‘They were standing by the Catholic church opposite the school, a new brick building with large rectangular windows, modern in a half-hearted sort of way. It seemed to be looking askance at the big Victorian buildings around it; it seemed so fragile beside their sheer bulk of black sandstone that Dick wouldn’t have been at all surprised to find it one morning reduced to a heap of rubble, with the big stone houses still in the same places. But among the pulverized brick and glass there’d be a few traces of stone dust and on the sides of the big Victorian buildings a few traces of brick dust like blood. And when you looked more closely you’d see the outlines of the buildings on the pavements, just a narrow grey line, and you’d know that they hadn’t returned to exactly the same places as before.’