The paper plates had a scalloped edge.

There were two packets of them, one blue and one yellow, and we had run out of the blue.

Brian was sitting next to me on a bench along that fence, because that was where the shade was, and his wife was at the other end of the garden with the children and a hose.

And at some point Kevin’s cousin’s husband came out of the back door with the cake, and somebody started singing, and everybody turned towards the door, and Brian put his arm round my shoulders and leaned in and said something in my ear.

I know exactly what he said, because he said it again two days later and because it was the kindest thing anybody said to me that entire summer.