Published 'Psychopoetica' 1996

Most stars stalk life’s fame while lying about dying.  But not Hiram Hundred.  He button-holed me as I waited outside the stage-door for an interview.

“How can you spare the time?” he asked.  “I am not all that important for you to wait around." Then he pointed at my note-book.  "That should be full of your own thoughts, not mine.”

I shrugged, not having the heart to tell Hiram Hundred that I was waiting for another actor – not him.

He set off down the busy London street but, after a while, following much vacillation, he returned towards me, snatched the notebook from my hand and, before giving it back to me, scribbled out these words:

 “Fame is a burden many have to bear, but a single dream can never be shared.”

I added a few words in the note-book, in my own hand: 

“But what is death, if not a shared dream?”

However, Hiram Hundred had stork-legged off.