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leaving, but something about Captain Mack told him that he should stay. Something sad and desperate, like the frustration Ellie had described as they’d waited at the traffic lights. So he went into the little lounge-room, which despite having the curtains pulled wide open for once, seemed very dark.
    Captain Mack slumped into his chair and stared straight ahead. It was as if Danny wasn’t even there. Danny sat nervously and watched him, saying nothing.
    â€œAre you all right?” he asked again, after they’d been that way for what seemed like hours, sitting like statues on opposite sides of the dim room.
    â€œNo, I’m not all right,” Captain Mack answered without even looking at him. “I’m nothing like all right.”
    â€œWhy’s that? Have you had some bad news?”
    â€œYe could say that.”
    â€œWhat sort of bad news?”
    At last Captain Mack turned his head and looked at Danny. His eye was red and full of tears. “It’s my son William,” he said at last. “Ye’ve not met him, have ye?”
    Danny shook his head.
    There was another lengthy pause. Again Danny waited.
    â€œYe see this gown?” Captain Mack said finally, plucking harshly at the plush red fabric. “Do ye like it?”
    â€œIt’s very nice,” Danny answered. “How about you?”
    â€œIt’s meant to be a peace offering,” Captain Mack said, disgust thick in his voice.
    â€œI don’t … For what?”
    Captain Mack raised his head and looked straight at Danny, and his voice shook slightly as he spoke. “They’re moving me. They say I’m too old to stay in this unit, which might well be true. They’ve been saying it for a while, but then when I took that bump the other day they made up their minds. I don’t even remember doing it, to be honest.” He lifted a hand slowly, gently touching the small white dressing on his forehead with one finger. “So they’re moving me into a proper home across town, like a hospital for useless folk.”
    Danny’s protest sounded weak and pathetic. “You’re not useless,” he said.
    â€œDon’t ye be patronising me, lad. I am useless.”
    â€œBut they have a hospital section here, where Ellie works,” Danny said. “Maybe you could —”
    â€œYe don’t think I told him that? He said they can’t afford it.”
    â€œBut don’t you get a say? I mean —”
    â€œNo, I don’t, lad. I told William, ‘This is where all my friends are’, and do ye know what he said?”
    Danny shook his head.
    â€œHe said, ‘Ye’ll make new friends’. Can ye imagine? I’m eighty-four years old, and he talks to me like I’m a child.” His eye was streaming with tears now, and he had to stop speaking. He felt about in one of the pockets of the dressing gown, pulled out a hanky, blew his nose loudly and tucked his hanky away. “Like a child,” he said again.
    Danny didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t sure whether to make Captain Mack a cup of tea, or give him a hug, or just sit quietly. So that’s what he did, just waiting for the old man to go on. It took a while, and the heavy awkwardness grew.
    â€œThen he gives me this.” Captain Mack pointed at the gown again. “Did ye see the tartan, lad? He probably thought it was a grand joke. My own son doesn’t care about where his father comes from. He gives me a tartan gown as if to say, ‘There ye go, Da, there’s something to remember Scotland by, to make up for putting ye in a home for reject folks’. I … I can’t talk about it any more, lad. I’m sorry ye have to see a grown man weeping like a wee’un …”
    â€œIt’s okay,” Danny said quietly. He couldn’t think of anything more comforting, and he felt stupid for saying it at all.
    â€œNo, it’s not all right.