Dad didn’t want me to go. That was mostly because he had to stay home with mum, who was at the wrong end of a bad cold, meaning I would have to go by my lonesome. I offered to take Liza, but he said no because she was taking summer courses on a count of her bad marks at the end of last school year.

I didn’t mind going on my own. In fact, I preferred it to be honest. My family are like the wheels on a car. We’re four different things, but we’re all attached to the same vehicle going the same s...