#5.25

He put the bible down on his bedside table, and ran his hand over his bald patch. The frown on his face said: this is harder than I thought. When he had been a child it had been so much simpler—and shorter—with six days meaning six days, and forty nights, forty nights.

Still, he must have got at least two thirds through it, which was as far as he was concerned an achievement. He'd just been reading about the writing on the wall (was that where it came from? he wondered) and wasn't at all sure about that Daniel. At least the king had known how to hold a party for his friends; Daniel, he thought, was a bit of a prig.

Still, page eight hundred and something.  Three hundred to go. Without Jackie around in the evenings, clamouring for his attention, he was bound to get to the end in no time.