The-man-who-won’t-give-his-name takes Florence Nightingale in his arms and disregards the music. He begins a very slow, gliding waltz. Milligan whispers in Glino’s ear. Glino looks up shyly for a moment, pauses, then begins to play a Strauss waltz.
Finch says, the “Blue Danube”. To no one in particular.
The-man-who-won’t-give-his-name dances beautifully and very proudly. He holds Florence Nightingale slightly away from him, his head is high and cocked to one side. Florence Nightingale whispers something in his ear. He looks down at her and raises his eyebrows. They waltz around and around the kitchen until Finch becomes almost giddy with embarrassment. He thinks, it is like a wedding.
Glino once said (of prisons): “If you’ve ever been inside one of those places you wouldn’t ever want to be inside one again.”
Tonight Finch can see him lying on his bunk in a cell, playing the “Blue Danube” and the albatross and staring at the ceiling. He wonders if it is so very different from that now: they spend their days lying on their beds, afraid to go out because they don’t like the way people look at them.
The dancing finishes and the-man-who-won’t-give-his-name escorts Florence Nightingale to her chair. He is so large, he treats her as if she were wrapped in crinkly cellophane, a gentleman holding flowers.
Milligan earns his own money. He asks Fantoni, why don’t you dance?
Fantoni is leaning against the wall smoking another cigar. He looks at Milligan for a long time until Finch is convinced that Fantoni will punch Milligan.
Finally Fantoni says, I can’t dance.
9.
They all walk up the passage with Florence Nightingale. Approaching the front door she drops an envelope. The envelope spins gently to the floor and everyone walks around it. They stand on the porch and wave goodnight to her as she drives off in her black government car.
Returning to the house Milligan stoops and picks up the envelope. He hands it to Finch and says, for you. Inside the official envelope is a form letter with the letterhead of the Department of Housing. It says, Dear Mr Finch, the department regrets that you are now in arrears with your rent. If this matter is not settled within the statutory seven days you will be required to find other accommodation. It is signed, Nancy Bowlby.
Milligan says, what is it?
Finch says, it’s from Florence Nightingale, about the rent.
Milligan says, seven days?
Finch says, oh, she has a job to do, it’s not her fault.
10.
May has the back room upstairs. Finch is lying in bed in “the new extensions”. He can hear Milligan calling to May.
Milligan says, May?
May says, what is it?
Milligan says, come here.
Their voices, Milligan’s distant, May’s close, seem to exist only inside Finch’s head.
May says, what do you want?
Milligan shouts, I want to tell you something.
May says, no you don’t, you just want me to tuck you in.
Milligan says, no. No, I don’t.
Fantoni’s loud raucous laugh comes from even further away. The-man-who-won’t-give-his-name is knocking on the ceiling of his room with a broom. Finch can hear it going, bump, bump, bump. The Sibelius record jumps. May shouts, quit it.
Milligan says, I want to tell you something.
May shouts, no you don’t.
Finch lies naked on top of the blue sheets and tries to hum the albatross song but he has forgotten it.
Milligan says, come here. May? May, I want to tell you something.
May says, tuck yourself in, you lazy bugger.
Milligan giggles. The giggle floats out into the night.
Fantoni is in helpless laughter.
Milligan says, May?
May’s footsteps echo across the floorboards of his room and cross the corridor to Milligan’s room. Finch hears Milligan’s laughter and hears May’s footsteps returning to May’s room.
Fantoni shouts, what did he want?
May says, he wanted to be tucked in.
Fantoni laughs. May turns up the Sibelius record. The-man-who-won’t-give-his-name knocks on the ceiling with a broom. The record jumps.
11.
It is 4 a.m. and not yet light. No one can see them. As May and Finch leave the house a black government car draws away from the kerb but, although both of them see it, neither mentions it.
At 4 a.m. it is cool and pleasant to walk through the waste lands surrounding the house. There are one or two lights on in the big blocks of flats, but everyone seems to be asleep.
They walk slowly, picking their way through the thistles.
Finally May says, you were crazy.
Finch says, I know.
They walk for a long time. Finch wonders why the thistles grow in these parts, why they are sad, why they only grow where the ground has been disturbed, and wonders where they grew originally.
He says, do they make you sad?
May says, what?
He says, the thistles.
May doesn’t answer. Finally he says, you were crazy to mention it. He’ll really do it. He’ll really do it.
Finch stubs his toe on a large block of concrete. The pain seems deserved. He says, it didn’t enter my mind — that he’d think of Nancy.
May says, he’ll really do it. He’ll bloody well eat her. Christ, you know what he’s like.
Finch says, I know, but I didn’t mention Nancy, just the statue.
May wraps his overcoat around himself and draws his head down into it. He says, he looks evil, he likes being fat.
Finch says, that’s reasonable.
May says, I can still remember what it was like being thin. Did I tell you, I was only six, but I can remember it like it was yesterday. Jesus it was nice. Although I don’t suppose I appreciated it at the time.
Finch says, shut up.
May says, he’s still trying to blow up that bloody statue and he’ll get caught. Probably blow himself up. Then we’ll be the ones that have to pinch everything. And we’ll get caught, or we’ll starve more like it.
Finch says, help him get some dynamite and then dob him in to the cops. While he’s in jail he couldn’t eat Florence Nightingale.
May says, and we wouldn’t eat anything. I wouldn’t mind so much if he just wanted to screw her. I wouldn’t mind screwing her myself.
Finch says, maybe he is. Already.
May pulls his overcoat tightly around himself and says, no, it’s whatshisname, the big guy, that’s who’s screwing her. Did you see them dancing? It’s him.
Finch says, I like him.
May says nothing. They have come near a main road and they wordlessly turn back, keeping away from the streetlights, returning to the thistles.
Finch says, it was Nancy’s idea. She said why don’t we eat the statue.
May says, you told me already. You were nuts. She was nuts too but she was only joking. You should have known that he’s serious about everything. He really wants to blow up everything, not just the fucking statue.
Finch says, he’s a fascist.
May says, what’s a fascist?
Finch says, like Danko … like General Kooper … like Fantoni. He’s going to dig a hole in the backyard. He calls it the barbecue.
12.
In another two hours Finch will have earned enough money for the rent. Fantoni is paying him by the hour. In another two hours he will be clear and then he’ll stop. He hopes there is still two hours’ work. They are digging a hole among the dock weeds in the backyard. It is a trench like a grave but only three feet deep. He asked Milligan for the money but Milligan had already lent money to Glino and May.
Fantoni is wearing a pair of May’s trousers so he won’t get his own dirty. He is stripped to the waist and working with a mattock. Finch clears the earth Fantoni loosens; he has a long-handled shovel. Both the shovel and the mattock are new; they have appeared miraculously, like anything that Fantoni wants.