THAT AFTERNOON

Michael Talbot has spent the last twenty-five years working at the tax office, where he is known ironically to his colleagues as Old Sunbeam. Behind the mask of surly efficiency, Michael is in fact a highly sensitive person who was once a charming and lively little boy of six, until the terrible day when his mother unaccountably disappeared, leaving him to the mercies of his father, Eric, a bully of a man with little sympathy for children who indulges his boisterous sense of fun at his sons expense. Despite this profoundly unsatisfactory relationship, Michael remains attached to Eric in a dutiful slavish sort of way,

Michael Talbot si-a petrecut ultimii douazeci si cinci de ani lucrand la biroul fiscal, unde este cunoscut in mod ironic de colegii sai ca Old Sunbeam. In spatele mastii eficientei obscure, Michael este, de fapt, o persoana extrem de sensibila, care a fost candva un baietel fermecator si plin de viata, pana in ziua cumplita in care mama lui a disparut in mod inexplicabil, lasandu-l in mila tatalui sau, Eric, un bataus. a unui barbat cu putina simpatie pentru copii, care isi rasfata simtul zbuciumat al distractiei pe cheltuiala fiilor sai.