Omar was his family’s pride and joy - his entire extended family participated in the credit for his fantastic success in his Oxford entrance exams, earning him a practically guaranteed place in illustrious, ancient New College with a two ‘E’ offer. When he got straight Bs in his A levels, everyone excused the quite average results for nerves and his rambunctious brother keeping him up with their band at all hours throughout the summer of the exams. His grandad, Nana Rashid, practically wept when he heard that his English grandson was going to his alma mater, as though his own life was being relived the way it should have been.

Sharif, meanwhile, had failed in all his exams, apart from music, quite spectacularly. He was uninterested in going to college, and took up his father’s offer of working in the restaurant. Again, his family found something to be proud about - their eldest son taking up the reins of the family business. What could be more fitting than that? True, his childhood musical hobby seemed to continue to distract him, but it was something he’d grow out of as he began his real working life. Now he had responsibilities beyond messing around in sound-proofed basements with his old schoolfriends.

Both boys left home the same week, not very long after their eighteenth birthdays, Omar to go to college, and Sharif to move in with friends in Collier’s Wood. Parvez, seeing how much this affected Shona, surprised her with one of his romantic gestures, which had become so rare that she had practically forgotten he ever did them. She came back from school, and in a tall, brown box on her doorstep, tied with a pink ribbon, was an adorable Labrador puppy, with melting brown eyes and a dark chocolate coat, like an Andrex puppy in negative. Still in her sensible teacher’s coat and court shoes, standing on the doorstep, she pulled him out, and giggled delightedly as he scrabbled affectionately at her and licked her face.

‘Do you like him?’ asked Parvez, opening their front door.