The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (18 page)

He had a gold ring on one of his fingers and it had curly letters on it but I couldn't see what the letters were.

Then he said, “The lady at the café says you've been here for 21⁄2 hours, and when she tried talking to you, you were in a complete trance.”

Then he said, “What's your name?”

And I said, “Christopher Boone.”

And he said, “Where do you live?”

And I said, “36 Randolph Street,” and I started feeling better because I like policemen and it was an easy question, and I wondered whether I should tell him that Father killed Wellington and whether he would arrest Father.

And he said, “What are you doing here?”

And I said, “I needed to sit down and be quiet and think.”

And he said, “OK, let's keep it simple. What are you doing at the railway station?”

And I said, “I'm going to see Mother.”

And he said, “Mother?”

And I said, “Yes, Mother.”

And he said, “When's your train?”

And I said, “I don't know. She lives in London. I don't know when there's a train to London.”

And he said, “So, you don't live with your mother?”

And I said, “No. But I'm going to.”

And then he sat down next to me and said, “So, where does your mother live?”

And I said, “In London.”

And he said, “Yes, but where in London?”

And I said, “451c Chapter Road, London NW2 5NG.”

And he said, “Jesus. What is that?”

And I looked down and I said, “That's my pet rat, Toby,” because he was looking out of my pocket at the policeman.

And the policeman said, “A pet rat?”

And I said, “Yes, a pet rat. He's very clean and he hasn't got bubonic plague.”

And the policeman said, “Well that's reassuring.”

And I said, “Yes.”

And he said, “Have you got a ticket?”

And I said, “No.”

And he said, “Have you got any money to get a ticket?”

And I said, “No.”

And he said, “So, how precisely were you going to get to London, then?”

And then I didn't know what to say because I had Father's cashpoint card in my pocket and it was illegal to steal things, but he was a policeman so I had to tell the truth, so I said, “I have a cashpoint card,” and I took it out of my pocket and I showed it to him. And this was a white lie.

But the policeman said, “Is this your card?”

And then I thought he might arrest me, and I said, “No, it's Father's.”

And he said, “Father's?”

And I said, “Yes, Father's.”

And he said, “OK,” but he said it really slowly and he squeezed his nose between his thumb and his forefinger.

And I said, “He told me the number,” which was another white lie.

And he said, “Why don't you and I take a stroll to the cashpoint machine, eh?”

And I said, “You mustn't touch me.”

And he said, “Why would I want to touch you?”

And I said, “I don't know.”

And he said, “Well neither do I.”

And I said, “Because I got a caution for hitting a policeman, but I didn't mean to hurt him and if I do it again I'll get into even bigger trouble.”

Then he looked at me and he said, “You're serious, aren't you.”

And I said, “Yes.”

And he said, “You lead the way.”

And I said, “Where?”

And he said, “Back by the ticket office,” and he pointed with his thumb.

And then we walked back through the tunnel, but it wasn't so frightening this time because there was a policeman with me.

And I put the cashpoint card into the machine like Father had let me do sometimes when we were shopping together and it said
ENTER YOUR PERSONAL NUMBER
and I typed in
3558
and pressed the
ENTER
button and the machine said
PLEASE ENTER AMOUNT
and there was a choice

And I asked the policeman, “How much does it cost to get a ticket for a train to London?”

And he said, “About 30 quid.”

And I said, “Is that pounds?”

And he said, “Christ alive,” and he laughed. But I didn't laugh because I don't like people laughing at me, even if they are policemen. And he stopped laughing, and he said, “Yep. It's 30 pounds.”

So I pressed
£50
and five £10 notes came out of the machine, and a receipt, and I put the notes and the receipt and the card into my pocket.

And the policeman said, “Well, I guess I shouldn't keep you chatting any longer.”

And I said, “Where do I get a ticket for the train from?” because if you are lost and you need directions you can ask a policeman.

And he said, “You are a prize specimen, aren't you.”

And I said, “Where do I get a ticket for the train from?” because he hadn't answered my question.

And he said, “In there,” and he pointed and there was a big room with a glass window on the other side of the train station door, and then he said, “Now, are you sure you know what you're doing?”

And I said, “Yes. I'm going to London to live with my mother.”

And he said, “Has your mother got a telephone number?”

