I’m sitting in the bath, minding my own business and thinking about the last few days.

I just got back to

London after two years in the colonies and it feels weird. Not just because of the clothes and the heat and being
back among my own people but also because it’s only me now. It was my tute master, Winston. He’s been dead
for over three years now. So what was he like? Well, he wasn’t really strict. He was a good teacher, actually, he
knew a lot about the culture and he had a good sense of humour which seemed to be the basis of everything. He
taught in every subject except Geography and Science. He’d have been a real brainiac if he had bothered, but he
didn’t. He just liked… I don’t know, writing stories and drawing. He had an artistic leaning like all of us really.
What, every good tute master has to have a good sense of humour? Well, okay, maybe, but I’d say he was a
little more than that. In History, he taught me how to make a clay sculpture. If I’m walking around London, I
can see the faces of our people. He made them movable, you see? I have one of him on my table over by the
window. He always had skulls for that adoubtful look in his eye you’d never really get used to but it was his
style clearly. He was always smiling, even in the lessons, no matter what was supposed to be going on in the
lesson. Who taught me how to play the drums and how to read on the guitar? Now that was one question I
would like answered. You see, I haven’t taught myself to play any of those instruments since I got here. I’d love
to say it’s because of the great Winston but it was because of something different. Something else entirely. It
was Louise. Louise, the girl I fancy, was Winston’s best friend. She was the one who came to the tute all the
time. He taught her to take photos and she told me, as a joke, she loved me - something we still joke about.
She’s one of the best photographers in the country. So why am I writing about her so much? Well, simply
because I’m in the bath and I feel like a chat with her. The one thing I’ve learned in two years is how to talk to
my friends when I’m alone.