district of clubs / close to centre of city / compete for interest / ensuring broadest spectrum of variety / many boy evening spent sampling various delight / each establishment run by older boy / interest gravitated towards particular atmosphere / Smelly Sock / Musty Attic / your own particular club / beyond desire for well-being / no particular trend / myriad quirky dens / each street evidence of variety within / all possible ramshackle architectures their spirits liberated / freed from service save entertainment / silly boy’s bad taste / Fishface wanders feasting our eyes / tongue wandering over new-budding teeth / looked in the mirror / remember / they are teeth / unreal / but happy / grew younger / wondered / die? / die again? / dead must be? / die backwards into birth / up the… / you couldn’t say it / child / he shuddered / crawling back to Fallopia / planet of bug-eyed worms / no not yet free of uncertainty / experiment / unnecessary undesirable event proof of malign reality / suddenly overwhelming confusion of vision / raging crashing roar rip surge / viewpoint literally dropped / boy again / feel your hands nervously / stride clumsy cautious / colours melting / childish confusion / embarrassed / make for the bench / yes the bench / sat down beside another boy who smiled / try again / remember / dead / dead? / incredulously / I’m getting what I want / see your new self is familiar / still a little shy but to your taste / enter tentatively into conversation / this boy beside me on the bench / boy please to speak / says saw it all happen / what’s your name? / quick before you lose it / Fishface / said dubiously / Fuckface / nice name / not Fuckface / Fishface / Fishface Fuckface / boy laughs neat little girlish laugh / look more like a Fuckface ta me / I’m Shitface / Titface? / yea! laughs Shitface / look at that / squeezing a drop of milk out of the tip of his nose / remember / we almost fell apart at that / early days