Reborn Seven Days Before El Niño

l Veyr

van with a cracked windscreen and a Jesus sticker on the dashboa

sel and Fenner at two in the afterno

," he said. "If I'm late,

ck," Mira said, fr

know what you

I said from the back

ig grey building with a corrugated roof and a roller door half up, and a man in a polo shi

one today. Nurse came in for saline bags

ed by

ead down." He got out. "

had been picked over by people in a hurry. There was a run on torches - the whole aisle, wiped. Batteries, gone. The tinned food was down

delivery and Mira and I stood

en through her

hat's the problem." I got my note

e w

o took it. It's not for customers, it's for them, so they know

. "You want to st

here's a difference and I'd rat

he counter when Mira told him she was doing a stocktake for Deni's supervisor, which was a lie so bald it should have fallen over on its own feet, b

ger with a cracked spine and

ed to

n Tuesday. Out Tuesday 4pm

Wednesday. Out Wednesday

Monday 6pm, 60. Buyer: V. Ansel. O

with my fing

ira said. "M

is book has got

ho

n here since Monday. Monday. The broadcast was W

e end of the counter. "You f

woman who's been buying the wa

e fella from Alde

re L

ree times. Pays cash, takes it out the back, doesn't wa

of bottles on Tuesd

hite one. She'

ked a

id, "A

is jaw. "You know what I think? I think she's not buying for him. I think she's buying for herself and he doesn't know, becaus

-

ite light of two-thirty and I stood on the pavemen

e white van and whatever was in the lock-up on Kessel Road that Halim had mentioned, and that

putting it?

a hundred and twenty cases in a flat. She needs a lock-up or a

re he does go and he doesn't

top

ris

ld us that himself, on Wednesday night, in front of everyone. I've got a hundred a

tared

sells nails and hinges out the front and the back room's full of nothing and

's the one in fro

I started walking. "He's got a hundred and fo

ine running. He leaned out the window. "

ck. "Does your van have

ot a st

y wholesale

d Sons, Wholesal

"Then drive me

-

awning and a window display of padlocks and paintbrushe

idn't stocktake. Dacre had a boy called Enzo who did the s

and I sat in the back of the van with

hite van at t

cans out of the side d

s, standing at the open door with her noteboo

me back with a bottle of water and drank half of it and poured th

water does a person have to drink before

han she

not what

w it i

at, "Am I taking you home or

out of the side door and tu

w it,"

I've got a

oice was flat. "

lowed

y and didn't once check its mirror. After about a mile it turned off at a place I knew - a yard behind

out and unlocked the padlock and drove thro

address in t

That's more than enough. I'm not g

olved," I said.

-

left it, and the tap was running, and the afternoon shift was filling pots under Mira's

he bottom of the stairs wi

n. There's

prob

nmetered tap on this property being used commercially." Crawe woul

with the noteb

ra

he knew about the tap and he knew to call and I'm not losing

ng have

the board says Friday mornin

on the second floor singing quietly to a baby and Mira had put up a

and a van with Wholesale on the side and an addres

ve was a tap pas

Crawe. Give me you

ared

ause the mains are dead and the board's capped my tap and the whole of Kessel East is dry. But there's a tank on this roof with a float valve and a conne

uth opened

ong, C

the pressure's good. I