There would be some parallel activities for the teachers alone, the dentist said, as well as the plenary sessions. Pearly imagined them in the high-vaulted staffroom digging over their memories together, renewing both friendships and civilised animosity.

‘We thought it would be a good idea for you to talk to them,’ said the dentist, referring to Pearly.

‘Well, I’ll welcome them along with everybody else at the opening, won’t I?’

‘Yes, but it would be a nice touch when they first meet as a group of just themselves.’

‘I think it would, Pearly. A sort of welcome back to the town as well as the school,’ said Nancy.

‘Okay,’ said Pearly. He could do that sort of thing standing on his head.

‘Maybe Andrew Nisse as well,’ she said.

‘I can sound him out if you like,’ said Pearly. ‘Sound him out when I email him.’

There were eleven of them at the meeting in the principal’s large study, each with a responsibility for some aspect of planning for the celebrations. They were ranged before Warwick’s desk, but he’d joined them there in recognition that they were equals. Bookshelves took up the space of two walls almost to the ceiling. Solid books, evenly aligned because they were so seldom disturbed. Three rows held the bound copies of the school magazine since its inception, the spines darkening slightly in progression as they aged, as if in a process of ripening. All those names, all those statistics, the class photographs, all those forgotten teams. All those prizes recorded — failures and injustices omitted, long, dreary days condensed to occasional instances of what was once, and briefly, considered noteworthy.

Pearly’s mind drifted from the committee’s concerns to his own school days. Academically he’d been an average student — ‘could do better’, had been a typical report comment in the first years — although in the senior school he put more effort into classwork. Sport came naturally to him, as did debating and leadership. He was an uncomplicated, open and rather predictable boy: popular enough with both staff and fellow students for all those reasons. These country boys are simple recipes, the deputy principal used to say to his colleagues with a smile. There was only one significant incident of conflict with authority, though even that had become in adult recollection a cause of amusement, even an odd pride. Pearly, Gumbo and Snoz Gazler had climbed into the dormitory of the Girls’ High hostel after the formal dance.