The Chemickal Marriage

so here I will stay, at least for a time, waiting to go home.’
    ‘Do you
want
to go home?’ asked Chang.
    ‘Not in the slightest,’ said Svenson. ‘That being the rub. Ah well.’
    The Doctor stood and collected his greatcoat and peaked cap. Far too quickly and with a disturbing ease, he shook hands with Chang and bent down to embrace Miss Temple.
    ‘I will never forget,’ she whispered.
    ‘Nor I.’
    He squeezed her tight and shook hands a second time with Chang. The low cabin door closed and his boots echoed down the passage. Miss Templestared after him, as if she could see through the wood. Chang held out his hand. She took it and dug her nails into his palm.
    Cunsher waited unobtrusively amongst the draymen, around the first corner. He fell in step with the Doctor, refusing a cigarette with a shake of his head. Once Svenson had tossed away the match, Cunsher passed him a slip of paper.
    ‘Passage booked to Cadiz,’ he said, ‘sailing in two days.’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    ‘There cannot be so many ladies thus disfigured.’
    Svenson studied the address of the rooming house: inexpensive and near the riverside, and therefore thronged with the displaced, and – so many of those displaced having been injured – all but anonymous. It was possible. Cunsher coughed discreetly.
    ‘Mr Foison might supply some fellows, if asked – his recent willingness –’
    ‘No, thank you. I am in your debt. All the more if this remains between ourselves.’
    ‘Of course.’
    They reached the end of the lane and stopped, for Svenson would proceed alone.
    ‘How will I know you have returned?’ asked Cunsher.
    ‘You won’t. One way or another, you see, it’s quite impossible.’ Doctor Svenson sighed and clapped Cunsher on the shoulder. ‘But there’s an end to everything, my friend. And then – somehow, somewhere – going on.’

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Acknowledgements
    An ending unravels as much as it knits. This book is indebted to the following, and I am grateful for the chance to thank them:
    Ace (PS), Liz Duffy Adams, Danny Baror, Venetia Butterfield, Cupcake@Casa, Shannon Dailey, Mindy Elliott, Joe@ 23rd, Joseph Goodrich, David Levine, Todd London, MacDowell Colony, Bill Massey, Honor Molloy, Rachel Neuburger, Suki O’Kane, Donna Poppy, Howard Sanders, Jillian Taylor, Anne Washburn, Mark Worthington, Yaddo, Margaret Young.
    For Anne, after it all.

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