Part 29 (1/2)

Maybe it happened all at once when she paced my apartment, knowing she ought to be by his side; maybe she got there in a lot of little steps. In any case, I reckon she's going to keep holding on loosely.

The day she and the Doctor left, I visited them at the hotel.

For the first time, I got to see the Doctor in his 'ordinary'

clothes. The black suit was gone. Instead, he was wearing the coat I had glimpsed in the hotel closet an old-fas.h.i.+oned coat that came down to the tops of his calves, big lapels, big pockets. One lapel was orange and the other was pink, with a Bill the Cat badge pinned to it. All those patches tartan, red, big blue and white checks made it look as though it had been repaired over centuries by a dynasty of blind seamstresses.

Somehow I could imagine him trekking through the dust of Nepal or Morocco or even striding up Tottenham Court Road, looking utterly unselfconscious even as the natives stared. Customs officers and government ministers would take him seriously. No-one else could have got away with it. 'What seems extraordinary in one place seems utterly ordinary in another,' he p.r.o.nounced. 'What's fas.h.i.+onable in one era seems ludicrous in another.'

'Yeah, and disco's gonna make a comeback,' I said. He just raised an eyebrow at me.

I waited with him and Peri in the lobby, while the concierge ordered them a taxi to take them back to their boat.

They looked comfortable together, standing closer than friends but not as close as a couple. When a bellhop stared at the Doctor's coat, Peri first looked down in embarra.s.sment, then stared back until the bellhop hurried on his way.

They were both vague about where they were going next.

'So are you gonna write a book about us?' said Peri, changing the subject.

'Oh, yeah,' I said. 'I'm not getting much out of east-coast journalism. I think I'll write me a bestseller and then hang up my typewriter for a while.'

'Will you put everything everything in it?' she said. in it?' she said.

'Everything.' Peri looked at the Doctor, a little panicked.

'Don't worry. Names will be changed to protect the innocent.'

'Very well,' said the Doctor.

Peri touched my elbow, shyly. 'You're gonna be OK?'

'Thanks for your concern, little lady' I pecked her on the forehead, making her blush. The taxi was pulling up in front of us. 'I'm more worried about where your life is going to lead you. You take care of each other, now.'

I looked at the Doctor over the roof of the taxi. 'You're never gonna tell me everything everything, are you?' He just shook his head, with a wicked smile. 'Oh well. Can't blame a guy for trying.'