The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon [63]
And then I saw Toby, and he was also in the lower-down bit where the rails were, and I knew he was Toby because he was white and he had a brown egg shape on his back. So I climbed down off the concrete. And he was eating a bit of rubbish that was an old sweet paper. And someone shouted, “Jesus. What are you doing?”
And I bent down to catch Toby but he ran off. And I walked after him and I bent down again and I said, “Toby . . . Toby . . . Toby,” and I held out my hand so that he could smell my hand and smell that it was me.
And someone said, “Get out of there, for fuck's sake,” and I looked up and it was a man who was wearing a green raincoat and he had black shoes and his socks were showing and they were gray with little diamond patterns on them.
And I said, “Toby . . . Toby . . .” but he ran off again.
And the man with the diamond patterns on his socks tried to grab my shoulder, so I screamed. And then I heard the sound like sword fighting and Toby started running again, but this time he ran the other way, which was past my feet, and I grabbed at him and I caught him by the tail.
And the man with the diamond patterns on his socks said, “Oh Christ. Oh Christ.”
And then I heard the roaring and I lifted Toby up and grabbed him with both hands and he bit me on my thumb and there was blood coming out and I shouted and Toby tried to jump out of my hands.
And then the roaring got louder and I turned round and I saw the train coming out of the tunnel and I was going to be run over and killed so I tried to climb up onto the concrete but it was high and I was holding Toby in both my hands.
And then the man with the diamond patterns on his socks grabbed hold of me and pulled me and I screamed, but he kept pulling me and he pulled me up onto the concrete and we fell over and I carried on screaming because he had hurt my shoulder. And then the train came into the station and I stood up and I ran to the bench again and I put Toby into the pocket inside my jacket and he went very quiet and he didn't move.
And the man with the diamond patterns on his socks was standing next to me and he said, “What the fuck do you think you were playing at?”
But I didn't say anything.
And he said, “What were you doing?”
And the doors of the train opened and people got off and there was a lady standing behind the man with the diamond patterns on his socks and she was carrying a guitar case like Siobhan has.
And I said, “I was finding Toby. He's my pet rat.”
And the man with the diamond patterns on his socks said, “Fucking Nora.”
And the lady with the guitar case said, “Is he OK?”
And the man with the diamond patterns on his socks said, “Him? Thanks a fucking bundle. Jesus Christ. A pet rat. Oh shit. My train.” And then he ran to the train and he banged on the door, which was closed, and the train started to go away and he said, “Fuck.”
And the lady said, “Are you OK?” and she touched my arm so I screamed again.
And she said, “OK. OK. OK.”
And there was a sticker on her guitar case and it said
And I was sitting on the ground and the woman knelt down on one knee and she said, “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
And if she was a teacher at school I could have said, “Where is 451c Chapter Road, Willesden, London NW2 5NG?” but she was a stranger, so I said, “Stand further away,” because I didn't like her being so close. And I said, “I've got a Swiss Army knife and it has a saw blade and it could cut someone's fingers off.”
And she said, “OK, buddy. I'm going to take that as a no,” and she stood up and walked away.
And the man with the diamond patterns on his socks said, “Mad as a fucking hatter. Jesus,” and he was pressing a handkerchief against his face and there was blood on the handkerchief.
And then another train came and the man with the diamond patterns on his socks and the lady with the guitar case got on and it went away again.
And then 8 more trains came and I decided that I would get onto a train and then I would work out what to do.
So I got on the next train.