Page 15 of A Long Way Back
“You clearly need to think about it.” Tay raised his eyebrows.
“I’m just wondering if you’ve picked interview questions off the internet.What’s your opinion of weathervanes? You’ve been given a tiger. You can’t sell it or give it away. What would you do with it? How would you handle someone who wants to destroy you?”
“And what are your answers?”
Shit.“I can tell wind direction without a weathervane. I’d loan the tiger to a zoo until I could raise money to send it back to where it came from. If someone wants to destroy me, I’d run and not stop. And I’ve never killed anyone. Not directly anyway. That I’m aware of.”
“What does that mean?”
“Who’s to know what effect your actions have once you’ve moved on? Isn’t it the chaos theory thing? I mean, I might have smiled at some guy on the street and offered him a coffee and a sausage roll, and eventually he smiled back, but his jealous ex saw the exchange and decided to teach him a lesson, and once I’d gone, he thumped him and someone came to his defence, but that guy ended up getting pushed over, hit his head on a metal bench, and died later in hospital. I’d probably never have known.”
“Trying to give me a plot for a book?”
“You’d have to be desperate to use that.”
“Have you read any of my books?”
Ink wouldn’t risk a lie. Too easy to get caught out. “No.”
“Do you read?”
Twat.“I just finished a Mr Men book last week. Mr Annoying. Next one on my list is Mr Arsehole. Not sure whether to buy Mr Dickhead or not.”
Was that a laugh?
“I haven’t written any books,” Tay said.
Ink bristled. “So that was a test. Did I pass?”
“Two guys said they’d heard of me.”
Ink huffed.
“Do you always tell the truth?”
“No. And yes.”
Tay chuckled. “What jobs have you done?”
“Farmhand. Among many other things.”
“And that qualifies you to be my live-in…support worker?”
“I know just what to do if a lamb gets stuck in your birthing canal. Well no, that’s not quite true. I know when to call the vet.”
That was definitely a laugh.
“Can you cook?”
“Simple stuff, yes.” They’d taught him, though he’d not had the chance to cook for ages.
“Do you have any annoying habits?”
“Probably.”
“Such as? Like to share a few?”
“Not really. Everyone has annoying habits, but not everyone finds them annoying.”Did that make sense?
