Friday, November 13/2015

At the Starbucks office. Bearded middle aged man at the next table must be waiting for a train. Has a large Lenovo laptop and a suitcase which serves as a dressing case. He stands up, extracts  a deodorant and inserts it inside his jacket to spray his armpits. The black case has not supplied socks, though. He's well provided for otherwise as well. No sign of coffee or other Starbucks purchases, but he does have a tin of energy drink (first taken by us for beer) in progress and the empties - a second tin plus a two litre club soda bottle - beside him on the bench. He spends some time copying from from the laptop screen, using permanent black marker and producing letters large and unformed enough for a ransom note. Am fairly skilled at reading upside down but decency (only just) forbids. Same inconvenient code of behaviour prevents taking of much desired photograph.