That is the thing.

He heard exactly what I was asking and he answered that, rather than the literal question, which is why the answer he gave was not I’ll try or I’ll be as close as they let me.

“I swear it.” He brought my knuckles up and put his mouth against them.

“Mine’ll be the first face you see.”

Eleven words.

I had them in my head going down the corridor.

And I have never once believed, not for one minute, in anything that followed, that he was lying to me when he said it.