The Story Giant. Brian Patten

      ANDREW COFFREY WAS AN INSENSITIVE BORE. HE WOULD tell the same story over and over again, and whatever he said would always somehow or other end up being about himself. There was hardly a sentence he spoke without an ‘I’ in it, or a ‘me’ or a ‘mine’. He was totally – but totally – insensitive to other people’s feelings. If someone said to him, ‘I’ve just suffered a tragic loss,’ he would reply, ‘Oh yes, but can you guess what happened to me today?’ Then off he would go.

      One evening he was riding home on his horse when to his surprise he found himself lost. This baffled him, for he took the same path day after day, and even if he had been asleep his horse would have known the way. The darker it grew the more hopeless his situation became, and he was relieved when he saw a small cottage outlined on the horizon just ahead of him.