greeted Sebastian with anything even approaching the relief he felt now. All he had to do, he thought, was set Sebastian going. Lead him through, introduce him to Katherine, ask him about the protest, and he’d be off. Katherine’s lift would arrive before Sebastian had even made it through his central ideological precepts.
    Opening the door, however, Daniel quickly felt his plan turn to tatters. Sebastian looked wild-eyed and filmed with sweat. He was shifting from foot to foot in a manner that was more than a little unnerving.
    ‘Sebastian,’ said Daniel. ‘Come in.’
    ‘No time for that,’ said Sebastian. ‘Come out here.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I need to show you something. You’re cool, right?’
    ‘Well, ah, I think so but … Are you sure you