Because t of  it does to we hair:

    In turkey, in a small country torees along t-floored square, corbikes, apricot sellers, and donkeys, a s of bread you can rousers in a peasant print and a scarf   of golden  fell almost to  and ed impatiently to see tale creature.

    Stringing , surned; and she was old.

    quot; a life,quot; said Letty, as I combed her hair.

    Of Lettys life I kno  -- since before I er   November, fell off a bus, ;platform accidentquot;, fell off tform of a moving bus op at ttom of tone.

    Last November, just before tform accident,  our door to see if  did not  in t did not ted ao send an electrician but trician never came. Letty and o pay ty pence a . From t of vie an economic rent; it  cover es etc. From t of viety and e brot an economic rent, eit afford it.

    Correction: Letty and  afford it because oo proud to alloo avail itself of ter ed Letty en masse and now ion is easier,  is paid for her.

    Correction: was paid for her.

    e knoy because s blindly in tc tfully: quot;Letty, give over!quot;

    Letty once saed sounds is unknoo me.  souc moved eries to me. Slantis to me. , all tar of o a rubble of forgotten past.

    I cannot guess w were or are her desires.

    Sly fretful ;t going to take me a; ell, t let ay  norusted to lie still in  tumbling out arse over tip in a trap of blankets, incapable of riger I combed  ea, so fetceetable, so t s t. quot;Sorry about t,quot; sanding beside me  ion in table mirror, but, all tly sound mind, if you stretcion of quot;soundquot; only a very little. One must make allowances. One will do so for oneself.

    So sit up to drink tea, I lifted   ; I braced myself for a burden and t as if  ss, to keep ing up to t odour of t side, a good deal of April suns  buds.

    Lettys cat came and sat on t;; said Letty.

    One of t balls of fluff old ladies keep, t looks as if s black fur ed and faded at time, but some cats are naturals for te company long after anyone else opped tolerating your babbling, t judge, dont give a damn if you  t fades, freely offer tion of still sentient fingertips. -stained quilt h his paws and purrs.

    tairs came do last and denied all kno nig so soundly s ry. S  or somet t all but out on toime and s  anybody to kno erer. tairs is fiftyis keeps  broight discipline.

    No love lost bety. quot; a  a fire ; Letty, doairs, dreamily ing in t as tairs c;Snt to be left. S to be in a ; t;For ;

    Letty dreamily apostrop; t let cats into any old peoples  I know of.

    tor; and, out of no-niece in e ties -great-niece clutceddy bear. Letty is pleased to see t-great-niece, and t crack t appears in ture t Id built up of Lettys secluded, lonely old age. e  realised t-niece puts us in our place good and proper. quot;Its up to family no; ssy and retreat, and t-niece is sack, busy as a bee, proprietorial yet tender ;Letty, o no; arding us outsiders off; per-stained quilt, tic bucket of piss beside Lettys bed.

    As ttys t-niece brougroke of fate -- co collect Lettys rent and perked up no end, stroking o airs go on and on about ty could no longer cope, y and life on to come and break down doors.

    a life.

    the ambulance came.

    Letty is going to spend a few days in al.

    treet is, as estate agents say, rapidly improving; tains are coming doe balloons in eac room. tairs five to move out after Letty goes, so t e t  possession for a tremendous profit.

    e live in imes.

    till unravisree, takes floemplates t of ripe fruit t, not I. Curious eup;to goquot;, meaning deato depart on a journey.

    Someion of male sexual response, ery, thing I can never know.

    quot;You put it in,  can get quite boring. ts not boring.quot;

    For quot;youquot;, read quot;;.

    quot;You come; or as ;

    Just so. quot;Ikimasu,quot; to go. ture renders t ed in t altoget --  may  is. Desire disappears in its fulfilment, hing as a happy ending.

    Besides all ts all its verbs at ts sentences,  seemed to me te kneime.

    quot;Everyt;

    quot;No. ;

    And never t temptuously dismissive of t of boredom in in sexual activity. ed boredom.  dogs, for example, y t distinguis of boredom. ty. ;Europeans are so colourful,quot; ricky bugger, t one, a Big Peac; face of Gerard P en bit off more te of to be assimilated. Once a year, tys cree in flo to als fall on a face t looked as if it  of gold, like t troy.

    turns into a s t got away.

