He made them both a pot of tea, and for the first time that day felt safe and secure as they drank it together. He explained about his appointment with the doctor and why he had been so long.

'Don't worry'. Beryl replied, her podgy fingers clasping around her tea-cup. 'The worst that can come of all this is that you'll have to retire.'

'Retire! Is that what you'd call it?' Keith was very tired and weak; tears began to flood his eyes.

'I'll be jealous then,' explained Beryl, 'and so will they'.

'That doctor...that doctor today,' Keith's voice wavered with emotion. 'It was as if he was almost threatening me. Telling me I am depressed and, if I don't agree with him he might say I'm paranoid. It was like as if that nice doctor turned into a vicious dog. His words, his teeth snapping at me'

'Half the world's paranoid these days'. Beryl deliberated. 'If you ask me, they're petrified, thinking they wont get a job without creating it themselves. They think they have to lie to get a job. Blinded they are, by their own fear. Don't worry about what people say, they say all sorts of daft things, everybody knows that.'

Beryl's words were comforting. She'd never really been able to make a fashion statement or hide her words. She was just very honest and simple, but not unintelligent. She knew how to make a statement that put things into perspective.

During the next three weeks, it was really Keith's silences that made Beryl most anxious. He sat for hours, just staring, deep in thought. Sometimes he would open a book or watch the television, but Beryl could see that he was drifting not concentrating. At first she could see through this quietude, could see his upset and anger, but as the days passed she wondered just what was going on inside his head. She tried her best to jolly him along a bit, to make out that it was nothing, and wouldn't affect them in the long run. All her efforts were futile. Mostly he completely ignored her, but now and then there was an automatic monosyllabic response. His next appointment to see the doctor came and went. The doctor seemed satisfied with him, that's all Keith would say. Beryl believed she had lost him.