Read Online The Dog Who Came in from the Cold by Alexander McCall Smith - Free Book Online Page B

future.
    She sighed. That was not the way the world was—or certainly not for people like her.

15. The Sudoku Remedy
    J AMES ARRIVED at Corduroy Mansions earlier than he had anticipated. He had allowed himself more time than he needed to travel from his flat in Clerkenwell and had fifteen minutes in hand by the time he found himself outside Corduroy Mansions. Dee answered when he pressed the doorbell and buzzed him into the entrance. He noticed that something was going on in the ground-floor flat—a party, by the sound of it—but he did not linger and bounded up the stairs to Caroline’s flat. James was pleased that Dee was in; he liked her and had not seen her for a few weeks. Dee gave him news of the latest health food products, and occasional free samples too. Last time he saw her, she had given him a one-month course of a brain-power-enhancing supplement, ginkgo biloba, and he had taken it conscientiously until the bottle was empty, without any noticeable result. “Of course, you don’t really need this,” she had said to him. “There are lots of people I know who could do with a course of ginkgo. You’re really not one. Here’s some garlic as well.”
    Dee opened the door to him when he reached the landing. As he came in, she bent forwards to give him a kiss. James winced.
    “I’m not going to bite,” said Dee.
    James was embarrassed. “I know that.”
    “Then why not let me give you a little kiss? Caroline won’t be jealous.”
    James blushed. “I don’t normally kiss,” he said. “It’s not just you. I don’t like all this kissing that goes on. Why not just shake hands?”
    Dee laughed. “I won’t kiss you if you don’t want me to,” she said. “Anyway, come in.”
    She took him into the kitchen, where she had been sitting at the table tackling a newspaper sudoku. James noticed that the puzzle was marked
extremely easy
.
    “If you took ginkgo-what’s-its-name, you’d be able to do difficult sudokus,” he said. “In fact, why don’t you sell ginkgo in little bottles marked ‘Sudoku Remedy’?”
    Dee stared at him. “That’s a rather good idea,” she said.
    “I wasn’t serious,” said James. “Just a joke.”
    “No,” said Dee quickly. “It’s not a joke, James—it’s a really good idea. That’s exactly what they’ve done with echinacea, isn’t it?”
    James was not sure what they had done with echinacea.
    “They sell it as protection from infection while you’re travelling,” Dee explained. “Then they sell it as a protection against flu. And so on. It’s the same basic stuff, of course—it simply boosts your immune system. But you can package it in a hundred different ways.”
    “Well,” said James. “I didn’t know about that. But will people who do sudokus want help? If they did, then surely they could just put the figures into their computers and the computers would come up with the solution.”
    Dee shook her head. “That’s not the way they think,” she said. “People who do puzzles want to solve them themselves.”
    James was not so sure. “So what about those gadgets that help with crosswords? You put in a couple of letters and it comes up with the solution for you.”
    “No self-respecting crossword person uses one of those,” said Dee. “But every self-respecting crossword person would be quite happy to take something to help get their mind in gear. A cup of coffee, for instance. That would not be cheating. Neither would some ginkgo.” She paused. “And we could market a Crossword Remedy too.”
    James smiled. “You’d get very rich,” he said. He looked at his watch. “Where’s Caroline?”
    “She’s gone to a party,” Dee replied. “Or I think that’s what she said. Something about a drinks party. I wasn’t paying much attention.”
    “But she’s meant to be having dinner with me,” said James. “We made a date over the phone.”
    Dee shrugged. “Well, maybe she’s forgotten. I did that once, you know. Maybe she needs to