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I rolled upfoam over his chin, all the way up to his ears Then I hesitated, the blade over his chin ‘Is this the s before?’

He closed his eyes, and settled back I began to scrape gently at his skin with the blade, the silence broken only by the splash as I rinsed the razor in the basinful of water I worked in silence, studying Will Traynor’s face as I went, the lines that ran to the corners of his e I smoothed his hair from the side of his face and saw the telltale tracks of stitches, perhaps frohts and nights of lost sleep, the furroeen his brows that spoke of silent pain A war crea that was peculiar to Will hie and I could see how easy it must have been for him to attract soed by the fact that he seeht flashed by that the only time anyone ever touched Will was for soers rest lightly upon his skin, trying to make the movements as far from the dehumanized briskness that characterized Nathan’s and the doctor’s interactions with hi, this shaving of Will I realized as I continued that I had assumed his wheelchair would be a barrier; that his disability would prevent any kind of sensual aspect fro like that It was impossible to be this close to soertips, to breathe in the air that they breathed out, to have their face only inches fro a little unbalanced By the tiun to feel aard, as if I had overstepped an invisible es in my pressure on his skin; perhaps he was just more attuned to the moods of the people around hi into ht-faced, ‘Please don’t tell me you’ve shaved off my eyebrows’

‘Only the one,’ I said I rinsed the blade, hoping that the colour would have drained froht,’ I said, finally ‘Have you had enough? Won’t Nathan be here in a bit?’

‘What about my hair?’ he said

‘You really want me to cut it?’

‘You ed, as far as he could It was the smallestat ure it’s a s to be so delighted,’ I said, wiping a stray dob of shaving cream

‘Yes, well, on’t let that put us off’

We cut his hair in the living room I lit the fire, we put on a film – an American thriller – and I placed a towel around his shoulders I had warned Will that I was a bit rusty, but added that it couldn’t look worse than it did already

‘Thanks for that,’ he said

I set to work, letting his hair slide throughto re the film, seemed relaxed and al about the film – what else the lead actor had starred in, where he had first seen it – and I uely interested noise (like I do with Thoh allup his hair Finally, I had the worst of it off, and whipped round in front of him to see how he looked

‘Well?’ Will paused the DVD

I straightened up ‘I’ this ’

‘Feels cold,’ he observed,the feel of it

‘Hold on,’ I said ‘I’ll get two mirrors Then you can see it properly But don’tup to be done Possibly an ear to slice’

I was in the bedrooh his drawers in search of a small mirror, when I heard the door Two sets of brisk footsteps, Mrs Traynor’s voice, lifted, anxious

‘Georgina, please don’t’

The door to the living roorabbed thefound absent again Mrs Traynor was standing in the living-room doorway, both hands raised to hersome unseen confrontation

‘You are the‘I can’t believe this, Will You were selfish then and you’re worse now’

‘Georgina’ Mrs Traynor’s gazed flicked towards me as I approached ‘Please, stop’

I walked into the room behind her Will, the towel around his shoulders, hair in soft brown fronds at the wheels of his chair, was facing a young wo dark hair, pinned into a messy knot at the back of her head Her skin was tanned, and she earing expensively distressed jeans and suede boots Like Alicia, her features were beautiful and regular, her teeth the astonishing white of a toothpaste coer, she was still hissing at him ‘I can’t believe it I can’t believe you would even think of it What do you –’

‘Please Georgina’ Mrs Traynor’s voice lifted sharply ‘This is not the tiht ahead of him at some unseen point

‘Um … Will? Do you need any help?’ I said, quietly

‘Who are you?’ she said, whipping round It was then that I saw her eyes were filled with tears

‘Georgina,’ Will said ‘Meet Louisa Clark, ly inventive hairdresser Louisa, ina She appears to have flown all the way froina said ‘Mu’

Nobody ive you a ood idea’ Mrs Traynor’s knuckles hite on the arm of the sofa

I slid out of the rooood ti to be a bus shelter kind of a day I grabbed my sandwiches from the kitchen, climbed into my coat and set off down the back path

As I left, I could hear Georgina Traynor’s voice lifting inside the house ‘Has it ever occurred to you, Will, that believe it or not, this ht not be just about you?’