The Unhappiness of Being a Single Man: Essential Stories

GIVE UP!

IT WAS VERY EARLY in the morning, the streets clean and empty, I was going to the train station. When I compared a clock tower with the time on my watch, I saw that it was already much later than I’d thought and I really had to get a move on; the shock of this realization made me start to doubt which direction I was heading in, I didn’t yet know the city very well; luckily there was a policeman nearby, I ran over to him and breathlessly asked him the way. He smiled and said, “You want me to tell you the way?”

“Yes,” I said, “because I can’t find it myself.”

“Give up, give up,” he said, and turned away abruptly, like someone who wanted to be alone with his laughter.