All of Skydale Is Watching Vincent Like a Television Show. He Has No Idea.

It started, as these things do, with a few people tuning in. It is now the most watched programme in Skydale.

Every evening the Ferrule Street Picture House fills up to watch Vincent on the Other Side. Not his songs, which everyone already knows by heart, but Vincent himself: eating a galette, writing a novel, lying on the sofa thinking about the novel, going to a concert and standing in the crowd. The audience cheers when he finishes a song and groans when he leaves the novel for another week.

He has no idea. As far as anyone can tell, Vincent believes he is simply living his life. The bakery on Ferrule Street has started selling snacks timed to his lunch.

There is a growing debate in town about whether someone should tell him. Gustave, of the Dobuki 10 committee, is firmly against it. “You don’t knock on the screen,” he said. “It ruins it for everyone, and it might ruin it for him.”

Sergeant Pell has asked the audience not to shout advice at the screen, because it does not reach him and it upsets the people in the front row.

Readers will remember that Vincent came from Skydale before a witch sent him away. Some in the audience believe the show is how she keeps an eye on him. Others think it is how he keeps an eye on us. Mika is taking bets on both.