The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

89.  The next day at school I told Siobhan that Father had told me I couldn’t do any more detecting, which meant that the book was finished. I showed her the pages I had written so far, with the diagram of the universe and the map of the street and the prime numbers. And she said that it didn’t matter. She said the book was really good as it was and that I should be very proud of having written a book at all, even if it was quite short and there were some very good books which were very short, like Heart of Darkness, which was by Conrad.

But I said that it wasn’t a proper book because it didn’t have a proper ending because I never found out who killed Wellington so the murderer was still At Large.

And she said that was like life, and not all murders were solved and not all murderers were caught. Like Jack the Ripper.

I said I didn’t like the idea that the murderer was still At Large. I said I didn’t like to think that the person who killed Wellington could be living somewhere nearby and I might meet him when I went out for a walk at night. And this was possible because a murder was usually committed by a person who was known to the victim.

Then I said, “Father said I was never to mention Mr. Shears’s name in our house again and that he was an evil man and maybe that meant he was the person who killed Wellington.”

And she said, “Perhaps your father just doesn’t like Mr. Shears very much.”

And I asked, “Why?”

And she said, “I don’t know, Christopher. I don’t know because I don’t know anything about Mr. Shears.”

I said, “Mr. Shears used to be married to Mrs. Shears and he left her, like in a divorce. But I don’t know if they were actually divorced.”

And Siobhan said, “Well, Mrs. Shears is a friend of yours, isn’t she? A friend of you and your father. So perhaps your father doesn’t like Mr. Shears because he left Mrs. Shears. Because he did something bad to someone who is a friend.”

And I said, “But Father says Mrs. Shears isn’t a friend of ours anymore.”

And Siobhan said, “I’m sorry, Christopher. I wish I could answer all these questions, but I simply don’t know.”

Then the bell went for the end of school.

The next day I saw 4 yellow cars in a row on the way to school, which made it a Black Day , so I didn’t eat anything at lunch and I sat in the corner of the room all day and read my A-level maths course book. And the next day, too, I saw 4 yellow cars in a row on the way to school, which made it another Black Day too, so I didn’t speak to anyone and for the whole afternoon I sat in the corner of the Library groaning with my head pressed into the join between the two walls and this made me feel calm and safe. But on the third day I kept my eyes closed all the way to school until we got off the bus because after I have had 2 Black Days in a row I’m allowed to do that.