6بخش

Mary and Max’s friendship was resuscitated and her tears were the best gift he’d ever received.

Inside Max’s head, his brain was smiling.

Loaded up with bizarre forms of chocolate, their letters flew thick and fast between the continents.

Max learned to read Mary’s letters with caution, and at the slightest tingle of tension, he would stop, take his medication, and soothe his nerves.

Each letter he would iron, laminate, and file in a special place, which also soothed his nerves.

He enjoyed answering her questions and solving her puzzles like,

Do sheep shrink when it rains?

Why do old man wear their pants so hight?

Do gooses get goose bumps?

And why is belly button lint blue?

Are there Noblets in heaven?

And if a taxi goes backwards, does the driver owe you money?

In turn, Mary simply enjoyed hearing about Max’s fascinating life:

how many people he’d counted littering how the latest Henry had died and new recipes he’d invented for chicken.

Each nourished the other and, as Mary grew taller, and as Mary grew taller, their friendship becoming stronger than the glue on Mary’s Noblets.

Their friendship becoming stronger than the glue on Mary’s Noblets.

Although Max found solace in Mary, he still found the rest of the world bewildering.

And he couldn’t understand why he was seen as the odd one while everyone else was considered normal.

Humans were endlessly illogical.

Why did they throw out food, when there were children starving in India?

Why did they clear the rain forests, when they needed the oxygen?

And why did they create bus timetables when they never ran on time?

He agreed with his favorite physicist that there are only two things infinite: the universe and man’s stupidity.

And for Mary, even though Max filled her with confidence Bullseye her world was far from perfect.

The grip of love had her by the throat.

At 4:59 p.m. on the 8th of the 8th, 1988.

Noel Norman Dinkle attached his last string, and after 40 years and 40 million tea bags, he retired.

To celebrate, Noel announced he was retiring from taxidermy and taking up metal detecting instead.

But, sadly, it was not a hobby he had for long.

In his will, Noel had left Mary some money so she decided to go to university and study disorders of the mind, yearning to learn more about her friend.

Mary was as popular at university as she was at school.

Damian went there too, aching to be a thespian. Hello,Mary.

Hi.

hello!

That was damn funny!

Hey, Damian, your mum’s roses look fab!

Ah, th-thanks, Mary.

Urn, Mary, can I tell you something?

Sure, babe!

you’ve got d-d-d-dog’s poo on your shoe.

Dear Max,

I have been such an idiot.

I’ve wasted all my money on something pointless when I should have been saving to see you.

I know love upsets you, so I won’t go on about it.

All I want to say is that love is obviously not for me.

I hope you are well and enjoy the chocolate cigarettes I’ve enclosed.

Love, Mary.

gulp!

Hmm.

Mm.

Oh, you should be ashamed!

Come on, Bethany, let’s go.

Oh, Mom!

I told you never to talk to strangers, you naughty girl.

ding!

Noel’s sudden death had filled Vera with remorse and guilt, and she coped in the only way she knew.