It was dark by the time I got to the Chinas, but they were still open. Chinas never close. I bought a big packet of chips and chatted to Tim and the Ungle for a while. They didn't ask me where I'd been all this time. Chinas aren't nosy like that. I wondered if they knew a place where I could stay for the night, but I wasn't sure how to ask, so I kind of just hung around. I gave Tim a hand putting things on the shelves, but then the Ungle came and told him he had to go and finish his homework, so he said goodbye to me and went out the back.
The Ungle looked me up and down then, and said, "Good boy." He cracked me up sometimes.
I knew if I hung around any longer I'd start to weird him out, so I left.
Outside it was cold and dark and it was starting to rain. I stood outside the Chinas for a while, wondering where to go. Most of all I wanted to find Sophie. I wondered where she would have gone. There was that boy, but I didn't want to think about that. She could have gone interstate I guess. I didn't want to think about that either.
Where else?
Well, there was Crapper, but I doubted she'd want to go back there. But I had to go somewhere, and it was the only place I could think of.
I set off for the train station.