The meanest Flood

carrying. But if we go up to them and tell them that everything they saw before was an illusion, and that now they’ve been unchained they can see things clearer, what d’you think they’ll say?’
    ‘It’s your story, Geordie.’
    ‘When they look at the people on the stage and the things they’re carrying and we ask for their names, what’d happen would be they’d look back at the shadows and for a while they’d still think that the shadows were the reality. They’d believe that the shadows were more true than the objects.’
    Sam took his foot off the table and placed it tentatively on the floor. ‘This is the power of myth and allegory,’ he said. ‘It forces you to get up out of your chair.’
    ‘I haven’t finished yet,’ Geordie told him. ‘Hold your horses. Next thing is we take this guy, the one who has been chained up, and we drag him out of the cave into the sunlight.’
    ‘There’s only one of them now,’ Sam said. ‘When we started, there were six or seven of them. We didn’t think they were all guys, we thought maybe some of them were women. Suddenly we’ve only got one guy. What happened to the rest?’
    ‘This guy is a representative. He stands for all the rest.’
    ‘The women as well. He stands for the women?’
    ‘Yeah. Just listen, Sam. I’m gonna finish the story. If you keep interrupting it’s gonna take longer than long. We could be here all night.’
    ‘All right, get on with it. The representative guy’s been dragged up into the sunlight.’
    ‘OK, so what’ll he see?’
    ‘He won’t see anything. He’ll be blinded by the light. He’ll think he’s in Hell, he won’t understand why we’re torturing him like this.’
    ‘Yeah. But after a while his eyes’ll get accustomed to the light, he’ll see outlines and then he’ll see reality. This is what we have to do to escape from the shadow world of appearances.’
    ‘Shrug off our chains?’ Sam said. ‘And strive for the sun? Sounds like a pop song, Moody Blues, someone like that.’
    ‘This’s Plato,’ Geordie told him. ‘Real philosophy.’
    ‘Yeah, what do I know?’ Sam said. ‘Long time since I came out of the cave but I still see shadows everywhere. Some of the realities you meet in the sunlight aren’t as convincing as the shadows back in the cave.’
    Geordie scratched his head. ‘It’s got to be better, though, Sam. The more you see, the clearer it all becomes.’
    Sam rested his chin on his hand. ‘Trouble with Plato, guys like that, they give us the impression we can see for miles. The truth is that everything starts to get hazy after a few centimetres, and by the time we’ve seen half a metre we need a white stick or a guide dog.’
    ‘This guy kicking you in the nuts,’ Geordie said, ‘it’s changed the direction of your life. You’re entering a deeply philosophical stage, could end up writing books like Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, one of those.’
    Sam watched as Echo came toddling back to her father; Barney, as ever, bringing up the rear. ‘He was wearing leather trousers,’ Sam said.
    ‘The guy who put you down?’
    ‘Yeah. I ask you, what kind of guy wears leather trousers?’
    ‘I’ve seen Britney Spears wear ’em. Geri Halliwell, Elizabeth Hurley. But you see what I mean?’ Geordie said. ‘Questions, questions. Your mind’s working differently. You’re a thinker. You’ve become pensive.’
     

13
     
    He was a beautiful man, there was no doubt about it. Even at midnight, after sitting outside his house for four hours, Marilyn could see him as nothing less than beautiful. He stopped at a traffic light on the outskirts of York and Marilyn, in her mother’s car, drew up alongside and glanced over at him.
    Bathed in red from the stop light he had a long face with a prominent chin, deep brown eyes, and hair that was turning silver around his temples. On the passenger seat next to him was a brimmed hat in felt, possibly a trilby or a Borsalino. Marilyn didn’t know the difference, maybe something to do with the width of the brim?
    He pretended not to notice her but Marilyn smiled. She wasn’t going to fall for that old trick. This was a man who had gazed down on a capacity audience in the theatre and picked her face from all the other hopefuls sitting there with their fingers crossed. A magician who had cast a spell on her, enchanted her so that she was his to command. He was a woman’s man. A man who attracted women. She’d have to watch him.
    After