‘That’s so kind. Thank you.’ It was his mum, dad, four boys and two girls and an older couple. ‘Is that him?’ His eyes were recognisable and the quiff of hair.

‘Yes, he was the youngest.’

At the grave, the imam was still talking.

‘We’ve found Riad a foster home with a Syrian family here. That’s the father, up there. I visited them yesterday and Riad seems to like it.’ She grabbed my hand. ‘Fingers crossed they’ll keep him on. It’s the middle of term, but we’ve found him a place at a school too.’

The corners of my mouth lifted. ‘I’m delighted to hear that.’

The men placed the wooden planks over the grave and sprinkled soil.

‘It’s so weird. For twenty-nine years, we’ve all acted as though Dad was dead. It must’ve been a defence mechanism.’ I looked at Rima’s kind face. ‘But underneath, I’ve been convinced that Dad was alive. I just wouldn’t let myself believe it because I knew it would hurt too much if it wasn’t true.’ I let the sun warm my face for a moment. Jasmina and I had the morning off and we had arranged to see Dad’s friend, Ody, after the funeral. ‘Now we’re pretty sure he is alive, I don’t know what to do with the information.’

‘Oh, Maya.’ She took hold of my arm.

‘It might have been twenty-nine years ago but the evening he disappeared is still vivid in my mind. Before he left, he said, “You children be good for your mother” and part of me knew he was saying goodbye.’

Rima squeezed my arm.

‘People don’t leave their families for no reason. Do they?’

‘It’ll come out in due course.’

‘Yes.’ I glanced over at Jasmina, who was waiting under the oak tree. ‘What’s bothering me is that, for all those years, the thing I wanted most was for Dad to come back. And now I’m scared – what do you do when the thing you think you’ve wanted most looks like it’s about to happen?’

‘You take it a step at a time, and do what you always do,’ she said. ‘You feel your way through it, with your friends and family around you.’

The ritual was over now. From a distance, the imam gave us a nod and Riad’s new foster father gave a polite wave.

‘He said to thank you for . . . They couldn’t have afforded the—’

‘I know.’ I smiled at her. ‘It’s the least I could do. I wanted Ali to know that his life mattered, and that people cared about him.’