He was telling me a fact about himself that he could not make himself say in a complete sentence.

And I said, “I’ll remember this.”

And he said, “Don’t come back here for handouts,” and turned round and wiped a dry counter with a dry rag, and I picked up a wicker laundry basket from beside the back door — I took it without asking, it is the only thing I have ever stolen in my life — and I walked out into the cold.

Part Five: Clara