The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (20 page)

And there is life on earth because of an accident. But it is a very special kind of accident. And for this accident to happen in this special way, there have to be 3
conditions.
And these are

1.
Things have to make copies of themselves (this is called
Replication
)

2.
They have to make small mistakes when they do this (this is called
Mutation
)

3.
These mistakes have to be the same in their copies (this is called
Heritability
)

And these conditions are very rare, but they are possible, and they cause life. And it just happens. But it doesn't have to end up with rhinoceroses and human beings and whales. It could end up with anything.

And, for example, some people say how can an eye happen by accident? Because an eye has to evolve from something else very like an eye and it doesn't just happen because of a genetic mistake, and what is the use of half an eye? But half an eye is very useful because half an eye means that an animal can see half of an animal that wants to eat it and get out of the way, and it will eat the animal that only has a third of an eye or 49% of an eye instead because it hasn't got out of the way quick enough, and the animal that is eaten won't have babies because it is dead. And 1% of an eye is better than no eye.

And people who believe in God think God has put human beings on the earth because they think human beings are the best animal, but human beings are just an animal and they will evolve into another animal, and that animal will be cleverer and it will put human beings into a zoo, like we put chimpanzees and gorillas into a zoo. Or human beings will all catch a disease and die out or they will make too much pollution and kill themselves, and then there will only be insects in the world and they will be the best animal.

211.
Then I wondered whether I should have got off the train because it had just stopped at London, and I was scared because if the train went anywhere else it would be somewhere where I didn't know anybody.

And then somebody went to the toilet and then they came out again, but they didn't see me. And I could smell their poo, and it was different from the smell of the poo that I smelled in the toilet when I went in there.

And then I closed my eyes and did some more maths puzzles so I didn't think about where I was going.

And then the train stopped again, and I thought about getting off the shelf and going to get my bag and get off the train. But I didn't want to be found by the policeman and be taken to Father, so I stayed on the shelf and didn't move, and no one saw me this time.

And then I remembered that there was a map on the wall of one of the classrooms at school, and it was a map of England and Scotland and Wales and it showed you where all the towns were and I pictured it in my head with Swindon and London on it, and it was like this in my head

And I had been looking at my watch since the train had started at
12:59 p.m.
And the first stop had been at
1:16 p.m.,
which was 17 minutes later. And it was now
1:39 p.m.,
which was 23 minutes after the stop, which meant that we would be at the sea if the train didn't go in a big curve. But I didn't know if it went in a big curve.

And then there were another 4 stops and 4 people came and took bags away from the shelves and 2 people put bags on the shelves, but no one moved the big suitcase that was in front of me and only one person saw me and they said, “You are fucking weird, mate,” and that was a man in a suit. And 6 people went to the toilet but they didn't do poos that I could smell, which was good.

And then the train stopped and a lady with a yellow waterproof coat came and took the big suitcase away and she said, “Have you touched this?”

And I said, “Yes.”

And then she went away.

And then a man stood next to the shelf and said, “Come and look at this, Barry. They've got, like, a train elf.”

And another man came and stood next to him and said, “Well, we have both been drinking.”

And the first man said, “Perhaps we should feed him some nuts.”

And the second man said, “You're the one who's bloody nuts.”

And the first one said, “Come on, shift it, you daft cunt. I need more beers before I sober up.”

And then they went away.

And then the train was really quiet and it didn't move again and I couldn't hear anyone. So I decided to get off the shelf and go and get my bag and see if the policeman was still sitting in his seat.

So I got off the shelf and I looked through the door, but the policeman wasn't there. And my bag had gone as well, which had Toby's food in it and my maths books and my clean pants and vest and shirt and the orange juice and the milk and the custard creams and the baked beans.

And then I heard the sound of feet and I turned round and it was another policeman, not the one who was on the train before, and I could see him through the door, in the next carriage, and he was looking under the seats. And I decided that I didn't like policemen so much anymore, so I got off the train.

And when I saw how big the room was that the train was in and I heard how noisy and echoey it was, I had to kneel down on the ground for a bit because I thought I was going to fall over. And when I was kneeling on the ground I worked out which way to walk, and I decided to walk in the direction the train was going when it came into the station because if this was the last stop, that was the direction London was in.

So I stood up and I imagined that there was a big red line on the ground which ran parallel to the train to the gate at the far end and I walked along it and I said, “Left, right, left,
right . . .” again, like before.

And when I got to the gate a man said to me, “I think someone's looking for you, sonny.”

And I said, “Who's looking for me?” because I thought it might be Mother and the policeman in Swindon had phoned her up with the phone number I told him.

But he said, “A policeman.”

And I said, “I know.”

And he said, “Oh. Right.” And then he said, “You wait here, then, and I'll go and tell them,” and he walked back down the side of the train.

So I carried on walking. And I could still feel the feeling like a balloon inside my chest and it hurt and I covered my ears with my hands and I went and stood against the wall of a little shop which said
Hotel and Theatre Reservations Tel: 0207 402 5164
in the middle of the big room and then I took my hands away from my ears and I groaned to block out the noise and I looked round the big room at all the signs to see if this was London. And the signs said

But after a few seconds they looked like this

because there were too many and my brain wasn't working properly and this frightened me so I closed my eyes again and I counted slowly to 50 but without doing the cubes. And I stood there and I opened my Swiss Army knife in my pocket to make me feel safe and I held on to it tight.

And then I made my hand into a little tube with my fingers and I opened my eyes and I looked through the tube so that I was only looking at one sign at a time and after a long time I saw a sign that said
         and it was above a window on a little shop.

And a man came up to me and he was wearing a blue jacket and blue trousers and he had brown shoes and he was carrying a book in his hand and he said, “You look lost.”

So I took out my Swiss Army knife.

And he said, “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa,” and held up both his hands with his fingers stretched out in a fan, like he wanted me to stretch my fingers out in a fan and touch his fingers because he wanted to say he loved me, but he did it with both hands, not one like Father and Mother, and I didn't know who he was.

And then he walked away backward.

So I went to the shop that said
         and I could feel my heart beating very hard and I could hear a noise like the sea in my ears. And when I got to the window I said, “Is this London?” but there was no one behind the window.

And then someone sat behind the window and she was a lady and she was black and she had long fingernails which were painted pink and I said, “Is this London?”

And she said, “Sure is, honey.”

And I said, “Is this London?”

And she said, “Indeed it is.”

And I said, “How do I get to 451c Chapter Road, London NW2 5NG?”

And she said, “Where is that?”

And I said, “It's 451c Chapter Road, London NW2 5NG. And sometimes you can write it
451c Chapter Road, Willesden, London NW2 5NG.
”

And the lady said to me, “Take the tube to Willesden Junction, honey. Or Willesden Green. Got to be near there somewhere.”

And I said, “What sort of tube?”

And she said, “Are you for real?”

And I didn't say anything.

And she said, “Over there. See that big staircase with the escalators? See the sign? Says
Underground.
Take the Bakerloo Line to Willesden Junction or the Jubilee to Willesden Green. You OK, honey?”

And I looked where she was pointing and there was a big staircase going down into the ground and there was a big sign over the top of it like this