My aunt was mortified and cried in a bathroom and my sister was furious with me for a fortnight and there is a whole branch of that family that thinks I embarrassed an old woman at a dinner, and they are not entirely wrong.

Bea did not say anything at the time.

She called me four days later from Reno and said, “Dad,” and then could not say anything else for about twenty seconds, and then said, “Thirteen years.

It only took you thirteen years,” and laughed, in a way that was not a nice laugh but was a laugh.

And I said, “I know.”

And she said, “Okay. Well. Thanks.”