In 1981, while Alex was still in South Africa, Nik moved with his family from the flat in Clifton to a terraced house in Westbury Park. There were several reasons for this, including one of lebensraum. Moving from the flat in Clifton to the house on Westbury Park meant the acquisition of a small garden, no longer having to go up several filghts of stairs, and the security of not living in rented accommodation.
As well as this there was the size factor; with two kids growing up, the flat was no longer big enough to accomodate them both, and on top of this, a grandfather was planning to join them from South Africa. The new house required fairly extensive renovation - new plumbing, wiring, heating etc., so it was quite some time before the family were settled in. During this time, Nik was enrolled in a local school, and started his musical training on the violin.
Nik learned to play the violin over a period of seven years. Over the course of his training, he learned only to play by ear, so he never acquired knowledge of music theory. This approach to music has both advantages and disadvantages, although he has never really missed knowing what diatonic means, or how to form and annotate a Bflat11 chord (whatever that is).
Maybe it was luck, maybe it was destiny, but exactly a year after Nik entered into Primary school, Alex moved into a house within 400 metres of Nik's. They never met, of course.
All the pages after this one are missing. There are scraps of paper, bits of information you find hard to assimilate. One name comes up over and over again, and it rings sinister in your mind... "Contact"
You feel tainted by the name, and think about maybe looking at the other books.