Trafika Europe 9/10 - UK in Europe

two crimestories

university. This sentence, tweaked for context, was trotted out each time anything supernatural came up, and I always laughed accordingly. “The poor old man should have been checked out,” she claimed. “But he was harmless,” I objected. “I mean, who cares if someone comes into a pub and orders a pint for an invisible friend?” “I don’t know,” Sam replied. “Someone should have done something. His son, for example. They could have run some neurological tests on him. It’s not alright for an old man to run around, talking to sprites.” I explained that this had been going on for

years and nothing had happened. “The odds that nothing bad would happen were extremely low, but it wasn’t impossible. Most people would call that luck,” Sam concluded. “What could have happened?” I asked. “Well, a breakdown of some kind. His sprite might have told him to kill somebody. Or himself.” “But he didn’t.” “Pure luck,” Samrepeated. We made off to get together that weekend, and I took the rubbish out. I really missed the old man. I hadn’t known him well, but I still missed his friendly grin, his watchful gray eyes, his wrinkled face. I glanced up at the

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