And at the end of it I asked him the only thing I actually wanted to know, which was not about the money or the badge or the eleven months.
I said: "Why didn't you tell me?"
And he said: "Because you'd have been kind about it."
And I said that was not an answer.
And he said: "Jules. You'd have been kind, and then it would have been real."
And the ninth of March, 2024, which I did not notice either, and which is the thing I am least able to explain.
That was a Saturday. He was on call.
I have the calendar. He came home at about four in the afternoon, which was early for a Saturday on call, and he said it had been a bad one, and he sat in the garden for about two hours and then he cooked.
He cooked. I remember the meal. It was the fish thing he does.
