Cat in pocket shirt flipping off

The next few days in Manhattan were wonderful — the theatres, the gardens, the music, the restaurants,

Slowly, he walked on and came to a street with a lot of theatres. There were a lot of people there, rich people in their best clothes. Soapy had to do something to get to prison. He did not want to spend another night on his seat in Madison Square. What could he do? Then he saw a policeman near him, so he began to sing and shout and make a lot of noise. This time they must send him to prison. But the policeman turned his back to Soapy and said to a man who was standing near, ‘He’s had too much to drink, but he’s not dangerous. We’ll leave him alone tonight.’

‘What are you doing here?’ he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away.

‘I haven’t got any petrol,’ I said. ‘Where can I find some?’

‘Oh yes?’ the man in the brown hat said. ‘Now my wife — she doesn’t like buses. She nearly had an accident on a bus once. It was last year … No, no, it wasn’t. It was two years ago. I remember now. It was in Manchester.’ He told a long, boring story about his wife and a bus in Manchester.

‘You say you’re a doctor,’ I said. ‘How can I get better? Does amnesia go slowly or suddenly?’