They did not have to be — it was a clearance display model and the receipt said so — and a man came out from the back and looked at the frame for marks and said it was fine.

Fifteen per cent restocking fee on a clearance item, as printed on the receipt that my son had carried folded in his trouser pocket since the Monday before and that I had read on my own kitchen table and had not read the back of.

Two hundred and nine dollars and eighty-five cents.

They gave us a cheque for one thousand one hundred and eighty-nine dollars and fifteen cents, made out to me, because a thirteen-year-old cannot be paid by cheque.

And in the car park Nathan Lin, in a fleece, off duty, leaning against the wheel arch of his own truck, said to my son: “Julian.