And I said, “Yes.”

And he said, “And can you tell me what it is?”

And I said, “Yes. It's 0208 887 8907.”

And he said, “And you'll ring her if you get into any trouble, OK?”

And I said, “Yes,” because I knew you could ring people from phone boxes if you had money, and I had money now.

And he said, “Good.”

And I walked into the ticket office and I turned round and I could see that the policeman was still watching me so I felt safe. And there was a long desk at the other side of the big room and a window on the desk and there was a man standing in front of the window and there was a man behind the window, and I said to the man behind the window, “I want to go to London.”

And the man in front of the window said, “If you don't mind,” and he turned round so that his back was toward me and the man behind the window gave him a little bit of paper to sign and he signed it and pushed it back under the window and the man behind the window gave him a ticket. And then the man in front of the window looked at me and he said, “What the fuck are you looking at?” and then he walked away.

And he had dreadlocks, which is what some black people have, but he was white, and dreadlocks is when you never wash your hair and it looks like old rope. And he had red trousers with stars on them. And I kept my hand on my Swiss Army knife in case he touched me.

And then there was no one else in front of the window and I said to the man behind the window, “I want to go to London,” and I hadn't been frightened when I was with the policeman but I turned round and I saw that he had gone now and I was scared again, so I tried to pretend I was playing a game on my computer and it was called
Train to London
and it was like
Myst
or
The 11th Hour,
and you had to solve lots of different problems to get to the next level, and I could turn it off at any time.

And the man said, “Single or return?”

And I said, “What does
single or return
mean?”

And he said, “Do you want to go one way, or do you want to go and come back?”

And I said, “I want to stay there when I get there.”

And he said, “For how long?”

And I said, “Until I go to university.”

And he said, “Single, then,” and then he said, “That'll be £32.”

And I gave him the fifty pounds and he gave me £10 back and he said, “Don't you go throwing it away.”

And then he gave me a little yellow and orange ticket and £8 in coins and I put it all in my pocket with my knife. And I didn't like the ticket being half yellow but I had to keep it because it was my train ticket.

And then he said, “If you could move away from the counter.”

And I said, “When is the train to London?”

And he looked at his watch and said, “Platform 1, five minutes.”

And I said, “Where is Platform 1?”

And he pointed and said, “Through the underpass and up the stairs. You'll see the signs.”

And
underpass
meant
tunnel
because I could see where he was pointing, so I went out of the ticket office, but it wasn't like a computer game at all because I was in the middle of it and it was like all the signs were shouting in my head and someone bumped into me as they walked past and I made a noise like a dog barking to scare them off.

And I pictured in my head a big red line across the floor which started at my feet and went through the tunnel and I started walking along the red line, saying, “Left, right, left, right, left, right,” because sometimes when I am frightened or angry it helps if I do something that has a rhythm to it, like music or drumming, which is something Siobhan taught me to do.

And I went up the stairs and I saw a sign saying ←
Platform 1
and the ← was pointing at a glass door so I went through it, and someone bumped into me again with a suitcase and I made another noise like a dog barking, and they said, “Watch where the hell you're going,” but I pretended that they were just one of the Guarding Demons in
Train to London
and there was a train. And I saw a man with a newspaper and a bag of golf clubs go up to one of the doors of the train and press a big button next to it and the doors were electronic and they slid open and I liked that. And then the doors closed behind him.

And then I looked at my watch and 3 minutes had gone past since I was at the ticket office, which meant that the train would be going in 2 minutes.

And then I went up to the door and I pressed the big button and the doors slid open and I stepped through the doors.

And I was on the train to London.

193.
When I used to play with my train set I made a train timetable because I liked timetables. And I like timetables because I like to know when everything is going to happen.

And this was my timetable when I lived at home with Father and I thought that Mother was dead from a heart attack (this was the timetable for a Monday and also it is an
approximation
)

And at the weekend I make up my own timetable and I write it down on a piece of cardboard and I put it up on the wall. And it says things like
Feed Toby
or
Do maths
or
Go to the shop to buy sweets.
And that is one of the other reasons why I don't like France, because when people are on holiday they don't have a timetable and I had to get Mother and Father to tell me every morning exactly what we were going to do that day to make me feel better.