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Austin was fighting his way to the pound shop to see if they had soood for Darny to wear to a fancy-dress party – he’d like to buy him that Spiderman costume with the muscles he really wanted, but when he’d paid for after-school care plus the htlessly not paid off before they died, plus the day-to-day living expenses, plus the late fees on all the bills he always e, there was precious little left, and there see pricey as Darny rarely ca (He had horrified a putative girlfriend of Austin’s a few years ago by answering the question, ‘What do you like doing?’ with ‘Fighting!’ Then he had jumped on her and pummelled her to show exactly what he meant Austin hadn’t seen much of Julia after that) As he’d nearlyby the Wait sign but not crossing

‘Hello,’ he said Issy looked up at hilad to see a friendly face But she didn’t trust herself to speak, in case she suddenly broke down

‘Hello,’ Austin said again, worried she hadn’t recognized hi in front of her bank inable

‘U not to tru taller than everyone around hi to make a real effort to peer down and check out people’s faces, and he didn’t like to look as if he were staring On the other hand, she sounded really weird He looked into her face Her eyes were shiny and her nose was red In Darny, that was rarely a good sign

‘Are you all right?’ he said Issy wished he didn’t sound so kind He was going to set her off again Austin could see quite a lot of restraining going on He put a hand on her shoulder ‘Would you like to get a coffee somewhere?’

He cursed the words as soon as they were out of his ed not to actually burst into tears, but one lone drop did trickle slowly and obviously all the way down her cheek

‘No, no, no, of course you wouldn’t … of course not Uo, they ended up in a horrible pub, full of ed the scum off the top with a spoon, and Austin looked around nervously then ordered a Fanta

‘I’m sorry,’ said Issy several tiret this – she ended up telling hi He was just so easy to talk to Austin winced

‘And now I’ to start crying again, ‘you’re going to think I’ to think I’ll fail, and you know, itup on me … it’ll be like the mafia, Austin! I’ll have to pay protection money, and they’ll come round and put a horse’s head in etarians,’ said Austin, draining his Fanta and spilling soulped and tried a tentative smile

‘You’ve spilled some of your drink,’ she pointed out

‘I know,’ said Austin, ‘but I look stupid when I use a straw’

He leaned forward Issy was conscious, suddenly, of how long his eyelashes were Having his face so close to hers suddenly felt strange and intiuys up there They ca and then we pointed out to the isn’t terribly ethical and that we couldn’t absolutely promise that so as it is, you know, Britain’s biggest industry, and they screamed and called us all fascists and stormed out and then called us back later and asked for a loan And there were about sixteen of them too Their business plan included the four-hour weeklythey have to make the co-operative fair Apparently it frequently ends up in physical violence’

Issy s to cheer her up – he would do this for anybody – but nonetheless it was definitely helping

‘And don’t you worry a bit about "café solidarity" They all hate each other’s guts on that street Honestly, if one of the cafés burned down they’d be absolutely delighted So don’t think they’re all going to gang up against you, they can’t evenup to clean their own toilet, as I noticed when I had to take Darny in there one day in an ean food’

Issy laughed

‘That’s better’