The Gap of Time Read Online Free PDF

as an out-of-court settlement from the local authority for failing to maintain safety standards on the cliff path.
    Xeno had enough to live on now for a few years. He got a dog from a rescue home, grew a retro ponytail and hit the New Age hippie ’n’ rave trail, driving from festival to festival, no mobile phone, few possessions.
    He was handsome with a certain vulnerability to him. He soon had more women than he needed. They liked his quiet, brooding face and that he read books and listened to off-grid music, like opera.
    Leo, big boned and Valkyrie blond, with his thick, brushed-back hair and a way of talking, looked good in a suit and did well at the bank. He worked sixteen-hour days without complaining, went to the gym at six o’clock every morning and got drunk every night with no effect on his capacity to make a profit. Soon he was getting rich.
    He saw Xeno only once in the first three years after they left school. He felt embarrassed by his drifting friend and his lack of success. He offered Xeno money.
    Xeno looked at him with those pale grey eyes that Leo had loved and shook his head. He didn’t need money. He didn’t have much but he had enough for food, fuel, books, the things he wanted to do.
    That upset Leo. Everybody needs money. “Come and stay in the flat for a bit,” he said. “Have a hot shower. It’s November, for Christ’s sake. You can’t see out of the fucking van for condensation. I’ll take a few days off.”
    And it was in those few days that Leo discovered his friend was designing computer games.
    Leo was playing Grand Theft Auto and shouting at the console when Xeno came in and threw a banana skin at the screen.
    “Hey!” said Leo. “What’s with you?”
    “Gaming is the best technology mated with prehistoric levels of human development,” said Xeno. “It’s all cars, fights, theft, risk, girls and reward.”
    Leo couldn’t see the problem. That was his real life exactly. Why should a game be any different?
    “Women don’t play because it bores them,” said Xeno. “So that’s half your potential market gone. And why shouldn’t games be as good as books?”
    Leo thought games were better than books. He didn’t read. He liked movies and TV and some theatre but a book was too quiet. Reading was so quiet you could hear the pages rustle.
    “Relationship-building. Moral challenge,” said Xeno.
    “You have to build alliances in games,” said Leo.
    “Yeah, but it’s instrumental, isn’t it? I use you, you use me. In any case, games are too passive. Books change the way people think about the world.”
    “Not if they don’t read them, they don’t,” said Leo.
    “Why can’t games be a game-changer?” said Xeno. “Why can’t a game make us understand more, see more, feel more? Don’t you want to feel something other than adrenalin?”
    “Are you gay?” said Leo suddenly.
    Xeno shrugged. He had girlfriends but no one special. He hadn’t fallen in love but he liked women. He liked real conversations.
    Leo hadn’t fallen in love either.
    They went out for the night. Got drunk. When they came home Leo went into his bedroom and got undressed. He usually watched a bit of porn at night to get to sleep. He called out to Xeno.
    “Want to watch some girls with me?”
    But Xeno didn’t answer.
    —
    Cameron left the office. Leo swivelled round to the window. He hated his friend for fucking his wife. Weren’t there enough women out there? Everywhere he went, bars, clubs, hotels, boats, there were identical-looking women searching for men. Long hair, long legs, big sunglasses, moulded tits, vast handbag, killer heels. You could rent them for the weekend except that it wasn’t called renting, but both parties knew who paid and who put out. You could collect one at the airport with the hire car if you knew what you were doing. He smiled. That would be a good business. Avis, Hertz, Budget. Choose your model. Bodywork. Engine size. Damage limitation.
    Men were reluctant to