alcohol.
'I know just how you feel, mate,' I quietly admitted, allowing myself to speak without thinking.
'Do you?' he said, obviously not believing me.
I couldn't avoid telling him about my problems with Siobhan. I guessed that it might have helped him to know that he wasn't alone.
'Same thing happened with me and Siobhan,' I said. 'Everything's fine one minute, then she went off on one like your Brenda.'
'Sorry to hear it,' he sighed. He was obviously preoccupied with his own problems but still sounded genuinely concerned.
The conversation dried up. Ray looked up and down the shelf next to him and picked up a box of cornflakes. He put the box into his basket and then began to trundle down the aisle. His body seemed haunched forward and heavy. It was almost as if he had the weight of the world resting on his unwilling shoulders.
'See you later,' he mumbled, 'I'd better get back. Don't want to upset our Brenda any more than I already have done.'
'All right, take care then Ray,' I said as I watched him shuffle off. I felt sorry for him. Normally jolly and effervescent, today he was a shell of a man. It looked like it was all he could do just to keep going.
He turned back momentarily.
'See you on Friday night, Tom?' he asked hopefully.
'Probably,' I smiled, remaining as noncommittal as I could.
He nodded and went on his way. I turned my attention to getting my shopping done, getting out and getting home.
'I had it first, you bastard,' I heard a gruff, croaking voice say from the next aisle. The mass of shoppers crammed into the building seemed to stop what they were doing in unison to watch what was happening. I peered round the end of the display rack and saw two old men, face to face, each one trying to wrestle a bottle of whiskey off the other.
'Get another bottle,' one of the men hissed. 'Fuck off and get yourself another bottle.'
'There's no more of these. This one's mine. You get another bottle.'
For a moment the two men stood motionless, each one glaring into the other's glasses, locked in a fierce (but ultimately pointless and pathetic) conflict. They looked bizarre - all braces, tweed jackets, flat caps, slip on shoes and absolute hate and contempt for each other.
Then it happened. It a single sudden and unexpected moment of movement, the smaller of the men yanked the bottle from the other's hand and threw it into a display of bottles of wine. He then punched his adversary in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground like a rag doll.
'That was mine,' he hissed, leaning over the body on the linoleum. Without saying another word he then turned and walked out of the shop.
A few seconds later, with a cold disregard for the unconscious old man on the ground, the rest of the shoppers turned their backs on the scene, forgot what had just happened and went about their business.
It took me another twenty minutes to get out of the shop.
There must have been something seriously wrong with the elderly population of Thatcham, I thought as I crossed the high street. I could see an old lady sitting on a bench. Her coat was open. Underneath her long grey mackintosh she was completely naked.
I stopped at James' house in the way home. I hadn't seen anything of him or Stephanie for a couple of weeks. I hoped that Stephanie would be in. She was a good friend of Siobhan's and they often spoke on the phone. Maybe she'd be able to tell me what it was that I was supposed to have done to offend her.
James answered the door. He shouldn't have been there. He should have been at work.
'All right, Jim?' I asked cautiously.
My friend looked strangely distant but at least he didn't curse me, ignore me, punch me or slam the door in my face. In fact he didn't do anything. He just stood there, swaying slightly from side to side as if he was drunk. But it was far too early in the day for that.
He slowly lifted his head and looked at me. His bleary eyes began to focus.
'What?' he mumbled.
'I said are you all right?'
He nodded.
'Fine.'
He then turned around (bumping into the half-open door as he did) and stumbled back inside the house. Unsure, I followed him in and found Stephanie sitting on the living room floor, barely dressed. She looked up as James walked back into the