Wicky arrives at the house of Terence Redford, a writer who is trying to write his latest masterpiece but is finding it difficult to concentrate; partly because of writer’s block, and partly because his grandmother has recently burned to death in his living room.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Ending: We never find out if the cat comes back after Wicky shoos him off. In fact, we don't know for sure whether it really is Terence's much-loved cat who ran away a week ago.
- Brick Joke: The signed copy of the book Wicky gets at the start appears later on when the old ladies call on Terence later, when it's revealed that he has a whole shelf of signed copies of his own books, just for such an occasion.
- Book Dumb: Wicky clearly has no knowledge of Dylan Thomas, but nevertheless tries to bluff his way through when he and Terence have a conversation about him. He eventually admits this to Terence.
- Doomed Autographed Item: Wicky accidentally inflicts severe damage on Terence's autographed copy of a Dylan Thomas poetry book by dropping it into cleaning liquid.
- Every Man Has His Price: Wicky could've easily walked away from Terence's house after the latter had signed the form saying he did not want his services. However, for £20 in cash, he's happy to go in and clean up, and for a further £100 he'll try and do it as quietly as possible.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While at first, Terence comes off as an absolute Jerkass who hates everyone and clearly has Skewed Priorities of writing a novel, he slowly opens up emotionally to Wicky, and tells him that the reason why he's so focused on writing is because grieving gets rid of his emotions, and he'd rather put that to paper. And after making unflattering comments about using Wicky as inspiration, Terence ultimately uses Wicky's lunch to write a simple but touching story based on his grandmother.
- Meta Guy: Terance, being an successful author, frequently makes jibes about Wicky's chosen career and all of the clichés that it entails. He first considers him nothing more than a hired help with no imagination, but he slowly opens up to him.
- Running Gag: Wicky's "shaving" incidents. He gets a cut on the head and another on his nose after the cat scratches him twice.
- Self-Deprecation: Terence considers writing about an Expy of Wicky for a new novel, clearly poking fun at his boring personality. Wicky claims that nobody would be interested in a boring crime scene cleaner, but Terence claims that given a specific content, something mundane can also be interesting.
- The Reveal: The cat who interrupts Wicky is (probably) Terence's beloved cat who went missing a week ago and is trying to come home.
