“Nor me.” Said Kay, nursing a glass of wine.

“Howard?” Asked Mary.

“Yeah, that’d be nice. I’ll come and help you.” Answered Howard, seizing the opportunity to get Mary on her own. The young woman walked off into the kitchen, and Howard followed behind her, admiring Mary’s backside as he did so.

Mary and Howard entered the kitchen, and she flipped the light on. Mary walked over to the kettle, and filled it up with water from one of the kitchen taps.

“Are you at college tomorrow?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Replied Howard.

“Are you taking your car? Or getting the bus?” Mary wanted to know.

“Bus. It’s too much hassle trying to find a parking space at the college, especially on a Monday.” Howard advised her.

“What time are you heading out at?” Asked Mary.

“About eight thirty.” Answered Howard.

“Cool. Do you mind if I tag along with you for the bus ride? I’ve got to pop into Elman, visit the bank. See if the stingy bastards will extend my overdraft a little.” Mary informed Howard, as she switched the kettle on.

“That’s fine, I’d like the company. Are you not in work tomorrow then?”

“No, I’ve got two days off. It’s nice actually, a Sunday night without the prospect of work looming over me the next day. I could get used to this.” Mary grinned. She sat down at the kitchen table, and Howard did the same. He gazed at Mary as she stared over towards the kettle. When she turned to face him, Howard diverted his gaze from her.

Mary scratched at the back of her neck for a moment, then flicked her long, wavy hair from off her shoulder.

“So, what have you been up to today, Howard?” She asked the teenager. Howard shrugged his shoulders.

“Not much, really. I went for a drive, up near Knighton.” Howard lied. “I had a quick walk around the shops and stuff, but most places were shut, what with it being a Sunday and all… do you ever visit Knighton, Mary?” He asked. Mary shook her head.

“I’ve been a few times… there’s not much there though, if I remember rightly.” Mary answered.

“You’re right. Knighton is like Coldsleet. It’s a dying town.” Commented Howard. “Still, I prefer it that way.” He added. Mary gave him a curious look.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“It’s better, you know… quieter. My mom… when she was alive… well, she told me that Coldsleet used to be… and we’re talking a long time ago… a really busy town. It was a big holiday destination, one of the biggest in the north-west. You look around the place, today, and you just can’t imagine that… all of those people, crowding the streets, getting in your way. No thanks. I prefer Coldsleet how it is right now.” Said Howard.

“Well, I suppose…”

“Do you like decay, Mary?” Howard suddenly asked.

“I beg your pardon?” Replied Mary, slightly perplexed.

“Decay. You know. When things begin to rot away. When they start slowly falling apart. Do you like that sort of thing, Mary?” Howard repeated his question. Mary didn’t know how to respond.

“Let me have a think about that one while I finish off making the tea.” She said, giving Howard a look of curiosity.

A minute or two later, Howard and Mary sat at the kitchen table, drinking their mugs of tea.

“What I meant was… perfection. I think that it’s an ugly thing, Mary. You know, sometimes, I’ll be watching the television, and some model or other will come on, and I look at them, and do you know what?” Asked Howard.

“You get a hard-on?” Quipped Mary. A quick look of disgust, mixed with embarrassment, shot across Howard Trenton’s face.

“That’s filthy, Mary.” He commented. “Really filthy.”

“Sorry Howard.” Said Mary, desperately trying not to start laughing at Howard’s apparently prim and proper attitude.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter.” Howard replied, in a tetchy, irritated manner. “Where was I? Oh yes. I look at these models that you get, appearing on the television, with their perfect faces, perfect hair, perfect bodies… and they disgust me. There’s nothing remotely attractive about them… not to me, at any rate. But if I, say, you know, see a woman, and she’s a bit… well, how do I put it… not ‘rough’… that’s too strong a word… if I see a woman and she’s a bit… imperfect… then that’s much nicer, it’s… sexy.” Revealed Howard.

“I see…” replied Mary. This guy’s a fucking weirdo, she thought to herself.

Howard took a sip of his tea, and then carried on with his discourse on decay and imperfection, warming to the subject. He thought about Kate Williams for a second.

“There’s a woman that I know… she’s not a girlfriend, or anything like that… she’s a lot older than me, old enough to be my mom, as it goes… she’s got a bad haircut, a sort of bob, but uneven, like it’s been cut with a knife and fork… I’m guessing that she does it herself… a professional hairdresser would be shot for producing a style like that… anyway, this woman… she has dyed brown hair, but she’s always forgetting to do the roots regularly, and you can see the grey as it comes through. Her teeth, they’re a bit crooked. When she smiles, you can see that one of her front teeth slightly overlaps the other one. There’s quite a few broken veins on the one side of her nose, and a few more on her cheek. She’s almost, but not quite, got a double chin. She’s definitely on the portly side. This woman… when she wears a t-shirt, you can make out the roll of flab around her middle, underneath the fabric. She’s slowly falling apart, going to pot, decaying… and do you want to know something, Mary?” Howard asked.

“Go on.” Mary replied.

“Well, I just happen to think that she’s one of the most beautiful women that I’ve ever met. But I’ll tell you something else. If a fairy came along, and waved a magic wand, caused all of this woman’s imperfections to disappear overnight… then I don’t think I’d find her attractive anymore. Do you understand what I’m saying, Mary?” Howard wanted to know. Mary nodded; she could actually follow what Howard was getting at.

Mary played with the mug of tea in front of her, which sat on the kitchen table. She twirled it slowly around, full circle, and then ran her finger up and down its handle a couple of times.

“My last boyfriend. His name was Paul.” Mary said, smiling. “When we first started going out together, his eyesight was fine, but then it got bad, quite quickly, and he had to start wearing glasses. He chose this pair of spectacles… they were fucking horrible. Or at least I thought that they were. When he was picking them out, at the opticians… I remember thinking to myself, please don’t choose those specs, the frames are too large, too thick… but of course I didn’t tell him that. So Paul, he picks those glasses, and for the first few days, I could barely look at him whilst he was wearing them. But then, after a while, I started to think to myself that he actually looked better with those specs on… because he wasn’t my perfect little Paul anymore… now he was slightly flawed. And I liked it. Well, at first I didn’t, as I said… but soon after, I did.”

Howard delved back into his memory, of when he was a child.

“My mom bought me this toy action figure… it was some sort of soldier, and I used to call him ‘John’, God knows why, but that’s the name I gave him. Now, when I first had John, he just didn’t look like a soldier at all. The little miniature clothes that he was wearing, you know what I mean, his military garb… it was just too clean… and so was John. So one day, I’m playing outside in our old back garden, and I thought that it’d be a good idea to muddy John up a bit. I rolled the little plastic bastard around in the dirt, and when I’d finished, I cut a few holes and tears into his camouflage clothing. John looked so much better for it. Once I’d gotten him looking all battered and messy, he became one of my favourite toys.” Howard said, smiling as he recalled John the soldier. Mary smiled, with a similar memory.