By the mid-sixties I did a deal directly with the manufacturers. I went against the Wholesale Textile Association, cut out the middle men,’ said Ruby, feeling as if she wanted to slump her head onto Kit’s bed and sleep.They’d told her that they were decreasing the level of Kit’s tranquilizers now, but he looked just the same. He looked dead, but he was still breathing. So she sat there, talking and talking, saying anything that came into her head, her eyes gritty and red-raw, her voice fading sometimes to a hoarse whisper.It didn’t seem possible, not after all this time. But what was time? How much time had he spent here, in this strange black desert where his only companion was the howling, freezing wind that whipped at his flesh and bones, chilling him to the marrow? There were no stars above him, no cities around him, there was nothing. Just endless night and that strange whispering cacophony of voices that had now become one voice, saying his name, saying, Don’t leave me, don’t go.
