START
Toby looked down at the forecourt and said, ‘I saw your boyfriend Johnny, today.’
Sarah nodded. She’d seen him, too.
Sarah called him Johnny Ryall and told people Johnny was her boyfriend, but she didn’t know him. No one knew him. He was a bum. People would see Johnny on campus, sitting on the lawn in his busted jacket, drinking from a ragged takeaway cup, and most assumed he was an older academic — someone from mathematics — but Sarah never saw him at meetings or in class or at the staff club. Instead, Johnny milled around. The only person Sarah ever saw him talk to was a female gardener.
‘You know, he looks more like a Charles or a Chuck to me,’ said Toby.
‘No. He’s definitely a John. I’m the only one who calls him Johnny,’ said Sarah.
‘I wonder where he sleeps?’
‘At home with me. You’ve been to my apartment,’ she said.
Across the lunchroom, Angela put down her book. ‘I think it’s a bit cruel, the way you talk about him,’ she said. This was Angela entirely. Her true scholarly skill was the ability to remain totally unnoticed in a room until the opportunity arose to take someone down a notch.
Toby said, ‘Angela, I don’t think that’s a nice thing to say about Sarah. She’s nobody’s ideal partner, but I wouldn’t call her cruel.’
‘Not at all. I’m very good to Johnny Ryall,’ said Sarah.
Angela turned back to her book. She didn’t know Johnny either but he’d once rolled her a cigarette down by the ferry terminal. There, in the afternoon glow, Johnny Ryall reminded her of her father.
END
— IAIN
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