After his retirement, Alexander showed signs of how his early years on the island had affected him. He would spend days at the town’s infill site, seeing gulls skirl above debris. Sometimes, he’d watch a DVD of Hitchcock’s The Birds, smiling as wings smashed windows and windscreens, terrifying school-children with their swoop.
‘The day is coming,’ he’d say.
But what horrified his wife most was the morning she opened the freezer. Seabirds, wrapped in plastic, were stacked upon its shelves. Icy beaks and heads glittered. Frozen feathers sparkled.
‘Best to be prepared,’ he explained.