10

I lay in bed thinking about what had happened.

Jim was not a homosexual. If he had been, it would have been noticed and he would have been kept away from me. It was just loneliness and beer. Anyone could have had such a fit. He was only a poor old man. He would not do it again. It would soon be forgotten.

I said to myself, ‘He said that I was a girl.’ I put out my hand and took hold of the rail at the top of the bed. I smiled to myself in the darkness.