It isn’t the humblest of statements but he didn’t double down on it. I took it like it was he went off and I returned to what I was doing. It was the more sublime of encounters because I wanted it to happen – and then it caught me off guard.
It just occurred in a street somewhere in London.
I’d been out most of the day on a tail of someone said to be visiting from overseas. I wondered if it was my guy but I looked out for whoever it was regardless. It might turn up a different story that was less interesting.
In this sort of game, however, any story is better than one unfinished.
I happened to meet him and he went off on one immediately. He’s a talkative guy and once he’s into it there’s no stopping him. It’s mostly professional work he’ll talk about and a bit about himself. It’s clean-cut and nothing funny in it whatsoever, unless you’re looking for trouble that is.
I knew he could give that as well.
The point is he came out with it.
Maybe I put him off-guard and he said it before realising. Perhaps I gave off more of an impression than I knew. Maybe it was an instinct for a story that got it out of him.
Whatever it was he just unloaded the entire truth into my lap.
I was grateful for the drop.
It took a bit of time to work out what he meant.
He wasn’t thinking of power or prestige just a sort of professionalism I knew nothing of. I’d have to be there to be square with him and I’d never been to his type of street in New York City.
I thought he meant in terms of newspaper journalism and over time it proved I was right. He was a power broker without anyone realising it, and now his cover had been blown.
It was a good day out.
