I said, “It’s been four months.”

And she said: “I know how long it’s been.

Do you know what our no-show rate was in December?”

I did know.

It was nineteen per cent.

It was eleven per cent in April because I had rebuilt the reminder sequence, which took me two evenings and cost nothing, and which I had not told anybody about because I assumed it was obvious.

She said, “What were you doing for fifteen years?”