Ray’s mother died in 2004.

She was trampled to death by cows, who were startled by fireworks in the next field over from a wedding that she was attending.

She’d been canoodling in the long grass with Sarah. Sarah didn’t die but she lost an arm. Who knew you could lose an arm to a cow? A crocodile would have been cooler.

Dad and Sarah don’t talk much. He insists that it was all above board. That they could each snog whoever they wanted. It was a modern relationship; or back to the olden days, depending on how you looked at it. Ray didn’t get it. But Ray didn’t get a lot of things.