finis

The sun shines on him I think. And a little on you too perhaps when you're around him.
He was the first person I'd met that actually sent messages in a bottle...to be found  by a child in Norway looking for treasure with his father along the beach.
Now it is one of my favourite stories, along with 'the selfish giant'. I remember asking him excitedly one morning to guess what song I'd heard at 4am, only to have him reply 'piano man' without missing a wretched beat. It would be much later when he took me to his room and showed me Goya sleeping on the wall above his bed, the kind of sleep that produces monsters I'm told.