A drab room lost in a bureaucratic nightmare of drab corridors. A screen and a file-cabinet full of cases, each of them lost delinquents, just as I am. Hopeless repeat offenders.
He looks up at me with a bored expression. 'You realize that, no matter what mitigating circumstances we can fabricate, you qualify for a custodial sentence this time?'
I shrug as best as I can, attempting to seem nonchalant.
He shuffles papers on his desk, in and out of a buff-coloured manilla folder, as though contemplating. 'There is... just one possible way out for you, although I hesitate to suggest it.'
He's perked my interest. 'Tell me, Mr Collingwood, tell me.'
He gets up, turns around so he's looking out the window, hands clasped loosely behind his back. 'You know about Community Service? Course you do. You've done all that picking up litter and scrubbing graffiti off walls thing. I know you have. Because of the severity of your situation, what I'm empowered to offer you is a different kind of Community Service, a way of working off your debt to society. But there's no compulsion. None of this is being done under any kind of duress. You are absolutely entitled to reject this offer, and take whatever legal consequences that follow. You understand?'
I nod warily. 'What's so special about this Community Service?'
'It's a branch of Help The Aged, care in the community for isolated elderly gentlemen. You will be required to act in the capacity of a kind of surrogate, to relieve their sexual tensions and frustrations. To improve their quality of life.'
I startle to my feet in shock. 'You mean sex with old guys?'
'As I say, your refusal will be honoured, and is understandable. This is an entirely voluntary service. But it will qualify as Community Service, and get you off the hook regarding any other legal proceedings.'
Wait, I'm thinking it over. I've not always been socially well-adjusted. I've got what welfare calls a 'troubled' life-history. I've got myself into precarious scrapes. I've done things I've not always been proud of. And sure, I've had dubious sexual encounters, some of them involving the exchange of payment. Can this proposition really be so bad?
'How do you know I can do this?'
'You'll be learning on the job. I'll be monitoring. Any time you feel unsure, any time you want to back out of the agreement, that's fine.'
'So when do I start?'
'Right now, if you feel you're ready.'
His Japanese hatchback is parked in the lot out back. Being outside feeling the low breeze on my skin seems strangely unreal. As though this isn't really happening. How weird, how surreal is this? Mr Collingwood pulls out into traffic, me in the passenger seat beside him. He has a briefcase with a clipboard and tablet. 'You're young' he begins. 'If you get custodial it would not go well with you, if you get my meaning. Chances are you'd end up being used sexually anyway, with or without your consent. I'm concerned about you. I'm offering you to chance, you understand, Bryan?'
I nod. 'Thank you, Mr Collingwood.'
We pull into a fast-food franchise. He gets me a burger and coke, and watches as I consume it greedily. Then he looks down at his folder. 'Your first client will be Mr Edgerston. He's a seventy-five-year-old widower who lives alone. This will be your test-case. But beware, he can be a devious cunning old sod. You will give him fellatio. You understand the term?'