he was tall and thin with grey hair and a grey beard . you perhaps have more things to do than to play messenger for me , and i wish to tell her myself , so that i may plant a huge kiss on her lips when i do so . '' `` every time i think we 're getting close , it turns into nothing . she flattened me in the easter egg hunt of nineteen-eighty-four trying to get that purple speckled one . '' and damned if she was leaving . 