NORBERT'S NOOSE

He still wasn't sure he'd got the knot quite right and he didn't want to mess it up. He'd been a failure all his life so one more day wouldn't harm.

And perhaps by then the kids from next door would stop screaming; the man opposite would finish mowing the lawn; and the builders demolishing the old factory would realise it was Friday afternoon and down tools. Until then, Norbert thought, he'd just take some Paracetamol. Just the two. For now.