Max?' he asked.'Yeah?''...What are you doing?''Shooting people.

You come to this place, mid-life. You don__ know how you got here, but suddenly you__e staring fifty in the face. When you turn and look back down the years, you glimpse the ghosts of other lives you might have led; all houses are haunted. The wraiths and phantoms creep under your carpets and between the warp and weft of fabric, they lurk in wardrobes and lie flat under drawer-liners. You think of the children you might have had but didn__. When the midwife says, __t__ a boy,_ where does the girl go? When you think you__e pregnant, and you__e not, what happens to the child that has already formed in your mind? You keep it filed in a drawer of your consciousness, like a short story that never worked after the opening lines.

A million possible endearments ran through his head. But he said, __elp.

You dance?___ think that might be overly optimistic,_ he said. __ do something. I__l try not to hurt you.

Isn__ he cute? That he thinks he has a sense of humour?

He__ never been shy, but he__ always been a little uncertain around girls. He just couldn__ believe they liked him.