He straightened up, his eyes alight, and pointed the piece of tubing at Janie. ‘You see? I remember, I remember her name, Alicia Kew!’ He sank back. ‘And they said, „Alicia Kew is dead.” And then they said, oh her children! And they told me where to go to find them. They wrote it down someplace, I’ve got it here somewhere…’ He began to fumble through his pockets, stopped suddenly and glared at Janie. ‘It was the old clothes, you have it, you ’ ve hidden it!’
If she had explained, if she had answered, it would have been all right but she only watched him.
‘All right,’ he gritted. ‘I remembered one thing, I can remember another. Or I can go back there and ask again. I don’t need you.’
Her expression did not change but, watching it, he knew suddenly that she was holding it still and that it was a terrible effort for her.
He said gently, ‘I did need you. I’d’ve died without you. You’ve been…’ He had no word for what she had been to him so he stopped searching for one and went on, ‘It’s just that I’ve got so I don’t need you that way any more. I have some things to find out but I have to do it myself.’
At last she spoke: ‘You have done it yourself, Hip. Every bit of it. All I’ve done is to put you where you could do it. I—want to go on with that.’
‘You don’t need to,’ he reassured her. ‘I’m a big boy now. I’ve come a long way; I’ve come alive. There can’t be much more to find out.’
‘There’s a lot more,’ she said sadly.
He shook his head positively. ‘ I tell you, I know! Finding out about those children, about this Alicia Kew, and then the address where they’d moved—that was right at the end; that was the place where I got my fingertips on the—whatever it was I was trying to grab. Just that one more place, that address where the children are; that’s all I need. That’s where he’ll be.’
‘He?’