47.

The cold tap in the kitchen drips continuously now.  A scaly mark is developing on the steel surface of the sink, which will just get bigger, thicker, crustier until the building is emptied and demolished.  They refer to the process as decanting.  The phrase implies whole buildings being picked up and their inhabitants and contents being poured into a new building, as if being carried out as a playful game by the giant kitten in The Goodies.  That is more or less what happens, apart from the kitten.  People get scattered about.  They may land roughly together but in disorder, picking themselves up to see where they now find themselves.

I don’t know if I will be here to see it happen.  I don’t know if I will wait to the end.  Part of me is inclined to stay until the very end, to be amongst the last people to be here, to see the destruction and empty lands around me.  There is a beauty in ruins.  Why else is ancient Rome so popular?

Hot sun now, and vehicle noises.  The day has arrived.  I could walk along the Thames Path, since it is always there.