Summary

The man with the mustache feels “pleased with himself” (172). He has just agreed to perform a stunt at a local club. The twins continue playing cricket. The twins’ sister plays with her ribbon. The narrator watches a boy “cleaning his trainers” (174). “The boy on the tricycle” is fascinated by a passing skateboarder (175). The elderly couple gets off the bus. Someone insults them. The man does not understand why. He recalls the humiliation and devastation he suffered during the war. He thinks of everything his wife “doesn’t understand” about his past (180). In 18, the boy photographs the neighbors through his window.

The narrator and Michael were quiet “on the way home” (181). She was thinking about her father’s revelation and her mother’s relief when her own mother died. Suddenly she remembered “that breakfast in the Little Chef” (181). They had been on their way to...