We have to tell them about the chair.”

And Nathan Lin, who had been standing by the sink for half an hour, said: “Not now, Jill.”

And Jillian Lin, who is five feet two inches tall and who had been awake for two and a half hours and who had put out fruit for police officers in her own kitchen, said: “Yes, now.

Because that boy sold his guitar and he is sitting at my table and I am not going to let him go home not knowing.”

Then she turned to me.