Gents

He opened the door to visit the cubicle himself. But before he could enter, a second man came out, brushing past him, not catching his eye.

In his initial incomprehension it seemed to Ez curiously like a magical trick – two rabbits from the same hat. Or perhaps déjà vu. He tried to assemble an impression of the second man, of a white face with fair hair and almost albino eyelids, of a grey City suit like the first, and an air of calmness or preoccupation. He was younger and fairer than the first man, though they might have come from the same firm, the same office. Ez watched him walk through the turnstiles and up the steps. He listened to the final faint patter of his leather-soled shoes as he disappeared from view into clouded daylight.

He glanced at Jason, who was standing a few yards away, leaning on his mop, watching Ez equivocally. Jason smiled, shook his head, and turned away. He began to mop the floor again. Ez heard the furred music from his headphones, like an insect fluttering against a pane.

CHAPTER 3 (#ulink_5d8db2f7-c741-527e-b2a3-70c27f93745a)

Later that afternoon the three of them, Ez, Reynolds, and Jason, were taking tea in Reynolds’ office.

Reynolds said, “How your first day going?”

“OK, man.”

Jason sat in his chair chewing a biscuit.

Ez said, “Funny thing happen to me.”

Reynolds sipped his tea. “What?”

“I was wanting to visit a cubicle – you know. Someone come out and so I know it is free. I go to open the door and … another man come out.”

Reynolds watched him carefully, as though trying to calculate Ez’s comprehension.

After a while, Reynolds said, “So?”

Ez shrugged. “I don’t understand it. Two men in there.”

Reynolds sipped his tea and chewed his biscuit.

“What don’t you understand?”

“One man sitting, one man waiting. Why don’t he wait outside?”

Ez looked at Reynolds’ face. Some faint appreciation entered his thoughts.

Reynolds considered him. He observed several expressions move across Ez’s features.

Ez said, “You don’t –”

Jason seemed embarrassed more by Ez’s innocence than the subject under discussion. He shook his head and looked away.

Finally Reynolds said, “You don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?”

“Happening all the time,” Jason said.

“What happening?” Ez asked.

“All the time,” Reynolds repeated. “Reptiles.”

Ez looked from one face to the other.

“Men are …? Two in …”

“Sometimes three.”

“No.”

Jason said, “One time, five.”

“Five?” Ez was incredulous.

Jason nodded. “Five walk out.”

They paused. Ez sipped his tea and considered. Neither of the other two spoke.

After a few moments, Ez said, “What you do about it?”

Reynolds shrugged. “Stop it getting out of hand.”

Jason moved on his chair and nodded. “That the truth.”

Ez said, “Why they wanting to do this, man?”

“We don’t ask why, man,” Reynolds said. His voice had the singsong of patois. “We don’t keep their conscience, we only keeping order.”

“Why they do it here?” Ez asked. “Why not somewhere else?”

“Where else?”

“Better than out on the street,” Jason said.

Reynolds and Jason laughed softly. Jason said, as if by way of confirmation, “Better than the pavement.”

Ez waited patiently for their mirth to subside.

“They got a compulsion,” Reynolds explained. “You see them, looking about, hoping to catch someone’s eye.”

“What you do to stop them?”

“We can’t stop them looking about, man. If they loiter too long, maybe, we ask them to move along.”

“Sometimes another one come,” Jason said. “They go into a cubicle. Two of them.”

“How?”

“When you not looking. One go first. Wait awhile. Then another. Slippery, man. But once you know they in there, you can make it difficult. You knock on the door. If nothing happen, you put a big stick under the door, rattle it about.”