    Let me not romanticise you too muc  yourself? Came knocking at my door in all your foul, cool, c stuffed  late in to make an  imes used to ten t you mig; expecting it. . .quot; God, Im forty, noy! I  if indeed you popped up out of t brigton side ing to om of t;I am noo a er,quot; as t all t ed one. But I . Not I.

    And e too, tique ballads in ernational language of tzer Cadillacs you liked, t you envied G.I.s for, all ready to e me   quadrap;; you reveried, quot;Im going to Mempo marry Presley.quot;) You ogetoo muce tietury, you person from tical arrival is a catastropoo terrifying to contemplate, even in t plangent state of regret for ones youth.

    I lead a quiet life in Souto a spot of early baroque on to a er. Like ture t created me, I am receding into t at a rate of knots. Soon Ill need a es if anybody under ty-five is going to compre t. . .

    Going out into to pick rosemary to put inside a c grass, enoug to make a pie.

    Lettys cat sits on Lettys tle Fiat to tal, folloty in to Lettys cat but  turn urned to spikes, nut husk.

    Letty is in al supping broted cup and, for all my kind , of tys companion anot until today, going out to pick rosemary o stuff a roast for our greedy dinners.

    I called  turned o too o climb since noents of a guilty tin of cat food over. Come and get it.

    Lettys cat never moved, only stared at me s curtained eyes. And t, sleek cats from every garden up and doo ted feast and gobbled all do tless banquet at s stretc last, Lettys cat s sself, plop on to the grass.

    I t, per a belated e, all gone. ts ignored aggered erest at all in tains of cat food, teps among t  be going to cems of medicinal grass; but  so muco as let rengt to lift it. iff, voluminous fur.  been taking care of himself. he peered vaguely around, swaying.

    You could almost  t ing for to come and feed  t ty herself.

    to sarily.  il at last ed up a small amount of o  again and lurco tic effort, he dragged himself up.

    Later on, somebody jumped over tly t a bo t ignored t too. Next day, botill touched.

    ter t, only tals drifting across t windowsill.

    Small sins of omission remind one of ter sins of omission; at least sins of commission ention. however:

    May. A blo on t steps ing plastic sack of garbage and  t putter to a  next door.

    In tal tty. An octogenarian redains my forty, my ty, my ty, my ten years  of bones, surned, not in a ing ambulance, but on  t ss do on a little er colour, not only in  in her cheeks.

    the landlord, foiled.

    Escorted by trict nurse, t not ungentle niece, Letty is escorted do, grass-gro stairs into  door t someone o unbolt from inside for urn. oo crest --  reet  and s t only tc s: quot;Carefully does it, Letty.quot;

    quot;I can manage,quot; setchily.

    ttered in closes upon tering entourage.

    t room of tairs slams down, bang.

    And o make of t? Id set it up so carefully, an enigmatic structure about evanescence and ageing and ts of time, sting, neglect, regret. . . t all. . .

    But. Letty. Letty came home.

    In tairs, mad as fire: quot;tified ;; t  possession  disintegrated ttys garden noime for fierce yellotercups; ts.

    I oo old and too far gone to miss t.

    Fat chance.

    I  door t of feeding him.

    But so die at ly ample leisure in t and privacy of ; s,  to curned all to crazy patchwork.

    Some a ation in on, texas, a too  a peac time, seemed to sum up tion of ts of individuals ions did.

    As you can tell from tal brocade and turkiso t for a o tic article, t of t and imagination, o cover myself in my old age to keep my brittle bones tys basement.)

    But, okay, so I al Lettys return from te grave of tric  out into to pick a feulips, tuously among ttercups, fat as butter tys been feeding him up.

    quot;Im pleased to see you,quot; I said.

    In a Japanese folk tale it  of , rusty and tactile as in life, t pining itself from deato life again to come to t t  and splutter along tal Radio is braying from an upper , palpable as a second-, drotercups.

    e know w --

    times of our reprieves are equally random.

    S out and look at it again, t and brigain of , ty; ty,  of eeto tive privacy of a genre picture, a needle maker, a middle-aged cy garden, turning  trees of tient ing round us.