We follow the pair. Charlotte and Natalie stroll side by side just as though they’d not been separated for years.
Just girls together…
Which is more than can be said for the rest of the women we can see. Some singles, mainly pairs, at intervals of fifty yards or so, they pace under streetlamps, hang around brightly lit shop fronts, or hover across the street from bars and late-night cafes.
To my left, Klempner saunters along with that air he has, as though the world around him, and everyone in it, has been placed there as a matter of personal convenience.
Comparing them, I can’t help but notice that Charlotte has the same manner although I don’t think she knows it. Beside her, Natalie looks as though she belongs here: the neighbourhood stamped on her face and clothes, her brash manner,
