June 14 Arson hits Blackpool Illuminations

"How long has he been gone?"
"An hour."
She raises her eyes.
"Some hours are longer than others."
The flat is pristine, sterilised even, like the ones in science fiction films from the seventies but we are not astronauts we are aesthetic terrorists and we are waiting  for John to return from his first cleaning job.

Days later a single man is found asleep in a little chef in Fleetwood, 7 miles south of Blackpool, his clothes stink of petrol and he has a recent tattoo showing a mermaid riding a Spacehooper on his neck. The mermaid looks suitably embarrassed.