Hal knew, though, that this was the thing he wanted to do forever. He feared it, because he wanted it so badly. ‘I’ve lost it now,’ he says. ‘I can’t do it any longer.’ There is no answer at first, and he wonders if she might have fallen asleep. But then she says, ‘What happened?’ ‘The war,’ he says, because it is an accepted cliché these days – and also partially true.
