Three to See the King

would have been no use at all. Actually, I knew nothing either, but I assumed it would be fairly straightforward.
    Mary Petrie saw us off after breakfast, and said she might have a walk across later to see how we were getting on. Meanwhile, she’d have some space to herself, which would be an agreeable change for her. By now I was pleased to see that Simon was getting some of his bounce back, and as we approached his place we shared a general feeling of optimism.
    This disappeared the moment we saw the enormity of the job. I had expected it to be quite obvious which piece went where, but when we were confronted by that huge pile of tin I was frankly dumbfounded. How were we supposed to tell the roof from the walls, the back from the front, and so on? The only readily identifiable parts were the door, the shutters and the chimney, which had been carefully set to one side.
    ‘Considerate of someone,’ I remarked, as we stood surveying the ruins. They’ve even folded up your balloon.’
    There didn’t seem to be any malice attached to the dismantling of Simon Painter’s house. I mean to say, anybody who wished to destroy it would have been better off using dynamite. Instead they’d simply taken it to pieces and left it in a heap. There was a separate stack which turned out to be all his worldly goods, neatly bundled together so as not to come to any harm.
    ‘You didn’t leave the door locked then?’ I asked in passing.
    ‘Of course not,’ replied Simon. There was no need … normally.’
    I could see he was quite upset, so I decided the best thing would be to get started immediately, in order to keep his mind occupied.
    Where to begin, though? It was like attempting to solve a jigsaw puzzle that had come in a box without an illustration on the lid.
    ‘We should have brought that picture you gave me,’ I said. ‘You haven’t got another one anywhere have you?’
    ‘There’s one on the bedroom wall.’
    ‘Well,’ I said. ‘At least that’s a clue: we’ll start there.’
    I approached the pile of tin and began going through it in search of the piece with the picture attached. Deep inside, though, it felt like a hopeless task. Even if we did find part of his bedroom wall, how on earth were we going to build the rest of the house around it?
    ‘I’m sorry I can’t offer you a coffee,’ said Simon. The stove won’t work without the chimney.’
    ‘Not to worry,’ I replied. ‘What about lighting a fire out in the open? That’ll cheer us up a bit.’
    ‘No fuel,’ he said. ‘I’ve spent so much time at Michael’s lately that it’s completely run down.’
    ‘Blimey, you have got it bad haven’t you?’
    ‘Suppose so.’
    ‘Hello,’ I said. ‘Here comes the cavalry.’
    There were two figures moving towards us in the distance, and as they drew nearer I recognized Steve and Philip. Then all at once they started running.
    ‘Don’t touch the tin!’ shouted Steve, as soon as he was close enough. ‘Each piece is specially marked!’
    ‘Alright!’ I called back. ‘We’ve only moved a few!’
    They dashed up and began manhandling the pile until it was more or less back to how it had been before. Meanwhile, Simon stood and watched them in stunned silence.
    ‘ This and this are right,’ said Steve as he attended to the last pieces. ‘But that has to be put on top of there.’ He and Philip heaved a long section of tin onto the pile, then turned and looked at Simon with an air of satisfaction.
    ‘Righto,’ announced Steve. ‘You’re all ready to get moving.’
    ‘Moving where?’ Simon asked.
    ‘Towards Michael Hawkins’s, of course.’
    ‘You mean move my house there?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Oh … I see.’
    Simon’s reaction was interesting, because instead of exploding with rage at Steve and Philip’s audacity, he just stood there blinking as the idea sunk in.
    ‘Is this the “encouragement” you were talking about the other day?’ I asked. ‘A “bit of a push”?’
    ‘Yep,’ said Steve.
    ‘And you never thought to consult Simon first?’
    ‘Nope.’
    1 suppose we should have really,’ remarked Philip. ‘When you come to think about it.’
    ‘No, it’s alright,’ said Simon, suddenly breaking his silence. ‘It’s a marvellous thing you’ve done, setting me on a path I should have taken a long while ago. Thank you both! Yes, I will move. I’ll build my house within a mile of Michael.’
    At this moment I thought it wise not to set forth my own opinion on the