Luís’s Reviews > Loitering with Intent: The Child > Status Update

The following afternoon, we all went copper-squashing again. This time, though, as the train came cheerfully crunching along, we also had to place a pin on the halfpenny. By the end of the week, I had become the owner of a rare golden disc, embossed all with a crucifixion of silver. (...)

The sergeant was standing in the hall once more. I directed his gaze to Shaw's sculpture. On my way to join the navy, I told him, when rattling about on a railway train, I had read of Shaw's death in a newspaper. The report had also stated that after breaking yet another bone some days earlier, Shaw had said, 'If I survive this, I shall be immortal.'

(...)
A stake at my disposal to cushion the vital, uncertain months ahead of me had been necessary. Earlier that year, she had seen me take a short voyage on a one-way liberty boat from the depot ship called her the Montplonk; we did of the submarine flotilla I had served for well over a year.

(...)
There followed a few phrases which Mr Dahlerus found that he couldn't mind at all but which, I fancy, went, 'It is my unshakeable intention to build a dog track at Linz.'
Da Da looked at Fat Hermann. Hermann was watching, nor did he wobble a chin.

What remains remarkable and memorable to me is that, from beginning to end, the hands did not spill one crumb.

I was fond of Big Bluey, more fond of Trudie, but I couldn't bear the bloody parrot; I found it to be a thoroughly disagreeable brute. Trudie was a dote who, in her heyday, had been a high-kicking dancer and singer in the Edwardian theatre world. (...)