He had asked a question, but the thing happening in the back of that car was not a request for information, and if I answered the question I was going to win an argument with an eight-year-old about his own life.

So I pulled into a parking lot, which is a thing Dr.

Achebe had suggested about a year earlier for reasons that had nothing to do with this, and I turned around.

And I said: “You’re right.

I could have.”

He looked at me.

“There’s a long explanation and it’s mostly true and I’ll tell you all of it when you’re older, and I’m not going to give it to you now, because if I give it to you now what you’ll hear is me saying it wasn’t my fault.

And it was my fault.