‘Everybody starts without experience,’ I told him.

‘What matters is whether you can ask a question when you don’t know something.’

I heard myself saying it and thought of Trevor.

He had spent years pretending to know everything.

I wondered whether anybody had taught him that ignorance could be admitted without shame.

Perhaps Raymond had tried.

Perhaps I had interrupted too often with money.

When Trevor eventually volunteered at the training center, the staff asked me whether I wanted to be there for his first day.